Cleavers Plant Look Alike

There are upwards of 3 000 species in the rubiaceae family.

Cleavers plant look alike. To create this list i took into account each plant s toxicity growing range and degree of similarity to its edible look alikes. Let s start the countdown. That s why i ve put together this list of the top 10 most dangerous plant look alikes. As ever when harvesting from the wild you should use a good field guide be aware of look a like plants.

Cleavers are in the rubiaceae family which consists of flowering plants in the coffee madder or bedstraw family. The plants become increasingly hair and fibrous as they age also the stems which make up most of the plant get woody. Cleavers is a very fibrous plant and is best used or preserved fresh. Nothing spoils a great day of wildcrafting like picking the wrong plant and ending up dead.

Asking a local expert is the best way to know for sure. Cleavers have a fresh green taste kind of like young peas with the pod and an element of grassiness and a mild herbal flavor. This is a wonderful sticky prostate annual plant which often grows wild and prolifically against fences in hedgerows crop fields and beneath trees. Cleavers galium aparine i remember having a lot of fun with cleavers or sticky weed as a child.

I think the most likely plant to be confused with cleavers galium aparine is sweet woodruff galium odoratum in the same family they have a similar whorl of leaves and small white flowers that appear in may but sweet woodruff has smooth slightly darker leaves that are a. You want the plant juice so juicing it is one option. Always look up lots of photos and compare with any poisonous look alike plants. Indeed the real headache with goosegrass aka cleavers bedstraw stickywilly is cleaning it of debris.

In particular cleavers are in the bedstraw family.