Ladies Bedstraw is abundant on dry banks, chiefly near the sea. Its small, bright yellow flowers are closely clustered together in dense panicles at the tops of the wiry, square, upright stems, which are 1 to 3 feet high, & bear numerous very narrow, almost thread-like leaves, placed six to eight together in whorls. The flowers are in bloom in July & August. Also known as Our Lady’s Bedstraw. Yellow Bedstraw. Maid’s Hair. Petty Mugget. Cheese Renning. Cheese Rennet, & in Chinese as Shn png z ci Traditional Uses for Ladies Bedstraw: - It is still used today but to a limited extent, as a popular remedy. A decoction from the plant has little or no odour but has an astringent, acidulous & bitterish taste. The plant has the property of curdling milk, hence another of its popular names ’ Cheese Rennet.’ It was called ’ Cheese Renning’ in the sixteenth century, & Gerard says (quoting from Matthiolus, a famous commentator of Dioscorides), the people of Thuscane do use it to turne their milks & the cheese, which they make of sheepes & goates milke, might be the sweeter & more pleasant to taste. Cheshire, especially around Nantwich, where the best cheese is made, do use it in their rennet, esteeming greatly of that cheese above other made without it. The rich colour of this cheese was probably originally derived from this plant, though it is now obtained from annatto seed The Highlanders also made special use of Yellow Ladies Bedstraw to curdle milk & colour their cheese, & it has been used in Gloucestershire for the same purpose, either alone or with the juice of the stinging-nettle. It can be used to furnish a yellow dye from the fresh or dried herb whilst the root makes a red dye. Ladies Bedstraw Cut Herb - Gallium Verum 100 Grams
