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Other Names:
Scientific Name: Galium spp.
Plant Family: Rubiaceae
Botanical Description: This herbaceous weed has three common species. Rough bedstraw (Galium asprellum Michx.) and catchweed bedstraw (Galium aparine L.) have hairy, prickly stems. Fragrant bedstraw (Galium triflorum Michx.) has smoother stems and emits a sweet fragrance when dry.
Stems: 1 - 3 feet long, square, weak, sprawling; two species have stem edges bearing a row of downward-pointing stiff bristles
Leaves: narrow, may be rough and bristle-pointed, 4 - 8 leaves whorled around each stem joint, may be dull or purple-tinted underneath
Roots: single thin root which branches slightly 1 - 2 inches below soil surface
Flowers: very small, white, with four petals, borne on slender branches attached at the joints of the stems, bloom June - August
Seeds: Seed pod is in two nearly spherical halves, covered with stiff bristles. Seed is ball-shaped with deep pit in one side and tiny sharp spines 1/8 inch long on outer surface.
Seedling: Seed leaves range between 0.5 and 1.25 inches long and are often covered with tiny hairs. Subsequent leaves grow in whorls of 4 - 8 around an increasingly hairy stem at joints 1 inch or more apart. (Rough bedstraw has a much smaller seedling, with leaves less than 0.25 inches even on the second and third whorl. Leaf whorls are also much closer together.)
Bedstraw stems become entangled in cranberry vines.
Reproduction: annual
Propagation: seed
Dispersal: carried by humans, animals
State: Found throughout Wisconsin.
National: Species of bedstraw are found throughout most of the continental United States.
Origin: native of Eurasia
Found on moist land in meadows, pastures, woodlands, wetlands and fence rows. May grow along cranberry bed edges and center ditches.
While scouting a cranberry bed for disease and insect pests, identify weed populations as they arise. Note the specie(s) of weed present as well as the population level relative to field area. Example: 10% bedstraw, 20% boneset and joe-pye weed mix.
Kummer, A. P. 1951. Weed Seedlings. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, U.S.A. p 288-90.
Kummer, L. D., T. G. Dittl, and T. D. Planer. 1993. Wisconsin Cranberry Weeds. Wisconsin Cranberry Board, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. p. 3.
Lorenzi, H. J. and L. S. Jeffery. 1987. Weeds of the United States and Their Control. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, New York. p. 281.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1981. Weeds of the North Central States: North Central Regional Research Publication No. 281. College of Agriculture, Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 772. p. 174.