Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Galium leptogonium

Seed cases and leaves, photographer Russell Best, north of Sunbury, Vic

Common name

A bedstraw

Family

Rubiaceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, and grassy areas, often growing from rock crevices. Between Liverpool and Picton and the mountains west from there. Occasional elsewhere.

Notes

Perennial herb, to 0.45 m tall, prostrate to climbing. Stems 4-angled, slender, hairless to densely hairy, sometimes with tiny backward pointing prickles. Leaves and leaf-like stipules in whorls of 4, 0.3-1.5 cm long, 1.5-6 mm wide, upper surface with clear slender hairs, lower surface with clear slender hairs on the midrib, margins mostly flat to curved down; tips sometimes with a terminal hair. Flowers cream or greenish cream to yellowish green, 1.5-2.5 mm in diameter, with 4 petals fused together near their bases, in clusters of 1-10 flowers. Flowers Spring to Autumn. 'Seeds' 1.0–1.2 mm long, hairy, wrinkled, often warty.

Data deficient Vic..

PlantNET description with line drawing and photos: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Galium~leptogonium  (accessed 17 January, 2021)