| Author | Michaux | |
| Distribution | Essentially throughout the eastern third of the Piedmont (rarely west to Alexander and Gaston counties), and sparingly present across the Coastal Plain, including the Outer Banks. Not known to occur west of Person, Alexander, and Gaston counties.
This is a Southern species, ranging from coastal MD and AR south to central FL and eastern TX. | |
| Abundance | Infrequent to locally fairly common in the lower/eastern Piedmont. Rare to uncommon in the Coastal Plain, typically in sites with richer forested soils. Though RAB (1968) called it "rare" and showed only 6 county records, the species has now been collected from about 30 counties and observed in several others. It is not really a rare species in the state now, though it likely was just overlooked instead of there being an increase in recent decades. | |
| Habitat | This is a forest species, growing mostly in mesic mixed forests to hardwood forests, including in bottomlands. |
| Phenology | Blooms and fruits from April to September. However, it is an evergreen species and can be seen in leaf all winter. | |
| Identification | This is a very slender and quite small Galium ranging only to about 8-10 inches tall, usually leaning and with a few branches. The stem is smooth, but the leaves are stiff, shiny, dark green, and evergreen. There are 4 leaves per whorl, each leaf being linear to narrowly oblanceolate, about 3/4-inch long but barely 1/8-inch wide. There are only a few tiny white flowers in the leaf axils, but quite conspicuous are the small but fleshy, black fruit; only this species and G. bermudense have fleshy fruit in the genus. As the species is evergreen, it can be spotted on a winter walk in a mixed pine-hardwood forest or in a bottomland forest. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S2S3 [S3S4] | |
| Global Rank | G4G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACU link |
| USACE-emp | FACU link |
