Wild madder
Rubia peregrina
Family · Rubiaceae · Irritating
The climber with hard whorled leaves that scratches as you pass and clings to your legs on any southern shortcut. Its Portuguese name says what happens if you try the obvious.
Scrubland · Oak woods · Walls and rocks · Montado
Also known aslevant madder
How to tell it
Leathery glossy leaves in whorls of four to six, with curved prickles on the margin and midrib. A four-angled stem, also armed. Evergreen. Black berries in autumn.
What it is confused with
Cleavers
Galium aparine
Squeeze a stem: cleavers is soft and crushes, wild madder is stiff and resists. And wild madder has a hard glossy leaf that lasts through winter.
What it is for
The root gives a strong red and was an important textile dye, a cousin of cultivated madder. The berries are not eaten. It is a plant that scratches, not one to gather.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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