Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Gentianales Juss. ex Bercht. & J.Presl
Family
Rubiaceae
Genus
Galium L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Galium perpusillum (Hook.f.) Allan, Fl. New Zealand 1, 592-593 (1961)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Asperula perpusilla Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 114 (1853)
Vernacular Name(s):
Dwarf bedstraw
 Description

Perennial, sometimes cushion-forming; stems slender, prostrate, decumbent or erect, angular, glabrous or slightly hairy, < 10–(12) cm long. Lvs and stipules in whorls of 4, sessile, rather close and often imbricate, sessile or subsessile; lamina 1.3–4–(5) × 0.5–1–(1.3) mm, narrowly lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic, ± shining above, usually glabrous except for the often ciliolate margins and sometimes sparsely ciliolate midrib; apex usually mucronate to cuspidate. Fls axillary and terminal, solitary, generally unisexual. ♂ fls on pedicels to c. 3 mm long; ♀ fls subsessile or sessile; bracts 0. Corolla whitish or creamy yellow; tube 0.3–1–(1.5) mm long; limb (1.5)–2–3.5 mm diam.; lobes ± oblong, acute or subacute. Mericarps c. 2 mm diam., globose, glabrous, papillate.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Feb.

 Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Heenan, P.B.; Given, D.R.; Norton, D.A.; Ogle, C.C.; Johnson, P.N.; Cameron, E.K. 1999: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 37: 603–628.
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76. [as Galium aff. perpusillum (CHR 476063; Kaitorete)]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Not Threatened]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Not Threatened]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.