Colors

Data mode

Account

Login
Sign up

Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Key to Galium, Key C: Bedstraws with leaves mostly 8 or more per node (ranging from 5-12)

Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key

1 Leaves 8-12 per whorl (many whorls with > 8 leaves); flowers bright yellow, in a large showy terminal compound inflorescence; fruits glabrous; perennial.
  2 Flowers golden-yellow, fragrant; inflorescence dense, usually not interrupted
  2 Flowers lemon-yellow, odorless; inflorescence interrupted
1 Leaves (5-) 8 (-10) per whorl (few if any whorls with > 8 leaves); flowers white or greenish, in a terminal compound inflorescence or in small axillary inflorescences; fruits glabrous, papillose, or uncinate-hispid; annual or perennial.
    3 Stems retrorsely scabrous; annual.
      4 Fruits and ovaries sharply papillose; flowers and fruits mainly in clusters of 3
      4 Fruits and ovaries smooth or with hooked bristles; flowers and fruits mainly in clusters of 2-5.
        5 Flowers white, 2-3.5 mm in diameter; pollen grains 25-30 microns (μ) in polar diameter; fruits usually 2.8-4 mm long (excluding the bristles when present) but occasionally smaller; fruits with bristles (very rarely smooth), the bristles with bulbous bases; stem nodes usually tomentose but sometimes almost glabrous; leaves linear-oblanceolate, lax, to 50 mm long and 5 mm wide
        5 Flowers greenish-yellow, 0.8-1.5 mm in diameter; pollen grains to 24 microns (μ) in polar diameter; fruits 1.5-2.8 mm long (excluding the bristles, when present); fruits smooth or with bristles, the bristles wider at the base but not bulbous; stem nodes glabrous or lightly pubescent; leaves narrow, linear-lanceolate, mucronate, firm textured, to 40 mm long and 3 mm wide
    3 Stems glabrous or pubescent, but not scabrous; perennial.
          6 Fruits and ovaries uncinate-hispid; nodes bearded, the stem otherwise glabrous; [section Hylaea]
          6 Fruits and ovaries glabrous; nodes not bearded, the stem either glabrous or pubescent toward the base of the plant.
             7 Corolla 3-5 mm across, the pedicels usually shorter than the width of the corolla; inflorescence branches ascending, mostly at < 45 degrees
             7 Corolla 2-3 mm across, the pedicels usually longer than the width of the corolla; inflorescence branches spreading, mostly at > 45 degrees
Cite as...