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Galium hardhamae (Galium hardhamae)

Description

Galium hardhamae (often misspelled "Galium hardhamiae") (note added May 2014: "hardhamiae" is the correct spelling per Article 60C1 of the ICN) is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family known by the common name Hardham's bedstraw. It is endemic to the Santa Lucia Range of southern Monterey County and northern San Luis Obispo County in California. It is a member of the serpentine soils flora in these coastal mountains. This is a perennial herb forming mats or clumps of stems no more than 30 centimeters long. The stems have many whorls of six fleshy green leaves, each leaf just 1 to 3 millimeters long. The inflorescences, clusters of yellow-green to pinkish flowers, appear in leaf axils. Galium is a large genus of annual and perennial herbaceous plants in the family Rubiaceae, occurring in the temperate zones of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Some species are informally known as bedstraw. There are over 600 species of Galium, with estimates of 629 to 650 as of 2013. The field madder, Sherardia arvensis, is a close relative and may be confused with a tiny bedstraw. Asperula is also a closely related genus; some species of Galium (such as woodruff, G. odoratum) are occasionally placed therein.

Taxonomic tree

  • Domain: Eukarya

    • Kingdom: Plantae

      • Phylum:

        • Class: Magnoliopsida

          • Order: Gentianales

            • Family: Rubiaceae

              • Genus: Galium