Family: bedstraws (Rubiaceae)
Flowering time: May–August
Size: 15–50 cm
Habitat: moist meadows, bogs, open forests and scrubby slopes
The erect stem of northern bedstraw (Galium boreale) is four-angled. Its linear to lanceolate leaves are three-veined. Usually four are arranged in each whorl. The leaves are blunt at the tips; they have no point at the apex; they are 2 to 8 mm wide. Small, white, four-merous flowers form a dense, many-flowered inflorescence at the top of the shoots. The stamens are yellow. Its fruits are usually hard-shelled.
Northern bedstraw grows on moderately fertile, rather moist humus-rich soils in cooler locations. It is scattered across almost all of Slovenia; in the interior of the country it is more common, whereas in Primorje, Pomurje, and in the far eastern part of Slovenia it has not been found.
