NORTHERN BEDSTRAW 



Galium boreale L. 

 MADDER FAMILY 



The Northern Bedstraw is a common plant from Quebec to 

 Alaska and southward across the international boundary. But 

 it is most abundant and reaches its highest floral development 

 in the northern part of its range, blooming over quite an extended 

 period in June and July. Woods and thickets, gravelly roadsides, 

 railway embankments, and rocky hillsides are made beautiful 

 by its light clouds of tiny four-parted blossoms, and the passing 

 air is sweetened by its fragrant breath. Wild Baby's Breath 

 would seem to be a more appropriate name for this dainty flower. 



In the woods the Northern Bedstraw grows thirty inches high 

 with large, open panicles of white flowers. In the open the height 

 is reduced to eighteen inches or less, the stems are stouter and 

 more erect, and the flower clusters more compact. The plants 

 pictured on the opposite page grew in dry soil in full sunshine, 

 and were fifteen inches high. It will be noticed that the stems 

 are square, and the narrow leaves borne in fours. The flowers 

 are followed by small bristly-hairy burrs. 



Several other kinds of bedstraws are found in Canada. All 

 have small, often inconspicuous flowers, and all have their leaves 

 arranged in whorls of four to eight. The stems of the Sweet- 

 scented Bedstraw a woodland species with leaves in sixes and 

 greenish flowers in threes are soft and weak, and when dried 

 make a comfortable and fragrant camp bed. Other weak-stemmed 

 species are usually, furnished with stiff, deflexed hairs or bristles 

 on the angles of their stems and on the edges and midveins of 

 their leaves to enable them to scramble over stronger neighbors. 

 The burrs of many species have hooked bristles which cling to 

 passing animals or men, and in this way they become widely 

 distributed. 



52 



