This is the 15th year of continuous daily publication for 365Caws. All things considered, it's likely it will be the last year as it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to find interesting material. However, I hope that I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world with my natural history posts, or encouraged a novice weaver or needleworker. If so, I've done what I set out to do.
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.
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