Scientific name: Galium aparine L.
Common name: Cleavers
Description
Habit: Annual.
Stems: Straggling, 4-angled, rough with hooked prickles, to 2 m long.
Leaves: Opposite, with several leafy and large stipules per leaf making it appear that leaves are in whorls of 6-8; undivided, untoothed, unstalked, lanceolate, 1.5-4 cm long; fine pointed leaf-tip, with the hairs half way along the margin pointing backwards towards the base; 1-veined.
Flowers: White, actinomorphic, hermaphrodite, in compound cymes of 3-10; sepals absent; petals 4, fused into tube below, with 4 spreading lobes, corolla 2-2.5 mm across, tube shorter than lobes; stamens 4-5, attached at the top of corolla tube; ovary inferior, 2-celled.
Fruits: 2 fused and later separated 1-seeded nutlets; covered with hooked prickles, 3-5 mm.
Habitat: Hedges, scrub, cultivated ground, roadsides, sand-dunes.Distribution: Frequent to abundant throughout.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No