Clever idea to consider cleavers

Herbalist Seán McCarthy begins an occasional column on the natural medicine available on your doorstep. This week it’s the familiar stickleback.

What you might consider a weed, I would consider a food or a medicine. A lot of these medicines grow in abundance without having to be set, propagated or fed. And perhaps if you knew how cleavers/clivers/goosegrass act medicinally, you’d be slow to spray or strim them out of existence.

This weed, (aka stickleback) has many uses, but is primarily used for enlarged nodes anywhere in the body. And up until the advent of modern medicine, Gallium aperine – to give it it’s Latin title – was used to treat malignant conditions.