Galium spurium, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 35

131. G. spurium L. , Sp. Pl. 106 (1753)

( G. vaillantii DC. ).

Stems 10-100(-160) cm, scrambling, weak to rather stout, retrorsely aculeolate, usually hairy at the nodes. Leaves (5-)3O-35 x 2-5-4 mm, in whorls of 6-10, narrowly oblanceolate, gradually narrowed into the long-awned apex, more or less hairy and setose above, the somewhat revolute margin and midrib retrorsely aculeolate. Inflorescence narrowly ovoid to cylindrical (rarely reduced); partial inflorescences 1 - to 7-flowered, longer than the leaves; peduncles and pedicels patent, straight but often sharply bent just under the fruit. Corolla 0-8-1 -3 mm in diameter, greenish-yellow, glabrous; lobes acute. Fruit 2-3 mm, densely setose or glabrous. 2« = 20. Hedges, scrub, sand-dunes, cultivated and waste ground. Most of Europe, but rather rare in the west and only naturalized or casual in parts of the north. Al Au BeBuCoCrCzDa *FeGaGeGrHeHoHsHuItJuLuNoPo Rm Rs (*N, B, C, W, K, E) Sa Si Su [Br].

Variants with glabrous and setose fruits often occur together, especially in cultivated ground; variants with setose fruits, apart from the flower-characters and the difference in chromosome number, are often not easy to distinguish from 132.