Plant Species: Galium triflorum, fragrant bedstraw
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons
Order: Rubiales
Family: Rubiaceae -- madder
Genus: Galium
Species: triflorum
Variety:
Common Name: fragrant bedstraw, sweetscented bedstraw
Species Code: GATR3
Origin: Native to moist thickets and forests with partial shade over much of North America. Circumboreal, extending into Europe and Asia.
Rare: no
Form: forb, perennial, 20-80 cm tall, rhizomatous; stems square, with retrorse hooks on the edges, prostrate to ascending, simple or few branched.
Duration: perennial
Longevity:
Habitat Type: shrub thickets, forest
Wetland Indicator Status: FACU
Leaves: vanilla scented, 5-6 to a whorl (sometimes only 4 on the smaller stems), elliptic to oblanceolate, cuspidate, 1.5-4.5 cm long; margins short-hairy.
Mature height: 8-32 inches
Flowers: perfect (or sometimes with sterile stamens or pistils, being functionally dioecious), usually 3 at the end of axillary peduncles; corolla rotate, 4-lobed, 2-3 mm wide, white; calyx obsolete.
Flower color: white
Bloom: May, June, July, August
Bloom starts on: late May
Bloom ends on: early August
Fruit: 2 nutlets, 1.5-2.5 mm long, covered with short, hooked bristles.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
Circumboreal.
Flowers are usually perfect but may have either sterile stamens or sterile anthers and thus are functionally dioecious.
Fruit is a nutlet.
x=11 (University of British Columbia 2003).
2n=22,44,66 (Baldwin et al 2004).
Polyploidy exists in the species.
Seeds can be roasted, ground, and used like coffee and a yellow dye can be obtained from the roots (Patterson et al 1985).
Native peoples used the plant medicinally (Moerman 2003).
Comments:
Sun requirement: partial sun to full shade
Soil moisture: mesic
Precipitation:
Fire: Sprouts from surviving rhizomes. Susceptible to fire-kill. Usually a sharp decrease following severe fire. Can increase following spring and fall fires (Gucker 2005).
Hazards:
Sowing time: no information available
Transplant time: no information available
Stratification: no information available
Seed yield: low
Seed harvest: no information available
Seed first harvest: no information available
Seed cleaning: no information available
Planting duration: no information available
Seed insect problem: no information available
Seed shatter: no information available
Seed size: no information available
Seed harvest date: no information available
Seed comments: Seeds stick to animal fur and clothing and can thus be transported long distances
Key words: perennial native upland forb
Alternate Genus:
Alternate Species:
Alternate Variety:
Propagation:
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
No other information is available.
Notes:
References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 9/12/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html
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, September 12].
Moerman, Dan. 2003. Native American Ethnobotany: a Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes and Fibers of Native American Peoples, Derived from Plants. University of Michigan-Dearborn. Online at http://herb.umd.umich.edu/ Accessed 1/3/09.
Patterson, Patricia A, Kenneth E. Neiman, and Jonalea R. Tonn. 1985. Field Guide to Forest Plants of Northern Idaho. USDA Forest Service Intermountain Research Station. General Technical Report INT-180. Ogden, Utah.
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.