Galium porrigens is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family known by the common names graceful bedstraw and climbing bedstraw. It is native to the west coast of North America from Oregon to Baja California.[1][2]

Galium porrigens
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Genus: Galium
Species:
G. porrigens
Binomial name
Galium porrigens
Synonyms[1]
  • Galium nuttallii var. ovalifolium Dempster 1958, not G. ovalifolium Schott f. ex Schult. 1827
  • Galium nuttallii subsp. ovalifolium (Dempster) Dempster & Stebbins

Galium porrigens can be found in many habitats from forest to coastal shrubland, and is often a member of the chaparral plant community. This is a small, woody perennial herb with climbing stems. It is covered in tiny prickly hairs which help it climb and hang. Leaves are arranged in whorls of four about the thin stems. The tiny leaves are oval-shaped, pointed, and green, often with red or purple tips and edges. The plant is dioecious, with male plants producing clusters of staminate flowers and female individuals producing solitary flowers at the leaf axils. Both types of flower are yellowish to reddish. The fruit is a berry.[3][4]

Varieties

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Two varieties are recognized as of May 2014:[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. ^ Biota of North America Program
  3. ^ Dempster, Lauramay Tinsley. 1974. Madroño 22(6): 313, Galium porrigens
  4. ^ Hickman, J. C. 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California 1–1400. University of California Press, Berkeley.
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