Galium sterneri, Ehrend.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 32

109. G. sterneri Ehrend. , Sitz-Ber. Akad. Wiss. Wien (Math.- Nat. Kl., Abt. I) 169: 420 (1960).

Plant usually dark to blackish when dry, caespitose, with many non-flowering stems at anthesis. Stems (5—)8—15(—25) cm, ascending, slender, usually glabrous, rarely with patent hairs, often red at the base; middle internodes 2-5 cm, usually 2-3| times as long as the leaves. Leaves (5—)7—11 (-15) x 0-9-1 -6(-2-3) mm, in whorls of (6-)7-8(-10), 6 |-8| times as long as wide, narrowly oblanceolate, widest above the middle, those at the base more or less persistent; apex hyaline. Inflorescence pyramidal; partial inflorescences lax; pedicels 1-2 mm. Corolla 2-3-3-3 mm in diameter. Fruit 1 - 1-1-4 mm, acutely papillose. 2n = 22,44. Dry grassland and rocky ground. • N. W. Europe. Br Da Fa Ge Hb No.

A variable species. Slender diploid plants are found on the W. coast of Britain and in Ireland; elsewhere only tetraploids are known. The compact plants of the Faeröer are connected with 110. Hybrid intermediates with 104 are known from Denmark, and with 118 (with pentaploid and hexaploid chromosome numbers) from Britain.