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Photographer: Gary Fewless
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Family Rubiaceae
Galium mollugo L.
false baby's-breath, white bedstraw, wild madder
Galium: from Greek word gala, "milk," and alluding to the fact that certain species were used to curdle milk
mollugo: an old name for the genus Galium and transferred to this genus in the family Aizoaceae possibly because of the similarly whorled leaves, and now placed by Jepson in its own family, the Molluginaceae or carpet-weed family
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| Status: | Introduced - locally established |
| Plant: | more or less erect perennial, 12"-48" tall forb, many weak branches rising from a curving base |
| Flower: | white, 4-parted, 1/8" wide, stalks usually longer than the flower is wide; inflorescence a many-flowered, terminal, showy, often widely-branched cluster |
| Fruit: | smooth |
| Leaf: | whorls of 6 or 8, widest above the middle, oblong |
| Notes: | short, leafy offshoots produced in summer to fall |
| (Glossary) |
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