Galium curvihirtum
Ehrend. & McGill.Prostrate, scrambling or rarely loosely caespitose biennial or perennial; stems slender, mostly 20–40 cm long, usually with tiny retrorse prickles, sometimes with spreading or retrorse hairs, or glabrous. Leaves and stipules subsessile, c. equal, in whorls of 4, linear-lanceolate to narrow-elliptic, mostly 4–12 mm long and 1–2 mm wide, acute to acuminate, upper surface with few–many spreading hairs, lower surface usually glabrous except for hairs on midrib and the strongly recurved to revolute margins. Inflorescences 3(–5)-flowered, lower inflorescences often exceeding whorls, becoming equal to or shorter than whorls upwards; peduncles mostly 1–6 mm long; pedicels 0.5–2.5 mm long, straight or curved. Corolla to c. 1 mm long, white to cream. Fruit depressed-globose, (1.1–)1.3–1.8 mm long; mericarps reniform, touching one another, densely covered with short curved, usually whitish hairs. Flowers Oct.–Mar.
Wim, GleP, VVP, CVU, GGr, DunT, EGL, EGU, HNF, VAlp. Also SA, NSW. In Victoria apparently confined to the south-west, usually in open-forest and woodland. Also recorded at a few sites in eastern Victoria, which Thompson (2009) thought might be recent introductions. However, given that at least some of the records come from high quality vegetation suggests that the species is also native to eastern Victoria.
Jeanes, J.A. (1999). Rubiaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 616–642. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
SpinningThompson, I.R. (2009). A revision of Asperula and Galium (Rubieae: Rubiaceae) in Australia. Muelleria 27(1): 36–116.
