Galium verum L.
lady's bedstraw
Stoloniferous perennial; stems decumbent to erect, often ± tufted, weak, to c. 75 cm long, densely puberulent except towards base; main stems terete or bluntly-angled; branches 4-angled. Lvs and stipules (5)-6-9 per whorl, sessile, 5-20 × c. 1-2 mm, linear or linear-oblong but usually revolute and appearing subulate, ± scabridulous above and on midrib below; margins ciliate; apex sharply acute to shortly awned. Infl. a dense panicle of terminal and axillary cymes, with main axis to > 15 cm long and usually densely puberulent; peduncles often glabrous; pedicels usually < 1.5 mm long at anthesis, glabrous, not divaricating at fruiting, ± = peduncles and sometimes subtended by leaflike bracts; fls very numerous. Corolla 2-3 mm diam., yellow; lobes ovate, with incurved mucro. Mericarps c. 1 mm diam., globose, glabrous, rugulose.
N.: Topuni (N. Auckland), Dannevirke, Masterton, several places in the Manawatu, Akatarawa (near Upper Hutt); S.: Motueka area (Nelson), Cromwell (C. Otago).
Europe, W. Asia 1908
Modified areas near settlements, rough pasture, also recorded from a limestone cliff.
FL Nov-Apr.
This sp. is presumably an escape from cultivation although it is not commonly grown. In addition to the fragrant fls, the dried plants smell of coumarin (fresh hay), these characteristics being much more marked than in any other sp. in N.Z. Its aromatic properties caused it to be used long ago as bedding material and the name lady's bedstraw commemorates this practice. The name yellow bedstraw is occasionally used in N.Z.
