Asperula tinctoria, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 13

55. A. tinctoria L. , Sp. Pl. 104 (1753)

( Galium triandrum Hyl. ).

Stock with more or less horizontal, orange stolons; plants usually blackening on drying. Stems (20-)25-80 cm, erect, robust, more or less branched from the base, 4-angled, mostly glabrous. Leaves in whorls of 4-6(-7), 25-40(-50) x 1-2—3(—3-3) mm, lanceolate to linear, obtuse or acute, more or less 3-veined, glabrous or shortly hairy on the veins; margin with fine scabridity in several rows. Inflorescence broadly ovoid; partial inflorescences laxly cymose, with some ovate to elliptical, obtuse to acute, eciliate or shortly ciliate bracts; pedicels 0-2-5 mm. Flowers 3-merous; corolla (2-)3-4(-4-5) mm, narrowly infundibuliform, white; tube 1-2-2-5 mm; lobes (0-8-)l-2mm, somewhat longer than wide, glabrous or shortly hairy. Filaments 0-4-0-5 mm; anthers 0-5-0-6 mm, yellowish. Fruit 1-5-2 mm, glabrous, finely granulate. 2л = 22, 44. From N.C. France and S. Scandinavia southwards to C. Italy, S.W. Bulgaria and S. Ural. Au Bu Cz *Da *Fe Ga Ge He Hu It Ju No Po Rm Rs (B, C, W, E) Su.

Very variable in colour on drying, in branching, and in leafshape and inflorescence; the typical plants have glabrous, ovate and obtuse bracts.

The relationship of this variability to the diploid and tetraploid condition remains to be studied. A. hungarorum Borbas , Term. Fiiz. 19: 223 (1896) ( A. ciliata Rochel , non Moench, A. banatica J. Holub ), recorded from various parts of E.C. and S.E. Europe, is constantly black on drying and has relatively wide lanceolate leaves and ciliate, distinctly acute bracts; its status is uncertain, but it seems to be the most distinct of the variants. Sect, asperula . Annuals. Leaves mostly in whorls of 6-8, 1-veined, rounded at apex. Partial inflorescences capitate, en­ veloped by leaf-like, long-ciliate bracts. Corolla 4-merous, hypocrateriform, bluish-violet (rarely whitish), papillose-puberulent outside. Ovary and fruit more or less globose, smooth, glabrous.