Galium bifolium

Low mountain bedstraw

Family: Rubiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Low mountain bedstraw is a California native annual found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, California Ranges, Sierra Nevada, Transverse Ranges, Modoc Plateau, northern Sierra Nevada, and Desert Mountains in open conifer forest, gravelly slopes, and meadows at elevations of 1,500 to 3,700 meters. Flowering from June to September, this delicate plant produces small white flowers with 3 ovate lobes on thin, nodding pedicels. Growing erect with few branches, the plant reaches 5 to 15 centimeters tall with a slender, glabrous structure. Its leaves are arranged in whorls of 4 or in 2 unequal pairs, with lanceolate to narrowly elliptic blades 10 to 21 millimeters long. The plant produces small nutlets with short, hooked hairs, characteristic of the bedstraw genus.

Habitat: Open conifer forest, gravelly slopes, meadows

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: 1500-3700 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, NCoRI, CaRH, SNH, WTR, MP, n SNE (Bodie Hills), DMtns (Cottonwood Mtns)

California counties: Fresno, Tulare, Mono, Mariposa, Siskiyou, San Bernardino, Kern, Tehama, Madera, Los Angeles, Calaveras, Nevada, Ventura, Amador, Placer, Inyo, Butte, El Dorado, Lassen, Plumas, Trinity, Tuolumne, Lake, Modoc, Glenn, Sierra, Shasta, Humboldt, Colusa, Alpine, Mendocino

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.