Slender crosswort
Cruciata glabra
Family · Rubiaceae · Harmless
The plant with leaves in crosses of four and tiny honey-scented yellow flowers, carpeting wood edges and mountain banks in spring. It is a cousin of lady's bedstraw, with the same design on a smaller scale.
Oak woods · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground · Streams and ditches
Also known assmooth bedstraw
How to tell it
Oval leaves set in whorls of four, forming crosses along the stem, which gives the name. Tiny yellow flowers in small groups at the axils, sweetly scented. A four-angled stem, smooth or barely hairy.
What it is confused with
Lady's bedstraw
Galium verum
Count the leaves in the whorl: four on crosswort, eight to twelve on lady's bedstraw. And crosswort's leaves are oval and broad, bedstraw's are needle-fine.
What it is for
No relevant use
It is worth it as company to lady's bedstraw and shining bedstraw: the three show well that the family is recognised by whorled leaves and a four-angled stem long before you know the species.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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