Plant: annual herb; to 30 cm high, erect or ascending, simple or branching at base, glabrous to hairy
Leaves: 4 per node, 3-9 mm long, the lower petiolate and spatulate, the upper linear to ovate-obovate and more or less sessile, remote on stem
Flowers: perfect, minute, 1-several on short branches from most nodes, usually hidden, the pedicels very short; corolla smaller than ovary, the lobes erect, rounded at apices, white
Fruit: strongly downturned from a pair of erect leaves; mericarps kidney-shaped with many long uncinate hairs
Misc: Moist places along streambeds and edge of washes; rocky n-facing slopes; grassy areas; in open or under shrubs or trees; 450-1600 m (1500-5300 ft); Dec-Jun
REFERENCES: Dempster, Lauramay T. 1995. Rubiaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Sci. 29(l): 29.
Duration: Annual
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Annual to 30 cm tall, erect to ascending, simple or branching at base, glabrous to hairy.
Leaves: Opposite, appearing whorled, 4 per node, 3-9 mm long, lower petiolate and spatulate, upper linear to ovate-obovate and more or less sessile, remote on stem.
Flowers: In panicle to axillary cyme, perfect, minute, 1-several on short branches from most nodes, usually hidden, pedicels very short; corolla smaller than ovary, rotate with erect lobes, rounded at apices, white.
Fruits: Berry like but strongly downturned from pair of erect leaves, with mericarps that are kidney-shaped and bearing long-uncinate hairs.
Ecology: Found in moist places along streambeds and edges of washes, rocky slopes, and under shrubs and trees from 1,500-5,500 ft (457-1676 m); flowers December-June.
Distribution: w TX to s UT, AZ, and n MEX
Notes: Distinguished by the flowers being nearly sessile with several flowers per branchlet each with a 4-parted corolla, its being annual, and having 4 or fewer leaves per node.
Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.
Etymology: Galium is from the Greek word gala, milk, an allusion to the fact some species are used to curdle milk, while proliferum means bearing or producing offshoots.
Synonyms: Galium proliferum var. subnudum, G. virgatum var. diffusum
Editor: SBuckley, 2010
