Galium pilosum

Galium pilosum
Photo taken by Kevin Robertson
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Order:	Rubiales
Family:	Rubiaceae
Genus:	Galium
Species:	G. pilosum
Binomial name
Galium pilosum Aiton
Natural range of Galium pilosum from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common name: hairy bedstraw

Description

Generally, Galium genus are "perennial or annual herbs, the stems weak, often scabrous; the roots often red or orange. Leaves whorled, entire. Flowers in simple or profusely branched cymes or the inflorescence reduced and the flowers 1-several and axillary; sepals usually obsolete, corolla rotate, 3-5 lobed; stamens 3-5. Fruit dry or sometimes fleshy, indehiscent, subglobose or reniform, or if the two carpels both develop and stay together the fruit broader than long." - Radford et al 1964

Specifically, for this species, G. pilosum are "perennial, the stems erect or ascending, unbranched except in the elongate inforescence, 3-8 dm tall, smooth, pilose. Leaves 4 per node, elliptic to weakly ovate, 1-2.5 cm long, 6-12 mm wide, mucronate, pilose-hispid, glandular-punctate beneath. Corolla white, greenish or shaded with maroon. Fruit dry, brown, or black, bristly, 2-3 mm long, 3-4 mm broad." - Radford et al 1964

Ecology

Habitat

This species has been found in wet flatwoods, mixed hardwoods, longleaf pine-wiregrass savannas, coastal and cabbage palm hammocks, river floodplains, rich woodlands, grassy and shrubby thickets, coastal dunes, sandy ridges, and near ponds (FSU Herbarium). They are found to grow in partial shade and under open canopies of pinewoods in well drained moist sandy soils, drying loamy sands, limestone outcrops, or dry loamy sands during drought (FSU Herbarium). They also have been observed growing in areas disturbed by humans such as picnic areas, along roadsides, in powerline corridors, along trails, on sand pine plantations,in borrow pits, on bulldozed areas, and in "battered" limestone glades (FSU Herbarium). Associated species includes Smallanthus, Schisandra, Collinsonia, Nyssa, Ulmus, Pinus, Quercus, Carya, Aristida stricta, Acer, Magnolia, Ilex, Aesculus, Pinus elliottii, Giallardia pulchella, and Quercus laevis. Also includes cabbage palm (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

This species has been observed flowering from June through August and October through November and fruiting from June through November (FSU Herbarium).

Fire ecology

This species can be found in annually burned pinelands (FSU Herbarium).

References and notes

Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: June 2014. Collectors: Loran C. Anderson, R.K. Godfrey, Robert Kral, Cecil R Slaughter, Gil Nelson, W. H. Lewis, R. A. Norris, R. F. Doren, Chris Cooksey, R. Komarek, M. Davis, Lisa Keppner, Thomas E. Miller, C. Jackson, Gwynn W. Ramsey, R. S. Mitchell, H. Larry Stripling, Mabel Kral, and Wilson Baker. States and Counties: Florida: Citrus, Clay, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Hernando, Jackson, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Nassau, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Suwannee, Wakulla, and Washington. Georgia: Grady and Thomas.

Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 984-6. Print.