Cleavers
Galium aparine
A sticky spring bedstraw that clings to clothing with hooked hairs. Young tips were a folk spring green and a mild coffee-like roast of seed; mature plants are a weedy hitchhiker, not a crop.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
Also called: bedstraw, goosegrass
What it is
A sticky spring bedstraw that clings to clothing with hooked hairs. Young tips were a folk spring green and a mild coffee-like roast of seed; mature plants are a weedy hitchhiker, not a crop.
Identification
Square stems, whorled leaves, Velcro-like cling.
From the existing encyclopedia
Cleavers has a long folk history; modern aaaLifetime pages focus on food-grade pantry use, not treatment claims. Store in a cool, dark cupboard in an airtight jar; label with purchase date. Works alongside green tea or ginger in everyday beverage rotation. When substituting dried Cleavers for fresh, use about one-third the volume and bloom in fat or hot water before adding acid or dairy.
Edible portions
- very young tips
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. Weed annual in much of North America
- Light. Part shade, moist edges
- Soil. Disturbed moist soil
- Planting. Usually arrives uninvited.
- Harvest. Only the youngest spring tips before stems go wiry.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Briefly cooked spring green in traditional practice
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- No USDA FoodData Central nutrient profile is attached here. That is not a claim that the plant contains no nutrients.
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
- Integrated from the existing aaaLifetime / quantum-biohack encyclopedia corpus (unique text preserved where it was not boilerplate).
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.