Perennial herb with a creeping rhizome 10 - 40 cm tall Stem: upright or ascending, slender, four-angled, unbranched or branched above, densely short-bearded at the nodes. Leaves: in whorls of four, becoming recurved or bent downward, 8 mm - 1.5 cm long, 1 - 3 mm wide, linear to reverse lance-shaped with a rounded tip, one-veined, fringed with short hairs. Inflorescence: a mostly terminal, branched cluster of three flowers. Flowers: white, 2 - 3 mm wide, more or less flat and circular in outline, with four short lobes. Lobes longer than wide. Stamens four, alternating with lobes, shorter than corolla. Styles two, short. Fruit: dry, indehiscent, 2 - 3 mm wide, spherical, paired, separating when ripe, one-seeded.

Similar species: No information at this time.

Flowering: late May to mid-June

Habitat and ecology: Local in Sphagnum bogs. It may also occur in marshes and other wet areas.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Etymology: Galium comes from the Greek word gala, meaning milk, referring to the plants that are used to curdle milk.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Perennial 1-4 dm, simple or branched above; stems slender, densely short-bearded at the nodes, otherwise glabrous or nearly so; lvs in 4's, soon recurved or deflexed, linear-oblanceolate, 8-15 נ1-2.5(-3) mm, hispidulous on the margins, usually smooth on the midrib; infls few, mostly terminal, 3-fld, 3-10 mm; cor white, 2-3 mm wide, 4-lobed, the lobes longer than wide; fr smooth, 2-3 mm, usually both mericarps developed; 2n=24. Cold bogs, swamps, and wet thickets; Nf. and Lab. to the Mackenzie R., s. to Mass., N.Y., N.J., Ind. and Io. June, July.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

Generally in sphagnum in tamarack bogs, marshes, and sedge borders of lakes.