Galium aparineL.

catchweed bedstraw

WFO wfo-0000968296 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Galium aparine, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. a Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-04 / obs. 203311322
Galium aparine, photographed by Natalie Waddell-Rutter
fig. b Natalie Waddell-Rutter, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203391736
Galium aparine, photographed by Sheelagh Halsey
fig. c Sheelagh Halsey, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204604854
Galium aparine, photographed by Mary Crickmore
fig. d Mary Crickmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 205914143
Galium aparine, photographed by Jon Mortin
fig. e Jon Mortin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205596059
Galium aparine, photographed by Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky)
fig. f Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205758577
Galium aparine, photographed by Michel Langeveld
fig. g Michel Langeveld, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204362877
Galium aparine, photographed by Aiva Noringseth
fig. h Aiva Noringseth, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203780789

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 7,595 observations

Peak flowering in May, from 7,595 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 46 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aparine hispida Moench
  • Aparine vulgaris Hill
  • Asperula aparine (L.) Besser
  • Asperula aparine var. aparine (L.) Nyman
  • Asterophyllum aparine (L.) K.F.Schimp. & Spenn.
  • Crucianella purpurea Wulff ex Steud.
  • Galion aparinum (L.) St.-Lag.
  • Galium aculeatissimum Kit. ex Kanitz
  • Galium adhaerens Gilib.
  • Galium aparine f. angustifolium Cout.
  • Galium aparine f. intermedium (Mérat) R.J.Moore
  • Galium aparine f. latifolium Cout.
  • Galium aparine subsp. agreste P.D.Sell
  • Galium aparine subsp. aparine
  • Galium aparine subsp. verum (Wimm. & Grab.) Maire
  • Galium aparine var. agreste P.D.Sell
  • Galium aparine var. aparine
  • Galium aparine var. fructibushispidis Franch.
  • Galium aparine var. hirsutum Mert. & W.D.J.Koch
  • Galium aparine var. intermedium (Mérat) Bonnet
  • Galium aparine var. marinum Fr.
  • Galium aparine var. microphyllum Clos
  • Galium aparine var. minor Hook.
  • Galium aparine var. minus Hook.

and 22 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.