Galium divaricatum Lam.

Annual; stems slender or filiform, much-branched, obtusely 4-angled, scabridulous, forming tangled masses to c. 30 cm long; rootstock slender. Lvs and stipules in whorls of 6, sessile, 2–9–(11) × 0.5–1.5–(2) mm, linear-lanceolate, narrow-elliptic, or oblanceolate, shining, usually revolute; margins and sometimes midrib beneath, as well as upper surface, densely antrorsely scabridulous; apex mucronate or shortly awned. Fls axillary and terminal, forming a rather narrow, loose panicle; cymes few-flowered, divaricating, glabrous or nearly so, subtended by leaflike bracts; peduncles long, filiform; pedicels < peduncles, to 3 mm long, ± deflexed at fruiting. Corolla 0.4–1 mm diam., greenish inside, reddish outside; lobes ovate, acute. Mericarps 0.5–1–(1.3) mm diam., subglobose to reniform, finely papillate, occasionally sparsely clothed in appressed hairs.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]

Flowering: Nov.–Apr.