Galium humifusum, Bieb.

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 : 22

23. G. humifusum Bieb. , Fl. Taur.-Cauc. 1:104 (1808)

( Asperula humifusa (Bieb.) Besser ).

Stems 40-150 cm, decumbent to ascending, usually branched from the base, 4-angled, hairy especially below, rarely glabrescent. Leaves 10-22 x(l*2-)l *5-4 mm, in whorls of (5-)6-7(-9), lanceolate to linear, acute or shortly awned, sparsely hairy and shining above, lighter and often hairy on the midrib beneath; margin slightly recurved, scabrid with antrorsely directed teeth. Inflorescence ovoid-elongate; partial inflorescences dense-flowered, leafy; pedicels 1-4 mm, divaricate, usually glabrous or slightly hairy. Corolla 1*5-2 mm, infundibuliform, white to yellowish-white; corolla-lobes slightly longer than wide, acute. Fruit glabrous. Damp, bushy places. S.E. Europe, extending northwards to c. 51° N. in S.C. Russia. Bu Gr Rm Rs (C, W, K, E) [Hu]. Very variable; the correctness of the recognition of some variants as species, e.g. Asperula debilis Ledeb. , Ind. Sem. Horti Dorpat., Suppl. 2 (1824), A. besserana Klokov in Kotov, Fl. RSS Ucr. 10: 456 (1961) and A. cincinnata Klokov , loc. cit. (1961) is very doubtful.