Galium
Flowers of Galium aparine
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Gentianales
Family:	Rubiaceae
Subfamily:	Rubioideae
Tribe:	Rubieae
Genus:	Galium L.
Species
About 400; see text

Galium is a large genus of annual and perennial herbaceous plants in the family Rubiaceae, with about 400 species occurring in the temperate zones of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Most species are known as bedstraw.

The Field Madder (Sherardia arvensis) is a close relative and may be confused with a tiny bedstraw. Asperula is also a closely related genus; some species of Galium (such as woodruff) are occasionally placed therein.

Bedstraws are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. See list of Lepidoptera that feed on Galium.

[edit] Uses

Galium, or Ladies' straw, was used as a red dye during Anglo-Saxon times in England. (see Anglo-Saxon Crafts by Kevin Leahy, p75-76)

[edit] Selected species

Galium truniacum

[edit] External links

• Media related to Galium at Wikimedia Commons
• Information related to Galium from Wikispecies.
• UniProt. "Genus Galium" (HTML). http://beta.uniprot.org/taxonomy/25168. Retrieved 2008-05-07. 

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