Monday, 31 May 2021

STICKY WILLY

Sticky Willy is one of the many names for Goosegrass or Cleavers (Galium aparine). 


Children enjoy pulling the long stems and sticking them to other people's clothing.  The little hooks on the leaves and stems enable it to clamber up other plants, walls, etc to reach the light.  It's quite a successful strategy as you can see from the photo below.


 The flowers are minute white stars in the axils of the leaves, which form a whorl all round the stem.

  The fruits are also covered in tiny 'velcro' hooks which attach to animal fur and human socks, helping to spread the seeds far and wide.

The plant has various medicinal uses and also makes very good tinder if dried.

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