Galium aparine, with many common names including common bedstraw, cleavers, clivers, goosegrass, catchweed, stickyweed, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, velcro weed, and grip grass, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae. Whether it is native to North America is a question of some debate, but it is considered to be native here in most literature, including the Jepson Manual. The plant can be found growing in disturbed habitats and grassy, shady places throughout California. The herbage clings to clothes and animal fur due to the presence of small prickles on the stems and leaves. These prickles help the plant crawl over other vegetation to better compete for sunlight. It is highly variable in appearance but has small white flowers with four corolla lobes and round fruits which are coated in hooked hairs which aid in seed dispersal. It can become weedy in gardens but it is used as food for a wide range of insect species.