Galium boreale

Native

Dry to wet. Woods, forests, prairies, meadows, fields.

June to July

White to cream

6″ to 40″

This is a 6″ to 40″ tall, erect, perennial forb that rises on numerous stems from a creeping rhizome.

The stems are ascending, erect, or reclining on the ground. They are slender, 4-angled, hollow, and many branched. They are usually hairless except for a short beard of hairs just below the nodes. Sometimes they are rough with minute, stiff hairs. They do not have hooked hairs.

The leaves are stalkless and in whorls of 4. The blades are linear lance-shaped, ⅝″ to 1¾″long, and up to 3 ⁄16″ wide. They have 3 veins, 1 prominent midvein and 2 less prominent but plainly visible lateral veins, running from the base to the tip. They are rounded at the tip. The upper surface is green and hairless. The lower surface is light green and sparsely hairy. The margins are untoothed and have a fringe of hairs. The leaves do not have hooked hairs.

The inflorescence is a showy, branched, about 4″ long and wide, round-topped cluster (cyme) of numerous stalked flowers at the end of the stem. Each division of the cyme is subtended by a pair of elliptic bracts.

The flowers are ⅛″ to ¼″ wide. There are 4 white to cream-colored petals fused at the base into a short tube then separated into 4 short lobes with pointed tips. There are 4 stamens with white filaments and yellowish-brown anthers, and 2 styles. There are 2 carpels at the base of the flower. The carpels are light green, hairy, and joined together. They do not have hooked hairs.

The fruit is a green, sometimes hairy, ball-like, 1-seeded capsule, joined in pairs. It does not have hooked hairs.

Licorice bedstraw (Galium circaezans var. hypomalacum) has much wider leaves.