A weed by any other name

I'm not bad on the proper names of garden flowers and shrubs, but I've never had much idea what weeds are called. After all, you just pull them up, don't you?

However, I've been looking up what two weeds, currently in rampant profusion on the bank behind our house, are called. They are known to me and my wife as "sticky weed" and "stinky weed" because, well, they are respectively sticky and stinky.

Galium Aparine - aka Sticky Weed

Sticky weed turns out to a herbaceous annual member of the "plant" family rubiaceae, gallium aparine. Wikipedia tells me it's commonly known as goosegrass, catchweed, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, velcro weed (that can't date back many generations...) and grip grass. Or, as we had independently christened it ourselves, stickyweed. Kew say the species is widespread and often considered a weed (you don't say!). And that the whole plant is edible, though not particularly tasty; it is also reputed to have a number of medicinal properties. It scrambles over other low growing plants and has a weak stem, so when you pull it no roots come up.

We've had sticky weed in every garden we've owned, which is quite a few now. But we've never had stinky weed before.

Geranium Robertianum aka stinky weed

It turns out Stinky weed is Geranium Robertianum, or Herb Robert, named after a monk who lived 1000 years ago. A website called ediblewildfood.com says "Herb Robert is a ubiquitous sprawling plant well-known for its unpleasant smell and its vibrant bright pink flowers" and " Fresh leaves can be eaten or tossed into a mug to make a tea. The flower and leaves can be dried and stored so that it can be used throughout the winter months as a tea or tossed into salads as a nutrient booster." YUK!  Rubbing fresh leaves on the skin is said to repel mosquitoes and the entire plant repels rabbits and deer (which I'm not surprised to hear).

It has bright red stems which grow out star shaped from a node above the ground, with a very weak stem which snaps leaving all the root behind, an evolutionary necessity I suppose.

Just don't sniff your hands after pulling it up. Let me know if you want any for your salad - we've got tons of it!