Galium maritimum

Galium maritimum is a perennial herb in the family Rubiaceae native to the western Mediterranean basin, including southern France, the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and parts of North Africa, where it grows on coastal sands, maritime rocks, cliffs and dry sunny scrub on calcareous or siliceous substrates. The slender, often woody-based stems are square in cross-section and 10–40 cm long, forming low cushions or sprawling mats. Leaves are linear to lanceolate and arranged in characteristic whorls of 6–8 along the stem, with somewhat fleshy or revolute margins adapted to dry coastal conditions. Small white four-lobed flowers are borne in terminal panicles in late spring and summer, followed by dry, two-lobed schizocarpic fruits typical of the bedstraw genus. The species is part of the morphologically variable Galium section Leiogalium.