Scientific name: Asperula cynanchica L.
Common name: Squinancywort
Description
Habit: A hairless perennial.
Stems: Slender, trailing or semi-erect, branched, 4-angled, to 50 cm long.
Leaves: Opposite, with several leafy and large stipules per leaf making it appear that leaves are in whorls of 4; lower whorls all equal size, upper whorls with 2 larger and 2 smaller; undivided, untoothed, unstalked, narrow.
Flowers: White to pink, actinomorphic, hermaphrodite, 2.5-5 mm across, in compound and narrow cymes; sepals minute; petals 4-5, fused into tube below, with 4-5 lobes, tube longer than lobes; stamens 4-5, attached to the top of corolla tube; ovary inferior, 2-celled.
Fruits: 2 fused and later separated 1-seeded nutlets.
Habitat: Limestone pavement, calcareous grassland, sand dunes. Distribution: Frequent and locally abundant.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No