GALIUM TRICORNUTUM

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

Common Names:- Corn cleavers.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Galium pisiferum, Galium tricorne

Meaning:- Galium (Gr) Milk.

Tricornutum (L) With three horns.

General description:- Annual.

Stems:-

1) 10-80(-100) cm, scrambling, stout, retrorsely aculeolate, scabrous, without

straight hairs below and above the nodes.

Leaves:-

1) 10-40 x 2·5-8 mm, in whorls of 6-8, narrowly oblanceolate, long-awned, glabrous,

above, the margin and midrib retrorsely scabrid); margins revolute.

Flower:-

1) Inflorescence, long;

a) partial inflorescences, (1-)3- to 5(-7)-flowered, scarcely longer than the leaves;

2) Lower peduncles, (5-)8-15(-20) mm.

3) Pedicels, 1-8 mm, curved distinctly inwards and downwards after flowering.

4) Flowers, hermaphrodite, the lateral often male.

5) Corolla, 1-1·7 mm diam. glabrous, white;

a) lobes, long, acute.

Fruit:-

1) Mericarps, 3-4(-5) mm, densely covered with small, acute papillae.

Key features:-

1) Leaf-margin, retrorsely aculeolate; leaves glabrous above.

2) Fruits, more than 2 mm. verrucose.

3) Peduncles and pedicels, convergent and deflexed after anthesis,

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- A weed of traditional argiculture, with Ranuculus arvensis, Biflora

testiculata, Agrostema githargo, etc. occasionally in gorges and open woodland. 0-

1200 m.

Distribution:- Throughout mainland Greece. - Mediterranean region and SW Asia.

Somewhat sparsely scattered across Crete not common.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton