The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules and sympetalous actinomorphic flowers. The family contains about 13,500 species in about 620 genera, which makes it the fourth-largest angiosperm family. Rubiaceae has a cosmopolitan distribution; however, the largest species diversity is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics. Economically important genera include Coffea, the source of coffee, Cinchona, the source of the antimalarial alkaloid quinine, some dye plants, and ornamental cultivars.
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.
Galium mollugo, common name hedge bedstraw or false baby's breath, is a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Rubiaceae. It shares the name hedge bedstraw with the related European species, Galium album.
Galium palustre, the common marsh bedstraw or simply marsh-bedstraw, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae. This plant is widely distributed, native to virtually every country in Europe, plus Morocco, the Azores, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Western Siberia, Greenland, eastern Canada, St. Pierre & Miquelon, and parts of the United States. The species is classified as a noxious weed in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire. It is considered naturalized in Kamchatka, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina.
Galium boreale or northern bedstraw is a perennial plant species of the Rubiaceae family. It is widespread over the temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America including most of Canada and the northern United States.
Galium aparine, with common names including cleavers, clivers, catchweed and sticky willy among others, is an annual, herbaceous plant of the family Rubiaceae.
Galium trifidum is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family, known by the common name three-petal bedstraw. It grows widespread in the arctic, temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere: northern and central Asia, northern and eastern Europe and much of North America.
Galium aschenbornii is a species of flowering plant in the genus Galium, native to Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Ecuador.
Galium argense is a plant species in the Rubiaceae. It is endemic to California and native to Inyo and San Bernardino Counties. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants.
Galium fendleri, Fendler's bedstraw, is a plant species in the Rubiaceae. It has yellow flowers and is native to Sonora, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
Galium hallii is a species of plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is known only from southern California:. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants.
Galium mexicanum is a species of plant in the family Rubiaceae. It has a widespread distribution from British Columbia south to Ecuador.
Galium microphyllum is a species of plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is widespread across much of Mexico, and found also in Guatemala, Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas.
Galium obtusum, the bluntleaf bedstraw, is an herbaceous plant species in the family Rubiaceae. Bluntleaf bedstraw is a wildflower native to eastern Northern America.
Galium orizabense is a species of plants in the family Rubiaceae, named for the town of Orizaba in Veracruz, where the first collections of the species were made. The species is native to Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panamá, Venezuela, Colombia, and Hispaniola, plus widely scattered locations in the southeastern United States.
Galium pilosum, the hairy bedstraw, is a species of plants in the Rubiaceae. It is native to the southern and eastern United States and Canada from Texas to Florida north to Kansas, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec and New Hampshire. There are also isolated populations in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Hispaniola. The plant is classified as a noxious weed in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Galium proliferum is a species of plants in the Rubiaceae. It is native to southern California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Coahuila and Nuevo León.
Galium stellatum is a species of plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is widespread across most of Arizona, and found also in Baja California, Baja California Sur, southeastern California, Nevada, Utah. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants.
Galium tinctorium, the stiff marsh bedstraw, is a species of plants in the Rubiaceae. It is widespread and common across the eastern part of North America, from Texas to Labrador and from Minnesota to Florida, plus eastern and central Mexico and the Dominican Republic. It is classed as a noxious weed in some parts of the northeastern United States.
Galium wrightii, common name Wright's bedstraw, is a species of plants in the Rubiaceae. It is native to northwestern Mexico and southwestern United States: Sonora, Chihuahua, Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, southwestern Utah, southern Nevada and southeastern California In California, this plant is ranked as rare, threatened, or endangered in CA; common elsewhere.
