Scientific name: Galium palustre L.
Common name: Common Marsh Bedstraw
Description
Habit: Perennial.
Stems: Straggling or semi-erect, 4-angled, smooth or rough with small downward directed prickles, to 1 m long.
Leaves: Opposite, with several leafy and large stipules per leaf making it appear that leaves are in whorls of 4-6; undivided, untoothed, unstalked, oblong-lanceolate, 5-20 mm long, leaf-tip rounded, margin hairs half way along the margin pointing forwards towards the tip; 1-veined.
Flowers: White, actinomorphic, hermaphrodite, in compound and loose axillary and terminal cymes; sepals absent or minute; petals 4, fused into tube below, with 4 lobes, corolla 2-3.5 mm across, tube shorter than lobes; stamens 4-5, attached at the top of corolla tube; ovary inferior, 2-celled.
Fruits: 2 fused and later separated 1-seeded nutlets; minutely rough, 1.5 mm across.
Habitat: Marshes, lake-shores, ditches, other wet habitats. Distribution: Common throughout.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No