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Common Bedstraw
Galium aparine
  
About Common Bedstraw (Galium aparine) 0 Nurseries Carry This Plant Galium aparine, with many common names including common bedstraw, cleavers, clivers, goosegrass, catchweed, stickyweed, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, velcro weed, and grip grass, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae. Whether it is native to North America is a question of some debate, but it is considered to be native here in most literature, including the Jepson Manual. The plant can be found growing in disturbed habitats and grassy, shady places throughout California. The herbage clings to clothes and animal fur due to the presence of small prickles on the stems and leaves. These prickles help the plant crawl over other vegetation to better compete for sunlight. It is highly variable in appearance but has small white flowers with four corolla lobes and round fruits which are coated in hooked hairs which aid in seed dispersal. It can become weedy in gardens but it is used as food for a wide range of insect species.
Plant Description
Plant Type
Plant Type
Annual herb

Size
Size
35 in tall

Form
Form
Mounding

Growth Rate
Growth Rate
Fast

Flower Color
Flower Color
White

Flowering Season
Flowering Season
Spring

Wildlife Supported
 


 
Butterflies & moths hosted ( 10 likely * ) SHOW ALL

Landscaping Information
Soil Description
Soil Description
Prefers loamy or clay soils. Grows poorly in sandy soils.

Natural Setting
Climate
Climate
Annual Precipitation: 6.7" - 117.5", Summer Precipitation: 0.14" - 3.95", Coldest Month: 10.8" - 57.4", Hottest Month: 34.1" - 81.0", Humidity: 0.21" - 30.99", Elevation: -22" - 14090"

Alternative Names
Common Names: Catchweed, Clivers, Goosegrass, Stickywilly


Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links:   Jepson eFlora Taxon Page  CalPhotos  Wikipedia  Calflora


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