Galium
White bedstraw ( Galium album )
The Labkräuter ( Galium ) are a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae ( Rubiaceae ). There are about 250 to 400 species, most of them in the temperate climate of the northern and southern hemispheres.
Description
The Galium species are annual to perennial herbaceous plants, rare dwarf shrubs. The upright or climbing stems are, at least as long as they are young, square. Most three to nine leaves are borne in whorls. Often, the stipules are shaped like the leaves, the leaf whorl looks vielblättrig (four to twelve) from. Leaves and stipules can be fused together. The leaf margins are smooth or serrated. The leaves are petiolate or sessile.
The flowers are borne singly or too many in a simple or branched, zymösen inflorescence. The small, hermaphrodite, radial symmetry flowers are usually cruciform, rarely three or fünfzählig. There are usually four, sometimes three or five sepals present, but often the cup is formed only rudimentary. The most four, rarely three or five usually white or yellow petals are fused funnel-shaped. It's just a circle of usually four, rarely three fertile stamens present. Two carpels are a inferior ovary adherent to one ovule per ovary chamber. The original two stylus are up to here free or fused, but then with two distinct scars branches. It is a discus available. Pollination is mostly by insects ( entomophily ).
The gap fruits fall into two part -seeded fruits. The seeds can be winged.
Name
The name bedstraw goes back to its use as a souring agent in cheese production. Even the scientific name Galium ( from Greek: gala = milk) derives from it.
System
The genus Galium L. stands in the subtribe Rubiinae the tribe Rubieae the subfamily Rubioideae Verdc. from the family of Rubiaceae ( Rubiaceae ). It is divided into sections (selection):
Species
In Europe, there are the following species in the genus Labkräuter ( Galium ):
- Galium abaujense
- Galium album abaujense ×
- Galium aetnicum
- White bedstraw ( Galium album ): Galium album subsp. album
- Galium album subsp. prusense
- Galium album subsp. pycnotrichum
- Galium canum subsp. canum
- Galium canum subsp. ovatum
- Galium incanum subsp. creticum
- Galium verum subsp. verum
- Galium verum subsp. wirtgenii
Galium species from other parts of the world:
- Galium andrewsii
- Galium angulosum
- Galium angustifolium
- Galium arkansanum
- Galium asprellum
- Galium australe
- Galium azuayicum
- Galium bifolium
- Galium bolanderi
- Galium buxifolium
- Galium californicum
- Galium clementis
- Galium ciliary
- Galium circaezans
- Galium concinnum
- Galium constrictum
- Galium corrudaefolium
- Galium ecuadoricum
- Galium firmum
- Galium flaccidum
- Galium fleurotii
- Galium fosbergii
- Galium gaudichaudii
- Galium grande
- Galium grayanum
- Galium hypocarpium
- Galium kamtschaticum
- Galium labradoricum
- Galium lanceolatum
- Galium longifolium
- Galium matthewsii
- Galium mexicanum
- Galium migrans
- Galium nigroramosum
- Galium normanii
- Galium obliquum
- Galium obtusum
- Galium oelandicum
- Galium olympicum
- Galium pilosum
- Galium porrigens
- Galium ruwenzoriense
- Galium rubioides
- Galium rubrum
- Galium tinctorium
- Three-column bedstraw ( Galium trifidum )
Ingredients and use
The members of this genus contain the rennet. From the roots were previously obtained similar to the related dyers madder red color for textiles.
Swell
- H.R. Coleman: Galium in the Western Australian Flora: Online.