Galium verum

Galium verum (lady's bedstraw[1] or yellow bedstraw) is a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Rubiaceae. It is widespread across most of Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia from Palestine, Lebanon and Turkey to Japan and Kamchatka. It is naturalized in Tasmania, New Zealand, Canada, and the northern half of the United States. It is considered a noxious weed in some places.[2][3][4]

Galium verum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Genus: Galium
Species:
G. verum
Binomial name
Galium verum
Yellow bedstraw (Sânziana galbenă) from the spontaneous flora of the Transylvanian Plateau

Galium verum is a low scrambling plant, with the stems growing to 60–120 centimetres (24–47 in) long, frequently rooting where they touch the ground. The leaves are 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) long and 2 millimetres (0.079 in) broad, shiny dark green, hairy underneath, borne in whorls of 8–12. The flowers are 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) in diameter, yellow, and produced in dense clusters. This species is sometimes confused with Galium odoratum, a species with traditional culinary uses.[5]

Uses

In medieval Europe, the dried plants were used to stuff mattresses,[6] as the coumarin scent of the plants acts as a flea repellant. The flowers were also used to coagulate milk in cheese manufacture (which gives the plant its name, from the Greek word meaning "Milk" (Gala, γάλα) and, in Gloucestershire, to colour the cheese double Gloucester.[7] The plant is also used to make red madder-like and yellow dyes. In Denmark, the plant (known locally as gul snerre) is traditionally used to infuse spirits, making the uniquely Danish drink bjæsk.

Mythology

Frigg was 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.[8]

In Romanian folklore, it is called sânziana and it is linked to the Sânziene fairies and their festival on June 24.

In Gaelic mythology, the hero Cú Chulainn, who suffered fits of rage during battle, would take a tea of this plant to calm his frenzy. The plant is known as lus chneas Chù-Chulainn 'the herb of Cú Chulainn's skin' in Scottish Gaelic,[9] and in the 14th/15th centuries it occurred with the Irish name Bolad cneise con Culainn ‘the smell of Cú Chulainn’s skin’ (NLI G 11 182b2).[10]

Subspecies

Many varietal and subspecific names have been proposed, but only four are currently (May 2014) recognized:[2]

  • Galium verum subsp. asiaticum (Nakai) T.Yamaz - China, Korea, Japan, Russian Far East (Primorye)
  • Galium verum subsp. glabrescens Ehrend. - Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria
  • Galium verum subsp. verum - most of species range
  • Galium verum subsp. wirtgenii (F.W.Schultz) Oborny - Central and eastern Europe plus Western Siberia
  • Seedling

See also

References
  1. "BSBI List 2007". Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-01-25. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  2. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  3. Biota of North America Program
  4. Altervista Flora Italiana
  5. Flora of China, v 19 p 139, 蓬子菜 peng zi cai, Galium verum
  6. Niering, William A.; Olmstead, Nancy C. (1985) [1979]. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region. Knopf. p. 764. ISBN 0-394-50432-1.
  7. Howard, Michael A. (1987). Traditional Folk Remedies: A Comprehensive Herbal. Random House of Canada. pp. 163–. ISBN 0-7126-1731-0.
  8. Schön, Ebbe (2004). Asa-Tors Hammare: Gudar och Jättar i Tro och Tradition. Värnamo: Fält & Hässler. pp. 228–. ISBN 91-89660-41-2.
  9. "lus chneas Chù-Chulainn". Am Faclair Beag. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
  10. "Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 11".
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