Galium parisiense

Description

It is an annual herb producing lightly hairy, very thin, much-branched, erect stems 15 - tall. The stem is ringed with whorls of usually six (range four to seven) narrow linear or linear-lanceolate leaves, each a few millimetres long, and often reflexed downwards toward the stem. Each stem is topped with an open inflorescence of many clusters of tiny greenish-white or purplish-tinged flowers. The fruit is a nutlet densely coated in slender hooked bristles. It flowers between June and August.

Distribution and habitat

Wall bedstraw is native to the Mediterranean Basin of southern Europe and northern Africa, plus Turkey, Iran, and the islands of the eastern North Atlantic (Great Britain, Madeira, the Azores, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde). The species is also naturalized in some parts of North America, mostly on the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada but also at scattered locales in the southeastern US from Texas to Maryland. In its native range, Galium parisiense is typically found on hillsides and stream-banks.

It often grows in rocky habitats. In areas with significant human disturbance, it is a "wall specialist", easily taking hold in historic stone walls.

References

References

1. Hickman, J. C. 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California 1–1400. University of California Press, Berkeley.
2. (1960). "Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States: Bignonias to Sunflowers". Stanford University Press.
3. [http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=87107 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSPF), ''Galium parisiense'']
4. {{BONAP. ref
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6. [http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=galium+parisiense Altervista Flora Italiana, ''Galium parisiense'']
7. "''Galium parisiense''". Manual of the alien plants of Belgium.
8. [[Jane Grenville