Cleavers

Cleavers, or GOOSE-GRASS (Galium Aparine), a species of Bedstraw (q.v.), a coarse Rubiaceous annual, with whorls of six to eight leaves, both stem and leaves rough with reflexed bristles, the fruit also hispid, and when ripe distributed by adhering like a bur to any animal which may brush against it. A very common weed in hedges and bushy places in Britain and most parts of Europe and North America, it was formerly of repute in domestic medicine as a diuretic. From the time of Dioscorides, and it is said still in Sweden, its prickly stems have been used as a strainer for milk.