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Bedstraw family (Rubiaceae)
Perennial with long, thin, creeping rhizomes, from which arise numerous stems, sometimes forming mats together. Stem four-angled, 5-50 cm long. Leaves 6-10 per whorl, lanceolate-elliptical, to 4 cm in length. Intense scent of benzopyrone called coumarin. Flowers white to 6 mm in diameter, clustered in branched cyme. Corona funnel-shaped with 4 petals. Calyx barely visible. Flowers Apr.-Jun.
Grows on mesic, fertile soils, mainly in oak-lime-hornbeam forest. Medicinal plant.
Descriptions devised by the team at the Independent Department of Forest Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, i.e. L. Witkowska-Żuk, K. Marciszewska, W. Ciurzycki, A. Obidziński and P. Zaniewski.
