Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Galium palustre
Common name
Marsh Bedstraw
Family
Rubiaceae
Where found
Near streams and lakes, and in and near swamps. Southern Higlands, and east and south to Robertson and Fitzroy Falls Reservoir. One record near Bombala.
Notes
Introduced annual herb to 1.5 m high, erect or climbing. Stems robust at the base becoming wiry, 4-angled, hairless, or rough with short backward pointing prickles. Leaves and leaf-like stipules in whorls of 4–6, 0.5–2 cm long, 1–4 mm wide, tips pointed to rounded, often with a colourless bristle, margins and midrib on both surfaces hairy. Stipules becoming conspicuously shorter than the leaves higher up the stems. Flowers white or tinged pink, with 4 petals fused together near their bases, 2–4.5 mm in diameter, in 5–15-flowered clusters. Flowers and seeds January–April. 'Seeds' 0.5–1.3 mm long, smooth to wrinkled when dry, finely warty.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Galium~palustre (accessed 17 January, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
