Cleavers, Galium aparine, a common, clinging, weed to both Europe and North America used medicinally on both continents for many of the same ailments such as to cause urination, relieve inflammation, help gonorrhea and used for skin conditions. The young shoots are edible and the fruit can be roasted into a coffee substitute. The plant was also used to strain milk due to the barbs on the stem and leaves. Milk was poured over the plant and the barbs would catch straw and the animals hairs.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry!

Cleavers Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software. Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 2. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 909-910

Fernald, Merritt Lyndon & Alfred Charles Kinsey. Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1996. Print. pg. 342-343

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. pg. 42

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 36

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 219

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany. Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 241-242

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 152-153

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 50-51

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.