Of Cleavers and Snail Shells

Today we had planned a highly anticipated hike right outside of San Antonio, but due to some unexpected circumstances (dead car battery, fun) we had to transfer our plans to a backyard adventure.  I decided we would try to identify one weed plant in our yard. So allow me to introduce to you to Galium aparine!  Or more commonly known in this area, cleaver.

You can find this particular plant EVERYWHERE right now, or at least it is dominant in unkempt lawns.  A few interesting links for further information can be found here, and here.  You can also find quite a bit of medicinal research on this plant on pubmed.  It has quite a bit of medicinal history.

We also found a broken snail shell that fascinated the children.  We have quite the collection of shells, but they had never seen one the interior of one before, and this one was almost split in half.

So...still a successful morning out of doors.  Hikes come and go, but a snail shell treasure was waiting for us this day.