cleavers Galium aparine, a herb also known as goosegrass, which has a wide distribution in Europe, Asia to Siberia, and N. and S. America. Its common names are justified by the way in which the narrow pointed leaves stick or ‘cleave’ to persons or animals, and the practice of feeding it to goslings and geese.
The plant was formerly used as an ingredient in soups which would otherwise have been too greasy.
Parkinson (1629) had remarked that ‘Clevers … is of subtill parts: it is familiarly taken in broth to keepe them lean and lanke, that are apt to grow fat.’ The same author noted that ‘the herb serveth well the Country people in stead of a strainer, to cleare their milke from strawes, haires, or any other thing that falleth into it.’ The Greek author Dioscorides had recorded this practice in classical times and such sieves were still in use in Sweden in the 20th century.
