365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Sunday, May 5, 2019
Nuisance (Non)-Native
Day 204: May the gods of botany strike me where I stand, this represents one native plant genus I would not miss if it died out entirely. Its various species and subspecies can all be lumped under the common names of Bedstraw or Cleavers, and the latter is particularly descriptive of the obnoxious, sticky, amazingly persistent burrs it produces. Walk through a patch of Galium and you'll spend the next half hour de-seeding your socks and pantlegs. You might even find a tick or two because they love hiding out in the stuff (I learned the hard way). This particular species grows in the woods at the edge of my yard where I can keep it contained by mowing, but given half a chance, it would spread until it had subsumed the dandelions, crushed the hawkweed, suffocated the moss and crept in through my bedroom window to strangle me as I slept. Resistant to all methods I've employed to eradicate it, it's just waiting for its moment to take over the world.
Update: Confirmed that this is Galium odoratum, a non-native Bedstraw.
Labels:
Bedstraw,
Cleavers,
Galium,
Galium odoratum,
non-native species,
yard
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