Scotch mist

Galium sylvaticum, the wood bedstraw or Scotch mist, is a slender perennial herb in the family Rubiaceae native to woodlands of central and southeastern Europe, with naturalized populations in parts of Britain and northern Europe. Plants reach 40-120 cm in height, with smooth, weak, square stems that often arch outward and a creeping rhizomatous base from which several shoots emerge. The leaves are arranged in whorls of 6-8 around the stem, each leaf lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 15-35 mm long and 2-8 mm wide, with a single midvein, an acute tip, glabrous surfaces, and slightly rough margins. The inflorescence is a very large diffuse terminal and axillary panicle of many tiny flowers, each on a slender pedicel and giving the plant a misty, gauzy appearance — hence the English name Scotch mist. Individual flowers are 2-3 mm across with four white petals fused at the base into a short tube. Flowering occurs from June to August. The fruit is a small dry two-lobed schizocarp 1.5-2 mm across, glabrous, separating into two one-seeded mericarps. The species inhabits damp shaded broadleaf forests, woodland glades, and shaded streamsides on rich neutral soils.