Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, meadows. Summer.
West Mancos Trail, June 27, 2004.

Northern Bedstraw is a common plant with a slender, erect stem, a whorl of four leaves per node, and sprays of tiny flowers.  In mid-summer the flower clusters have an intensely sweet smell. The plant is often called "Cleavers" because it cleaves to clothes with its many barbed hairs. Its look-alike close cousin, Galium triflorum, has weak, sprawling stems.

"Gala" is Greek for milk (as in our "Galaxy", the "Milky Way") and refers to Northern Bedstraw’s bad habit of curdling the milk of cattle.  "Septentrionale" is Latin for "Northern".  "Boreale" is Greek for "northern".

This plant was first named Galium boreale by Linnaeus in 1753 from Eurasian specimens, but Weber indicates that the Eurasian species differs from our species and thus should be given Roemer and Schultes' 1818 designation of Galium septentrionale.

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, meadows. Summer.
West Mancos Trail, June 27, 2004.

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, meadows. Summer.
Lone Mesa State Park, July 9, 2008.