[155] Galium verum, Lady’s Bedstraw

[155] Galium verum, Lady’s Bedstraw

Introduction

Galium verum, Lady’s Bedstraw, is a common and widespread low-growing wild plant with attractive yellow flowers.

Several other species of Galium may be found, generally also called bedstraws.

Galium verum is also known as Yellow Bedstraw.

Taxonomy

Kingdom – Plants

Division – Vascular Plants

Class – Angiosperms (Flowering Plants)

Order – Gentianales

Family – Rubiaceae

Genus – Galium

Scientific Name – Galium verum

Name

Bedstraw comes from its use in mattresses and Galium come from the Greek gala meaning milk (from its use in cheese production.) Verum means true or genuine.

Description

Galium verum is a spreading, low-growing plant. Its long stems may become horizontal and can root where they touch the ground.

Its leaves are elongated and very thin.

Flowers are small and yellow, produced in dense clusters.

Habitat and use

Galium verum is found in most of Europe, Northern Africa and temperate Asia. It is also found naturalized in parts of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.

In mediaeval Europe, dried plants of Galium verum used to be used to stuff mattresses. It produces a flea-repellent scent.

Its flowers were also traditionally used to coagulate milk in cheese manufacture and, specifically to colour double Gloucester cheese.

Lady’s Bedstraw also appears in Gaelic, Romanian and Norse mythology. Frigg the Norse goddess of married women, helped women in childbirth using the plant, called Frigg’s Grass, as a sedative.

See also

Other species of Galium found in the wild include Galium aparine, Catchweed Bedstraw; Gallium mollugo, Hedge Bedstraw; Galium odoratum, Sweet Bedstraw; Galium saxatile, Heath Bedstraw, and about twenty other species.