Galium verum

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iGalium verum
Lady's Bedstraw in flower
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Gentianales Family: Rubiaceae Genus: Galium Species: G. verum
Binomial name
Galium verum L.

Galium verum (Lady's Bedstraw or Yellow Bedstraw) is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae, native to Europe and Asia. It is a low scrambling plant, with the stems growing to 60-120 cm long, frequently rooting where they touch the ground. The leaves are 1-3 cm long and 2 mm broad, shiny dark green, hairy underneath, borne in whorls of 8-12. The flowers are 2-3 mm diameter, yellow, produced in dense clusters.

Contents 1 Uses 2 Mythology 3 See also 4 References and notes

[edit] Uses

In the past the dried plants were used to stuff mattresses, the coumarin scent of the plants acting as a flea killer. The flowers were also used to coagulate milk in cheese manufacture.

[edit] Mythology

Frigg was very much the goddess of married women, in Norse mythology. She helped women give birth to children, and as Scandinavians used the plant Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum) as a sedative, they called it Frigg's grass^[1].

[edit] See also

List of Lepidoptera which feed on Galium

[edit] References and notes

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