Cleavers (Galium aparine)

Cleavers description

Cleavers can be very competitive because it clings to crop plants when growing towards light. The trailing plants can become tangled in moving parts of harvest equipment. Seed quality suffers when canola seed is infested with cleavers seed

Propagation

Cleavers is an annual, and it reproduces by seed.

The main flush of seedlings is in midspring with fewer seeds germinating throughout the summer.

Similar species

False cleavers (Galium spurium) is believed to be more common, but it can not easily be distinguished from cleavers. The only way to differentiate the two is by chromosome count. Cleavers seed is very difficult to separate from canola as its seed is the same shape and size.

Distribution

Found in cultivated fields, shrubbery, gardens, wooded areas, lawns. It prefers moist soil. Can be found throughout Alberta & Saskatchewan.

Identifying Cleavers

Seedling

Cotyledons ovate to oblong, usually only slightly hairy. True leaves in whorls of four and slightly hairy with short stiff hairs.

Mature plant

Stems are prostrate or sprawling, branched mostly near the base. Square, up to 4 feet long, with bristly downward pointing hairs growing on corners. These hairs make stems feel sticky and cause them to cling onto clothing and fur.

Leaves:

In whorls on the stems, usually in groups of 6 or 8. Narrow, elliptic to lanceolate with pointed tips, 1/2 to 1-1/4 inches long. Hairs on edges and midribs make leaves feel rough. Without stalks.

Root structure description

Taproot, slender.

Flowers

White-cream, small, few in axils of upper leaves. FLowers mid-July to fall freeze-up. Seeds round, grey-brown, with minute hooked bristles.