Galium verum
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| Galium verum | ||||||||||||||
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 Lady's Bedstraw flowers
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| Galium verum L. |
Galium verum (Lady's Bedstraw or Yellow Bedstraw) is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae, native to Europe and Asia. It is a low scrambling plant, with the stems growing to 60-120 cm long, frequently rooting where they touch the ground. The leaves are 1-3 cm long and 2 mm broad, shiny dark green, hairy underneath, borne in whorls of 8-12. The flowers are 2-3 mm in diameter, yellow, and produced in dense clusters.
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[edit] Uses
In the past the dried plants were used to stuff mattresses, as the coumarin scent of the plants acts as a flea killer. The flowers were also used to coagulate milk in cheese manufacture and, in Gloucestershire, to colour the cheese Double Gloucester.[1] 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.
[edit] Mythology
Frigg was very much 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.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References and notes
- ^ Howard, Michael A. (1987). Traditional Folk Remedies: A Comprehensive Herbal. Random House of Canada, 163–. ISBN 0712617310.
- ^ Schön, Ebbe (2004). Asa-Tors Hammare: Gudar och Jättar i Tro och Tradition. Värnamo: Fält & Hässler, 228–. ISBN 9189660412.
