Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Rubiales

Family: Rubiaceae -- madder

Common Name: northern bedstraw

Species Code: GABO

Origin: Circumboreal. Widespread in a variety of mesic habitats. On the Palouse it prefers north hillsides and open forests.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial, 20-80 cm tall, erect, rhizomatous; stems square, glabrous to puberulent, often with sterile axillary branches.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium lifespan

Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: FACU

Leaves: basal leaves soon deciduous; cauline leaves borne in whorls of 4, sessile, linear to lanceolate, 1.5-4.5 cm long, glabrous or scabrous, somewhat leathery, 3-veined, tips rounded.

Mature height: 8-32 inches

Flowers: perfect (or sometimes with sterile stamens or pistils, being functionally dioecious), numerous, borne in a cymose panicle; corolla 4-lobed, white, 3.5-7 mm wide, rotate.

Flower color: white

Bloom: May, June

Bloom starts on: late May

Bloom ends on: late June

Fruit: 2 nutlets, 2 mm long, usually with curved but not hooked hairs.

Characteristics:
The North American and Asian portion of the species is sometimes called G. septentrionale (Love & Love 1954).
725,760 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman PMC 2005).
756,666 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
Flowers are usually perfect but may have either sterile stamens or sterile pistils and thus are functionally dioecious.
Fruit is a nutlet.
n=22, 33 (Hitchcock et al 1969).
n=11 (University of British Columbia 2003).
North American plants are hexaploid (2n=66) while European plants are tetraploid (2n=44) (Love & Love 1954).
Ducks, geese, and deer eat the plants (Craighead et al 1963). Small mammals and birds eat the fruits (Mohlenbrock undated). Low value forage for Rocky Mountain elk in winter (Kufeld 1973).
The reputation for weediness of the related G. aparine has been unfairly transferred to other members of the genus. G. boreale and G. triflorum are not deserving of that label.

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 20-55 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Rhizomes survive all but severe fires and regeneration comes from remaining rhizomes and from seed. Requires 5-10 years to reach pre-fire population density (Gucker 2005).

Hazards: This important native perennial is not weedy.

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: Seed will germinate without pretreatment, but a short stratification period may increase germination.

Seed yield: medium

Seed harvest: easy

Seed first harvest: second season

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: long

Seed insect problem: none noted

Seed shatter: low

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: August

Seed comments: Seed production declines after 4-5 years, althought the plants remain vigorous. Tilling the established plants promotes flowering and seed production the following year.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: upland native forb

Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center

Other Propagation Information:
4 weeks cold moist stratification followed by alternating temperatures of 20/30^oC with light (Chirco & Turner 1986).
Both untreated and stratified seed germinated at low rates (Greene & Curtis 1950).
86% germination with 4 weeks cold moist stratification followed by alternating temperatures of 20/30^oC and alternating light/dark (Maguire & Overland 1959).
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.

Notes: Galium boreale is a little more difficult to grow from seed, but still not really tricky. It has short rhizomes, but is not invasive. When growing in a garden situation, it flowers profusely, but the flowers don’t last more than a couple weeks. Blooms in June. Seed will germinate without pretreatment, but may benefit from stratification. Divide the plants after 6-7 years to keep them flowering. It is not weedy like its cousin Galium aparine. Common name is northern bedstraw (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Chirco, Ellen, and Terry Turner. 1986. Species Without AOSA Testing Procedures. The Newsletter of the Association of Official Seed Analysts 60(2):2-66.

Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Greene, H.C., and J.T. Curtis. 1950. Germination Studies of Wisconsin Prairie Plants. American Midland Naturalist 43:186-194.

Gucker, Corey L. 2005. Galium boreale, G. triflorum. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, August 14].

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Dept of Interior and USDA, NRCS. Denver, CO.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Love, Askell, and Doris Love. 1954. Cytotaxonomical Studies on the Northern Bedstraw. American Midland Naturalist 52:88-105.

Maguire, James D., and Alvin Overland. 1959. Laboratory Germination of Seeds of Weedy and Native Plants. Washington State Agricultural Experiment Station Circular 349, Pullman, WA. 15 p.

Mohlenbrock, Robert H. undated. Western Wetland Flora: A Field Office Guide to Wetland Species. USDA, NRCS Western Region. Sacramento, CA.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Online at http://www.bcflora.org/ Accessed 1/1/06.

USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 2 August 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium