Perennial herb with a creeping rhizome 20 cm - 0.8 m tall

Leaves: in whorls of four, ascending or loosely spreading, 1 - 3 cm long, 1 - 6 mm wide, linear to lance-shaped to reverse lance-shaped with a rounded tip, one-veined, sometimes slightly rough or roughly hairy along the margins and on the midrib beneath.

Inflorescence: a long-stalked, ascending cluster of two to five short-stalked flowers.

Flowers: white, 2 - 3.5 mm wide, more or less flat and circular in outline, with four short lobes. Lobes longer than wide, usually pointed. Stamens four, shorter than corolla. Styles two, short.

Fruit: dry, indehiscent, 4 - 5 mm wide, spherical, paired, separating when ripe, one-seeded.

Stems: matted, slender, four-angled, upright and branched, densely short-bearded at the nodes.

Similar species: No information at this time.

Flowering: mid-May to early August

Habitat and ecology: Occurring in low woods and, more often, in moist meadows. It is also found in moist calcareous habitats and in prairies.

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. Obtusum means blunt.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Frequent to infrequent in wet woods throughout the state. There is a form common in a low, wet woods in section 17 of Point Township, Posey County, that has the fruit more or less hispid. I studied this plant where it was common over several acres and found the fruit to be very variable. There were plants with all of the fruit glabrous, plants with some of the fruit more or less glabrous, and some plants with all of the fruit rather densely pubescent.