Fen Bedstraw - Galium uliginosum
Short to tall hairless plant with rooting rhizomes. Stems square with downturned prickles on the angles. Leaves lanceolate to linear lanceolate in whorls of 6 to 10 with a prickly margin and one veined; leaf-apices mucronate or apiculate. Flowers white with yellow anthers borne in a narrow panicle.
Marsh Bedstraw Galium palustre has obtuse or acute leaves, but never mucronate or apiculate
Provide a photo of the whole plant in its habitat, and a close up of leaves showing leaf-apex
Wet habitats, marshes and fens.
June to August.
Perennial.
Widespread and fairly common in much of Britain.
Occasional in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 38 of the 617 tetrads.
David Gould
Aylestone Meadows, Spearwort Fields
12 October 2019
David Gould
Aylestone Meadows, Spearwort Fields
12 October 2019
mucronate or apiculate leaves
David Gould
Aylestone Meadows, Spearwort Fields
12 October 2019
papillose fruits c.1mm
David Gould
Aylestone Meadows, Spearwort Fields
12 October 2019
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Species profile
- Common names
- Fen Bedstraw
- Species group:
- flowering plant
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Gentianales
- Family:
- Rubiaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 13
- First record:
- 12/10/2019 (Gould, David)
- Last record:
- 12/07/2023 (Hamzaoui, Uta)
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Puccinia galii-verni
Puccinia galii-verni is a fungus which galls Bedstraws (Lady's Bedstraw, Heath Bedstraw, Fen Bedstraw) and rarely Crosswort. It usually affects the stem or underside of leaves, producing small orange-brown swellings with brown telia. There is no host alternation, and only telia are produced.