Galium uliginosum L.
fen bedstraw
Perennial; stems weak, slender, 4-angled, to c. 30 cm long, densely retrorsely scabrid. Lvs and stipules in whorls of 4 or 6, sessile or subsessile, 3-9 × 0.7-2 mm excluding terminal awn, smaller in some uppermost axils, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or oblanceolate, shining above; margins retrorsely scabrid, revolute; midrib below glabrous or sparsely scabrid; apex sharply acute or mucronate. Cymes with up to 8 fls, terminal or in uppermost axils, glabrous; peduncles to c. 8 mm long; pedicels < peduncles, slightly divaricating at fruiting; bracts leaflike, the upper c. 1/2 length of normal lvs and stipules. Corolla c. 2 mm diam., white; lobes oblong-ovate, acute or mucronulate. Mature mericarps not seen, but young mericarps glabrous and rugulose.
N.: Opotiki District (Bay of Plenty), Mt Bruce area (Wairarapa).
Europe 1981
Roadsides, wet pasture.
FL Dec-Feb.
Fen bedstraw was first collected by the Mt Bruce Stream in 1945. In the few N.Z. collections, the lvs and stipules are smaller, and the cymes seem to be rather more depauperate than often recorded for plants in Europe.
