Cleavers: The Other Stickybud

“To expel poison or eruptive diseases from the blood… Take cleavers, which are recognized by their round seed which adhere to the clothes when ripe and pound them well; fill up an earthen vessel therewith, and pour thereon as much boiling spring water as the vessel will admit, let it stand an hour and strain through a clean linen cloth; let this be your old drink for nine days. When cleavers cannot be obtained, water-cress may be used.”

Physicians of Myddvai, 1861

---

Cover art by Christian Jank

Cleavers or Galium aparine is also called marsh-bedstraw, common bedstraw, northern bedstraw, goosegrass, stickybud, stickweed, sticky grass, bobby buttons, hitchhikers and heath. It’s called garbhlus in Gaeilge and garbh-lus or seircean-suirich in Scots Gaelic. The Greek name originates from the phrase ‘apairo’ meaning ‘to seize or lay hold of’. The common name cleavers refers to the way in which the plant’s seeds grab and hold onto anything it touches. Cleavers is a plant that I find absolutely fascinating and adore the tiny sticky seedling pods although they can quickly get overwhelming if you allow them. Because of their sticky nature, harvesting and creating remedies with this plant feels medicinal and I really appreciate that aspect of this beauty. 

Dioscorides recommended the seed, stalks and leaves of cleavers to be juiced and mixed with wine to treat spider and snake bites as well as to cure earaches, tumors and swellings. Interestingly, cleavers appear in carbonized grain harvests so we know they were definitely around and likely being used in the classical Celtic world.¹ In Ireland, they were used to treat burns², colds, whooping cough³, inflammations and swellings⁴, skin ailments, kidney complaints, tuberculosis, earaches, as well as a blood tonic⁵, diuretic and to support weight loss. Cleavers are well known today as being a diuretic but interestingly one of the only original sources for this information comes from Ireland in County Kerry and Kilkenny where a recipe called for the herb being mixed with crane’s-bill, dogs grass or parsley-piert and drunk to cure kidney troubles.⁶ 

Another local cure from Kilkenny to lose weight was to chop cleavers fine and boil them to include in a broth.⁷ In Wales, it was recommended again for cold, cough, poisons of the blood, ulcers, wounds and inflammations.⁸ In England, it was used as a generalized spring tonic to cure impurities in the blood and body system, to treat snake bites (mixed with wine) as well as colds, earaches, ulcers, wounds and other skin ailments.^{9, 10} 

Cleavers are in the Rubiaceae family and native to Europe, Asia and North Africa but have become naturalized in North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Cleavers have thin and pointed leaves with small white petals that typically bloom from late spring to mid summer and it may have been associated with the Spring Equinox or Bealtaine. It’s a hardy annual in zones 3 through 9, grows up to 1 ½ m or 5 ft tall and does well in part sunlight and rich well drained soil. Cleaver’s energy is cool and moist. The leaves, flowers and stems are edible and have a grassy flavor. It’s most commonly used as an infusion, decoctions, poultices or whole food. 

Benefits

anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, astringent, diaphoretic, diuretic, febrifuge, kidney tonic, lymphagogue, nutritive, skin tonic, vulnerary

Recipe

Cleavers Burn Salve

Ingredients: 8 oz. or 1 cup olive, avocado, jojoba, or coconut oil, 1 oz. or ⅛ cup cleavers, 1 oz. or ⅛ cup comfrey, 1 oz. or ⅛ cup yarrow, 2 tbsp. carnuba, clean glass amber salve container to store your balm

Instructions: Chop up your cleavers into at least 1/2 in. pieces. Put the oil in your pot and melt at medium heat. Once the oil melts, add the cleavers and stir. Turn on your oven to 200 degrees. Once it reaches 200 degrees, turn it off and place your pot in the oven. After 3 hours, take out the mixture and strain it through your cheesecloth to remove the cleavers. Place it back on the stove top on medium heat and add the wax until both the oil and wax melt into one another smoothly. Pour the oil into your container and let cool. If you don’t like the consistency, heat it up again in hot water and add more oil or wax depending on if you want it more smooth or more firm. This can also be done using a  pre-infused oil of your choice that was done over a few weeks time. Promotes wound and burn healing as well as calms inflammatory skin issues. 

References

1. Green, Miranda, The Celtic World, Routledge, New York, 1995, pg. 210.
2. McClafferty, George, The Folk Medicine of Co. Wicklow. Master’s thesis, National University of Ireland, 1979.
3. Irish Folk Duchas, School Collection – Volume 869, Page 026
4. Egan, F. W., Irish folk-lore. Medical plants, Folk-lore Journal, 5: 11–13, 1887.
5. K’ Eogh, John, Botanologia Universalis Hibernica, or An Irish Herbal, Cork, 1735, edited by Michael Scott, 1986.
6. Irish Folk Duchas, School Collection – Volume 412, Page 096
7. Irish Folk Duchas, School Collection – Volume 853, Page 341
8. Myddvai, Meddygon, Pughe, John and Williams, John, The Physicians of Myddvai, Wales, 1861.
9. Van Arsdall, Anne, Medieval Herbal Remedies, The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine, New York, 2002 (5th century original text), pg. 263.
10. Allen, David and Hatfield, Gabrielle, Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition: An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland, Timber Press, 2004, pg. 268.

---

---