What is this lawn weed?

[Cfloyd]

This weed grows rapidly and is very sticky. Name?

[MarcP2]

This weed grows rapidly and is very sticky. Name?

It looks like a Galium. Maybe Galium aparine. Also known as cleavers, goosegrass, or bedstraw.

[digitS']

I just bet MarcP2 is right.

The stuff (so to speak) is interesting. Leave it to grow and at some point it will grab your pants leg like some yappy little guard dog and you will drag it across the yard. Sprinkling seed along the way, no doubt.

I didn't know it was called "goosegrass" - I wonder if they do us the good favor of eating it. "Cleavers" makes sense, if there is sense to that word. Cleave means to both cling and "cut apart." Velcro cleaves; cleave it apart with an axe.

I can imagine it being harvested at the right moment, bundled up once it is dry, and being used to stuff a mattress. If you don't have that use for the plants, better cleave a broad path through it!

Steve

[purpleinopp]

Agreed, Galium of some type.

Its' advantage of being sticky can be used against it. Before the seeds set, (I do this as soon as I see it blooming,) it can be raked easily, sticking to itself in clumps, right off of other plants/shrubs in a bed. In the grass, mow it before it can make/drop seeds. Great fodder for compost pile. Also very easy to pull with a fabric glove since the plants stick to it, and are weakly/shallowly rooted. Even if you don't get the roots, if you can mangle (often) enough that it never sets seed, the heat will kill it (a true annual*) and hopefully you can break the cycle by eliminating the dropping of seeds in one way or another (if you don't want it as a food crop.)

http://www.eattheweeds.com/galium-apari ... e-loose-2/

Added edit:
*Not that a true annual is defined as being killed by heat, but I mean that this plant can't live in hot temps, so its' ability to make seeds would be eliminated when it is killed by heat, that's the end of it for seeds that sprout this year.)

[Susan W]

As a side note for this 'weed', if you have some dig it up and check the roots. They should be woody and orangy in color. Native Americans used the roots to dye quills (porcupine). It is closely related to madder, Rubia tinctorum, cultivated as a dye plant. The roots can get as big as a pencil and when bark scraped off bright orange. It was the basic red dye used in colonial times, the red of the British Redcoats (foot soldiers not officers who had cochineal).

[applestar]

great info Susan. I had a bunch growing along the fence last year. I'm checking their roots come spring/summer. (When is the best time to harvest the roots for dye?)

[shadylane]

I have to agree with Mark, defiantly Galium family.

Cleaver~galium aparine~leaves and fruits (seed heads) cleave to anything they touch so that would be easy to tell.

Bedstraw ~gallium asprellum~foliage was once prized for mattress stuffing, (no second guessing as how they came of the name.) It's shoots and young plants are tasty and nutritious when steamed for about five minutes (known as the old England dish as Lenten pottage). They also have acidic leaves and are still used by cheese makers to curdle milk. Also can be brewed into a tea that has served as a bracing tonic. A treatment for skin diseases, and also used as a dye. The roasted fruits make a good caffeine free coffee substitute.

[JONA878]

I have to agree with Mark, defiantly Galium family.

Cleaver~galium aparine~leaves and fruits (seed heads) cleave to anything they touch so that would be easy to tell.

Bedstraw ~gallium asprellum~foliage was once prized for mattress stuffing, (no second guessing as how they came of the name.) It's shoots and young plants are tasty and nutritious when steamed for about five minutes (known as the old England dish as Lenten pottage). They also have acidic leaves and are still used by cheese makers to curdle milk. Also can be brewed into a tea that has served as a bracing tonic. A treatment for skin diseases, and also used as a dye. The roasted fruits make a good caffeine free coffee substitute.

Over here in the countryside it is also known as Dung Weed...due to its habit of growing so well ..along with nettles...on old dung heaps. Makes me wonder if the seeds manage to survive the heat of the heaps better than a lot of other plants. If so then I would be very careful of composting it after flowering.

[shadylane]

Jona your over into the UK, which gave me inquire about it's place of origin. They grow the whole nation of US even in the desert areas. No wonder why they grow on the dung piles. The second web site is for a "Ladies Bedstraw" very pretty and from your area. Is this the type that you see and call it dung weed?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine

This type is over in Britian ~"Ladies Bedstraw"
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?Lat ... lium+verum

There is even a site to buy seeds of the Galium, I read in another site that there are 12 different types in the state Minnesota.
Interesting weed or wildflower which ever way you see it as.

[JONA878]

Jona your over into the UK, which gave me inquire about it's place of origin. They grow the whole nation of US even in the desert areas. No wonder why they grow on the dung piles. The second web site is for a "Ladies Bedstraw" very pretty and from your area. Is this the type that you see and call it dung weed?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galium_aparine

This type is over in Britian ~"Ladies Bedstraw"
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?Lat ... lium+verum

There is even a site to buy seeds of the Galium, I read in another site that there are 12 different types in the state Minnesota.
Interesting weed or wildflower which ever way you see it as.

Hi Shady...it's the Galium aparine that we call Dung Weed.

For us fruit farmers it is a blasted nuisance at times. Very difficult to control with the milder weedkillers as it is very difficult to wet. We have to try to bruise it first and then add plenty of wetting agents to the mix before applying.

The Ladies Bed Straw is not such a problem at all as it seems to be more confined to land that is not 'worked' very much.

[shadylane]

Defiantly a nuisance weed for you...we have areas that are out of control from mustard garlic here. They push out our native plants natural growing habits. There are groups that walk an area and pull out the greens and dispose of them. We cant get them all but start out with the older plants before they set seed. Then again to the young next year.
This may be of some help, before they set seed. Thank you for your time in answering...have a great day

[valley]

Susan, That sounds like something it might be interesting to have around, for recovery of the dye.

Richard

Cochineal, You're saying: for the Officers coats the insect dye was used and for the foot soldier the root of this plant?

[evtubbergh]

Funny enough, having never seen this and just read this post last week, I just pulled a huge plant out if the parsley. I hope no seeds dropped!

[watermelonpunch]

When we first moved here in winter 2011/2012... I remember having tons of that galium stuff covering one flower bed by mid-May. But I didn't see any at all last year.
I'm now thinking that's one of those weeds that's more robust some years depending on the weather.
????
We had a really early spring in 2012. And there was tons of it.
It was such a mess & remember it being sticky and rather reminded me of velcro.

[Kats Eye]

i cant remember the name, but its a hardy plant and it has a side benefit, mosquitos love it! they will flock to it. one question though. when you rub the leaves between your fingers does it smell like citrus? if so it is what we here in the show me state call a mosquitio plant.