Plant: perennial herb; Tufted, woody at base, mostly glabrous; STEM clumps to 40 cm high, the angles thick

Leaves: 4 per node, mostly less than 1 cm long, usually linear, sometimes ovate, apices sharp, the margins thick and pale

Flowers: perfect, solitary at nodes or on several-flowered branchlets, each sessile in a 4-leaved involucre; corollas rotate, the lobes ovate, spreading, greenish or white

Fruit: FRUITS granulate or tuberculate, not hairy

Misc: Along streams; moist places in pine-oak forests, chaparral, grasslands; 750-2300 m (2400-7500 ft); Mar-Dec

REFERENCES: Dempster, Lauramay T. 1995. Rubiaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Sci. 29(l): 29.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous or suffrutescent perennials, stems angled, the angles whitish, often winged, 10-40 cm tall, erect to decumbent or matted hirsute to glabrous, with deeply grooved stems, herbage bright to pale green.

Leaves: Small, thick and rigid, linear, and shiny, margins and midribs often whitish, grouped in whorls of 4.

Flowers: Small, greenish-yellow, perfect or unisexual, solitary in the axils on short peduncles, each flower subtended by an involucre of 4 leaf-like bracts.

Fruits: Fleshy, purple, paired fruits, the fruits not hairy.

Ecology: Found along streams below 5,000 ft (1524 m); flowering April-October.

Distribution: w TX to AZ and MEX

Notes: The keys to this species are the white flowers subtended by 4 leafy bracts, on short pedicels in the leaf axils, the fruit fleshy at maturity and not hairy.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Galium is from the Greek word gala, milk, an allusion to the fact some species are used to curdle milk, while microphyllum means small leaved.

Synonyms: Relbunium microphyllum

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011