CLEAVERS
Galium aparine
COMMON NAMES: Goose grass, catchstraw, bedstraw.
FEATURES: Common to Europe and the United States, growing in cultivated grounds, moist thickets, and
along river banks; flowering from June to September; stems rough and weak but very lengthy, with little
prickly hooks and many side branches, always in pairs; leaves small, 6–9 on the round stem, topped with
very small white flowers with petals arranged like a Maltese cross. Medicinally the green herb may be
used as well as the dry. The root is a permanent red dye.
MEDICINAL PART: The whole herb.
SOLVENT: Water (do not boil).
BODILY INFLUENCE: Diuretic, tonic, refrigerant, alterative, aperient.
USES: Notably one of our best-known herbs for obstructions of the urinary organs, especially when
combined with broom, uva-ursi, buchu, and marshmallow. It is particularly useful for stones or gravel
and seems to soften and reduce the calculus so it can be eliminated without impeding the bowels.
For children or adults suffering from scalding urine it is invaluable, and the refrigerant qualities are
soothing in cases of scarlet fever, measles, and all acute diseases. In Vitalogy (1925) Drs. Wood and
Ruddock say: “The cold infusion will remove freckles when it is drunk two or three times a day, for two
or three months and the parts frequently washed with it, and has recently been used with decided success
in treating children for bed wetting, it should be drunk three times a day.”
Claudia V. James (1963) gives us another use: “The juice mixed with oatmeal to the consistency of a
poultice and applied over an indolent tumour three times a day, keepng the bowels open and taking a
teaspoonful of the juice every morning, will often drive the tumour away in a few days. It is one of the
best known herbs for reducing.”
For weight loss, ¼ cup of the fresh or dried herb in ½ pint of boiling water, one-third of the amount