Cleavers, Bedstraw, Sticky Willy

Galium aparine - It is an annual plant with a delicate quadrangular, prickly stem. Growing from 2 to 6 feet long, the plant often lines streams and lake shores. The leaves are 1 or 2 inches in length, and about 1 inch in width. Galium aparine has whorls of leaves in combinations of sixes, sevens, or eights. The flowers are white, small, abundant and scattered. The fruit is large and bristly, with hooked prickles. Galium Aparine's common name catchweed gives away the method of propagation the plant chooses. Containing numerous small prickly spines, the plant attaches itself to just about anything around itself i.e. other plants, animals and humans.