Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Galium murale

Common name

Small bedstraw, Small goosegrass

Family

Rubiaceae

Where found

Shaded sites in disturbed forest and woodland, and other moist sites. Sydney area. Tablelands, ACT, Western Slopes. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 0.12 m high, or prostrate.  'Seeds' with long hooked hairs. Stems soft, thread-like, 4-angled, hairless or with few small backward pointing prickles. Leaves and leaf-like stipules in whorls of 3–6, leaves occasionally opposite each other, 0.3–1 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, tips pointed with a short point, surfaces more or less hairless, margins bristly. Flowers white to yellowish green, about 1 mm long, about 0.8 mm in diameter, with 4 petals fused together near their bases. Flowers single or paired. Flowers mostly Aug.–Nov. 'Seeds' 1–1.5 mm long, with long hooked hairs, particularly towards the tips.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Galium~murale  (accessed 22 January, 2021)