Rubiaceae

Madder Family

Cleavers

FAMILY: Madder family (Rubiaceae) – Galium genus.

SPECIES: Cleavers, catchweed bedstraw, goose grass, or sticky willy (Galium aparine L.).

TO UTILIZE AS FOOD: Shoots and young leaves of cleavers are edible. In addition, the seeds can be roasted and brewed into a coffee-like beverage. Real coffee is also a member of the madder family. Young leaves of all species in the Galium genus are considered to be edible (Tilford p. 36 and Vizgirdas p. 110), but leaves of some species, including cleavers, are dangerously raspy. Cleavers are native to North America, but they were seldom utilized as food by Native Americans. Cleavers are also native to Europe and Asia. They rank among the most common plants in the northern hemisphere.

Cleaver seeds make an excellent coffee substitute. Few other wild foods come closer to a genuine coffee flavor, aroma, and color than cleavers. Raw cleaver seeds are hard like coffee beans. Dry roasting brings out the coffee flavor and changes the texture to delicately crunchy. Dry roasting also burns off most of the irritating hairs. These hairs can present a choking hazard, so filtering the brew is a wise precaution. The extent of dry roasting affects the flavor and aroma. Some charring is desirable. The ideal amount seems to be shortly after the transition from well roasted to lightly charred, but this varies according to personal taste. Other parts of cleavers are inedible and covered with bristly hairs that cling tenaciously to anything that passes by. Consumption of other parts is not advised, even after cooking. Leaves and stems taste fine, but the hairs are irritating and present a choking hazard. Sharp fibers within the plants are also irritating. Only young stem tips have soft hairs. The leaves and stem tips taste bitter, green, fragrant, and somewhat cabbage-like. It’s an unusual flavor eluding comparison and failing to suggest that any food value is present. Cleavers are best utilized for their seeds rather than their leaves. Gathering the seeds is easy, but finding the plants when the seeds are ready to gather is a bit more difficult because the plants tend to disappear into the surroundings. Cleavers bloom over a long period of time, so determining an ideal time to gather the seeds requires some guesswork. You have to watch the colonies and make that determination in the field. Overall, cleavers are a poor-quality wild food, but they make a fine coffee substitute. 

NOTES: The field assessments for cleavers were based on colonies from the Pinos Altos Range in southwestern New Mexico. I found cleavers blooming in many places over a wide range of elevations in Arizona and New Mexico, but every time I tried to gather the seeds, the plants were gone. The colonies just vanished into the competing vegetation. Cleavers aren’t very conspicuous when the seeds are ready to gather—even when you know where the colonies are located. The Pinos Altos colonies were a last resort. Fortunately, they were conspicuous enough and very productive. The raspy hairs on cleavers are a disappointment. Most parts are covered with these menacing hairs. Brief boiling has no effect upon them, except for making them warmer and wetter! Prolonged boiling may soften them to some extent, but I didn’t test this process. Instead, I gathered young parts with soft hairs. Only the youngest parts have soft hairs, and these parts (at least the ones I sampled) are not very good wild foods. Apparently, the young stems and leaves can be added to soup. I’d be very reluctant to eat cleaver soup, but foraging doesn’t always offer good choices. 

IDENTIFICATION: Approximately 75 species of the Galium genus are found in the United States, many of which are considered weeds. Whorled leaves, square stems, and 4-lobed corollas serve to differentiate the Galium genus from other members of the madder family.

Description of cleavers (Galium aparine): FORM bristly, annual plant about 1-8 dm tall; STEMS square, bristly, and often reclining on other plants; LEAVES simple; whorled, with 6-8 leaves per whorl; blades lanceolate; margins entire; surfaces rough-haired; FLOWERS regular, perfect, ovary inferior, and arranged in open few-flowered clusters; peduncles and pedicels well developed; sepals 0; petals 4, greenish-yellowish-white, and fused at the bases; styles 2; stigmas head-like; stamens 4, alternate to the petals; FRUITS nutlets paired and covered with hooked bristles; HABITAT riparian areas, canyons, fields, and partially shaded sites; deserts to mountains; throughout the United States; blooming March to October.

REFERENCES: Tilford (p. 36) and Vizgirdas (p. 110) suggest that all species of the Galium genus have edible leaves. They also warn about species with raspy leaves. Cleavers (Galium aparine): young shoots Couplan (pp. 399-400) and Duke (pp. 100-101); leaves Facciola (p. 212); seeds (as a coffee-like beverage) Couplan (pp. 399-400), Duke (pp. 100-101), Facciola (p. 212), and Kirk (p. 127).