False baby's breath (Galium mollugo)

Common Names: Smooth bedstraw, white bedstraw

Description: Short, leafy offshoots produced in summer to fall.

Habit: More or less erect perennial; 12-48 in tall forb; many weak branches rising from a curving base.

Leaves: Whorls of 6 or 8, widest above the middle, oblong.

Stems: Weak; erect; upright.

Flowers: White in color, 4-parted, 1/8 in wide, stalks usually longer than the flower is wide, inflorescence is a many-flowered, terminal, showy, often widely-branched cluster.

Fruit and seeds: Smooth seeds, viable for about a year, dispersed via birds, sheep, water and contaminated crop seeds.

Habitat: Found in frequently-mowed hay fields of low soil fertility and low pH; prefers calcium-rich, neutral soils.

Reproduction: By seed.

Similar species: Northern bedstraw (Galium boreale) and Stickywilly (Galium aparine).

Monitoring and rapid response: Mowing and herbicides.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the USDA PLANTS Database and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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