Galium verum

Last updated

Galium verum
Galium verum01.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Genus: Galium
Species:
G. verum
Binomial name
Galium verum
L.
Yellow bedstraw (Sanziana galbena) from the spontaneous flora of the Transylvanian Plateau CublesuSJ2012 (91).JPG
Yellow bedstraw (Sânziana galbenă) from the spontaneous flora of the Transylvanian Plateau

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 Israel, Lebanon and Turkey to Japan and Kamchatka. It is naturalized in Tasmania, New Zealand, Canada, and the northern half of the United States.

Contents

Galium verum is an upright plant, with stiff stems growing to 15–120 centimetres (5.9–47.2 in) tall. 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. [2]

Uses

In medieval Europe, the dried plants were used to stuff mattresses, [3] 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 γάλα, gala 'milk') and, in Gloucestershire, to colour the cheese double Gloucester. [4] 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  [ da ].

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. [5]

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

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.[ citation needed ] The plant is known as lus chneas Chù-Chulainn 'the herb of Cú Chulainn's skin' in Scottish Gaelic, [6] 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). [7]

In Serbian folklore Ivanjski venci (Midsummer wreaths) are made out of Galium verum the day ahead of Nativity of John the Baptist celebration. [8] [9] Galium verum, decorated with other flowers, symbolize the beauty of nature and are placed at the public roadside front gates because they are believed to protect Christian homes. [8]

Subspecies

Many varietal and subspecific names have been proposed, but only four are currently (May 2014) recognized: [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Achillea millefolium</i> Species of plant

Achillea millefolium, commonly known as yarrow or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Growing to 1 metre tall, it is characterized by small whitish flowers, a tall stem of fernlike leaves, and a pungent odor.

<i>Ptelea trifoliata</i> Species of tree

Ptelea trifoliata, commonly known as common hoptree, wafer ash, stinking ash, and skunk bush, is a species of flowering plant in the citrus family (Rutaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It is a deciduous shrub or tree, with alternate, trifoliate leaves.

<i>Daucus carota</i> Species of flowering plant

Daucus carota, whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Old World and was naturalized in the New World.

<i>Galium odoratum</i> Species of plant

Galium odoratum, the sweet woodruff or sweetscented bedstraw, is a flowering perennial plant in the family Rubiaceae, native to much of Europe from Spain and Ireland to Russia, as well as Western Siberia, Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus, China and Japan. It is also sparingly naturalised in scattered locations in the United States and Canada. It is widely cultivated for its flowers and its sweet-smelling foliage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sânziană</span> Fairies in Romanian folklore

Sânziană is the Romanian name for gentle fairies who play an important part in local folklore, also used to designate the Galium verum or Cruciata laevipes flowers. Under the plural form Sânziene, the word designates an annual festival in the fairies' honor. Etymologically, the name comes from the Latin Sancta Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt and moon, also celebrated in Roman Dacia. Diana was known to be the virgin goddess and looked after virgins and women. She was one of the three maiden goddesses, Diana, Minerva and Vesta, who swore never to marry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gloucester cheese</span> English semi-hard cheese

Gloucester is a traditional, semi-hard cheese which has been made in Gloucestershire, England, since the 16th century. There are two varieties of the cheese, Single and Double; both are traditionally made from milk from Gloucester cattle. Both types have a natural rind and a hard texture, but Single Gloucester is more crumbly, lighter in texture and lower in fat. Double Gloucester is allowed to age for longer periods than Single, and it has a stronger and more savoury flavour. It is also slightly firmer. The flower known as lady's bedstraw was responsible for the distinctively yellow colour of Double Gloucester cheese.

Traditional dyes of the Scottish Highlands are the native vegetable dyes used in Scottish Gaeldom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sympetalae</span> Historical subclass of flowering plants with fused petals

Sympetally is a flower characteristic that historically was used to classify a grouping of plants termed Sympetalae, but this term has been abandoned in newer molecular based classifications, although the grouping has similarity to the modern term asterids.

<i>Hyles gallii</i> Species of moth

Hyles gallii, the bedstraw hawk-moth or galium sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by S. A. von Rottemburg in 1775.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portencross</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Portencross is a hamlet near Farland Head in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Situated about three kilometres west of Seamill and about two kilometres south of Hunterston B nuclear power station, it is noted for Portencross Castle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thorpe Hay Meadow</span>

Thorpe Hay Meadow is a 6.4-hectare (16-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey. It is owned and managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust.

<i>Pimelea flava</i> Species of plant

Pimelea flava is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with narrowly elliptic to egg-shaped leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and compact clusters of 9 or more flowers with 2 or 4 elliptic to circular involucral bracts at the base. The flowers and bracts are white or yellow, depending on subspecies.

<i>Galium aparine</i> Species of flowering plant

Galium aparine, with common names including cleavers, clivers, catchweed, robin-run-the-hedge, goosegrass,and sticky willy, is an annual, herbaceous plant of the family Rubiaceae.

<i>Cruciata laevipes</i> Species of plant

Cruciata laevipes is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is commonly known as crosswort, smooth bedstraw or Luc na croise in Gaelic. The Latin epithet laevipes refers to the smooth stalk.

<i>Chiococca alba</i> Species of flowering plant

Chiococca alba is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) native to Florida and the extreme southern tip of Texas in the United States, Bermuda, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Galápagos, and tropical South America. Common names include David's milkberry, West Indian milkberry, cahinca and West Indian snowberry. The specific epithet, alba, means "white" in Latin and refers to the color of its fruits.

<i>Asterolasia asteriscophora</i> Species of flowering plant

Asterolasia asteriscophora, commonly known as lemon starbush, is a species of slender, erect shrub in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to southern continental Australia. It has woolly, star-shaped hairs on its young branches, variably-shaped leaves covered with brownish or whitish hairs on the underside, and yellow flowers with woolly brown, star-shaped hairs on the back.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berner's Heath</span> Site of scientific interest in Suffolk, England

Berner's Heath is a 236.9-hectare (585-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Icklingham in Suffolk. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, a Special Area of Conservation, and a Special Protection Area

<i>Galium concinnum</i> Species of plant

Galium concinnum, known as the shining bedstraw, is a herbaceous perennial plant species in the Rubiaceae family. It is native to the Midwestern United States and central Canada, especially the Great Lakes Region and the Valleys of the Ohio, lower Missouri, and upper Mississippi Rivers. It is commonly found in deciduous forests and forest edges. It grows low to the ground in natural habitats. Although it is not an invasive species, it can be very weedy. It is typically not cultivated.

<i>Galium obtusum</i> Species of flowering plant

Galium obtusum, the bluntleaf bedstraw, is a herbaceous plant species in the family Rubiaceae. Bluntleaf bedstraw is a wildflower native to eastern North America.

<i>Thesium humifusum</i> Genus of flowering plant in the mistletoe family Santalaceae

Thesium humifusum is a species of hemiparasitic flowering plant in the family Santalaceae found in western Europe and north-western Africa, known as bastard-toadflax.

References

  1. BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  2. Flora of China, v 19 p 139, 蓬子菜 peng zi cai, Galium verum
  3. 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.
  4. Howard, Michael A. (1987). Traditional Folk Remedies: A Comprehensive Herbal. Random House of Canada. pp. 163–. ISBN   0-7126-1731-0.
  5. Schön, Ebbe (2004). Asa-Tors Hammare: Gudar och Jättar i Tro och Tradition. Värnamo: Fält & Hässler. pp. 228–. ISBN   91-89660-41-2.
  6. "lus chneas Chù-Chulainn". Am Faclair Beag. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
  7. "Dublin, National Library of Ireland, MS G 11".
  8. 1 2 Slavko Bubalo (7 July 2023). "Tradiciju pletenja ivanjdanskih venaca prenose na mlade". Srbi.hr, Joint Council of Municipalities . Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  9. Senka Lučić (4 July 2007). "Ivanjski venci, "moravci" i maske "kod vrapca"". Politika . Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  10. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families