GALIUM SETACAUM

Family and Genus:- See- RUBIACEAE/Sect. JUBOGALIUM

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Galium (Gr) Milk.

Setaceum (L) Bristly, with bristles or stiff hairs

General description:- Slender annual, often branched from the base

Stems:-

1) (2·5-)5-30(-35) cm, slender, more or less erect, anretrorsely aculeolate or

glabrous, shortly scabridulous on the angles.

Leaves:-

1) 5-17(-20) x 0·4-0·9 mm, in whorls of (4-)6-8(-10), narrowly linear to filiform,

glabrous or sparsely hairy; margins, somewhat recurved, papilliform, teeth.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, consisting of 4~6-flowered, corymbose cymes.

2) Pedicels, 1-3 mm., usually overtopped by filiform bracts.

3) Bracts, 3-5 mm, filiform to linear. with hooked hairs on the upper surface,

4) Corolla, c. 0·5 mm in diam, purple;

a) lobes, apiculate.

Fruit:-

1) Mericarps, 0.5-0.8 mm, broadly reniform, usually densely covered with patent,

uncinate hairs, occasionally glabrous and somewhat rugose.

Key features:-

1) Peduncles, mostly longer than pedicels.

2) Partial inflorescences, many-flowered.

3) Bracts, ± exceeding the partial inflorescences, filiform to linear.

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Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, dry grassland, open deciduous oak

woodland, gravelly habitats and fallow fields. 0-700(-1000) m.

Distribution:- Throughout Peloponnisos and mainland Greece, but rare in the

interior and west. - Widespread in the Mediterranean region and SW Asia. Fairly

widespread across Crete.

Flowering time:- Late Mar-June.

Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis