Definition of "bedstraw" []

• Any of several weedy or ornamental plants of the genus Galium, having whorled leaves, clusters of small white or yellow flowers, and prickly stems. Also called cleavers. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I have never seen so much lady's bedstraw, its sun-drenched scent redolent with the dreams of medieval bedrooms."
• "I followed the path beside ancient overgrown hedges, heavy with elder blossom and sheltering patches of lady's bedstraw and betony, down to the banks of the river Wear where tree planting began this spring in lower-lying fields."
• "Gatherings of flies on the tall, white plate flowers of hogweed; burnet moths swinging on the yellow, sweetly scented lady's bedstraw; soldier beetles copulating wildly on their grass stems: these creatures were drawn to plants as places, to be inhabited by animal passions."