This one managed to survive the lawnmower and rejuvenated itself into two stalks with an interesting leaf arrangement. An arrangement, that for now, allowed it to avoid the fate of its lawn-mates, the dandelions and violets. Any guesses? Jerry Ref: 05-09-11-1 interesting leaf arrangement ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden )
The Galium aparine is an herbaceous annual plant which is very invasive. It has tiny white flowers. The stems tend to stick to you when you try to remove it and it produces little burs which cling to everything.
Thank you everyone, so far this year the yard has produced three new weeds. It's getting to be a botanical wonderland of interesting plants. I'm off to find the next 'undiscovered' plant. Thanks again, Jerry
LOL.... Jerry... and are you happy and excited about these new weeds? I'm not! When I feel I conquered one weed.... there's another thriving in my garden and I really wonder where it's coming from Calin
The botanical world is an adventure, each new plant has a story. The plant in question Galium aparine, has many medicinal uses. I found the following information interesting. The plant has many common names, Cleavers, Clivers, Goose Grass Catchweed Sweet Woodruff and Sticky Willy among them. Common uses of the plant are not limited to Eczema, Hypertension, High Blood Pressure and Psoriasis One of the more interesting uses: In cats, Galium aparine is a safe long-term aid in the treatment of feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD), and the herb may also be useful for chronic low-grade kidney inflammation. There is always something more behind a name, Jerry
Hi Jerry, The plant in your picture looks similar to sweet woodruff, but sweet woodruff (galium odoratum) is a low growing perennial border plant, much more compact than what you have there and it has a whorl of white star shaped flowers covering it in the mid to late spring, here. It does not have the stickiness of Galium Aparine. Once it is cut and dried it has a most 'sweet hay' odor to it, but not while it is fresh. You can't smell it at all. It makes a very neat compact perennial border plant.
And the plot thickens!! Common names travel from plant to plant. I have not seen it flower yet. I have a captive in a pot, I will observe it as it matures and watch it flower. I found two more but I killed them. They arrived last year in 10 yards of compost. There will be more. Gardening can be so much fun!! I will find them. Thanks for the heads up on the other name, Jerry
Hey Jerry, I went out this morning to get a few pics of the two plants. the sticky weed is kind of like velcro. I pulled it and stuck it to the side of an old stump and took the picture. Sorry its blurry, but now it is raining and I'm not going back out to try again. You can see the flower growth coming from the leaf joint. It "blooms" down the stem at each leaf axil. then it produces little burrs that stick to everything! sticky weed ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) This is sweet woodruff. it is not sticky like the weed. It blooms on the very top of the plant and creates a white carpet in the flower bed. sweet woodruff (Galium Odoratum) ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) sweet woodruff in bloom ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) It is stiff but doesn't leave marks on your ankles if you walk through it with sandals or bare footed.
This gets more interesting all the time. My plant has a smooth stalk and is now about 6 inches tall, the leaf rosette is 3/4 inch. It looks to be a galium odoratum, if so I murdered two potential perennials. :-( The seeds, delivered in last year's compost, seemed to have survived to emerge this year. I will look for more. We are in the plant's flowering period, mine don't have flowers. How tall are your's Carolyn and do you know how old they are? Jerry
Hi Jerry. they are two bricks high. which is about 4"-6" high. I have had them in the bed for years. maybe about 15 years. This year they didn't do as well due to the construction going on in my flowerbed, but they do come back pretty well. Today we totally cleaned all the shrubs out of the bed so maybe they will do a little better. I think they had a little too much shade going on and they were getting crowded out. Yours are really stretched out compared to mine though. the leaves are much closer together on my plants. Tomorrow I will get a picture of them, Maybe. I might not be here for most of the day. So I'll do it asap.
Hi Jerry, Here are the pics. i took so long to get up, sorry, as you can see the leaves are about 2' apart and the flower is just producing a blossom. sweet woodruff (Galium Odoratum) ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) the leaves are about 2" in diameter, also. Sweet woodruff ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden )
It is difficult to imagine that the plant I have will grow to be the same size as the sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) depicted in your photograph, the G. odoratum profile seems very large. With over 300 species of Galium the possibilities are many. Our yard seems to have led a sheltered life for years in the shade of many large oaks. As we have reduced the tree canopy above us we see new plants, new volunteers and plants that previously did not survive in the dense shade. The vanguard of the invasion has made itself known. Jerry
