By Carina Magyar in Herbs — Jun 12, 2023

IV: Bedstraw

What was the point of the Great Bed of Ware?

Yellow bedstraw from Transylvania. Photo by Țetcu Mircea Rareș.

Good morning. Today is quartidi, the 24th of Prairial, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate le caille-lait, a very common swamp herb that once was used to stuff mattresses.

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Bedstraw is the nicest name for this widespread plant. You almost get the feeling that people aren't too fond of it. The French name directly translates as "quail milk," a designation I find it best not to think too hard about. Common names in English include catchweed, grip grass, stickwily, cleavers, and burr weed. The plant's propensity to make sappy little stickers that grip to animal fur, socks, pants, shoes ... just thinking about it makes me want to bust out a broom.

There once was a bed so large, 26 butchers and their wives spent the night in it. So goes the tale of the Great Bed of Ware, which still exists – lovingly tucked into a corner of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London – and is still astoundingly large. While a king-sized bed is roughly 80 inches square (depending on whether or not it's a "California" king), the Great Bed of Ware measures 120 inches wide and 132 inches long, essentially a king with a twin-sized bed tacked onto one side and then, for reasons nobody can fathom, another full-sized bed bolted sideways onto the foot.

IV: Bedstraw

III: Honeysuckle

V: Tench

III: Honeysuckle

V: Tench

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