Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Galium australe

Common name

Tangled bedstraw

Family

Rubiaceae

Where found

Forest, shrubland, woodland, and coastal dunes. Most record have been redetermined to be other species. Nadgee Nature Reserve south of Eden. Previously in the Nowra and Narooma areas. Records in the Sydney area have yet to be confirmed (5 September, 2019)

Notes

Perennial herb, straggling or twining. Stems weak, to 0.6 m long, 4-angled, sparsely to densely hairy, rarely hairless. Leaves and leaf-like stipules in whorls of 4, 0.4–1.5 cm long, 1.5–4 mm wide, tips pointed or blunt with a mucro, upper surface hairy, rarely more or less hairless, lower surface with hairs confined to the midvein. Flowers to 3 mm in diameter, with 4 white petals fused together near their bases, in clusters of mostly 1–7 flowers. Flowering: spring to autumn. 'Seeds' about 1.5 mm long densely covered with almost transparent hooked hairs 0.3–0.5 mm long.

Endangered NSW. Provisions of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species.

NSW Threatened Species profile:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10336  (accessed 6 January 2021)

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Galium~australe  (accessed 6 January 2021)