Galium

Galium is a large genus of annual and perennial herbaceous plants in the family Rubiaceae, with 617 known species occurring in the temperate zones of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Some species are informally known as bedstraw. This is because they are covered with small hairs that hook and cling like velcro, and in bygone days they were dried and used as straw for stuffing mattresses because their clinginess resisted the tendency of the mattress to become bowl-shaped with use. Galium aparine is one of the most common annual weeds along hedgerows in the British Isles.

The Field Madder (Sherardia arvensis) is a close relative and may be confused with a tiny bedstraw. Asperula is also a closely related genus; some species of Galium (such as woodruff) are occasionally placed therein.

Bedstraws are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. See list of Lepidoptera that feed on Galium.