Low, sprawling, sometimes semi-erect, plant with square stems.  Leaves half to three-quarter inches long, egg-shaped with a pointy tip, in whorls of 4-8 around the stem.  Flowers tiny, white, usually many in a branching cluster, with 4 petals.  Fruits tiny green burs.  Leaves, stems and fruits covered with sharp, stiff, curved hairs that enable the plant to stick like Velcro to clothes and skin.

Native Likes damp shady areas in woods and thickets.  Very common on the western slope of Wildwood, especially along the trails south of the first bridge of the Riverway.

The genus Galium is distinctive with its whorled leaves, four-petaled flowers, and square stems.  Among members of this genus only cleavers (G. aparine) and rough bedstraw have pure white flowers and prickly stems and leaves.  Cleavers has larger (over 1 inch) leaves and only 1 to 3 flowers in each cluster..