Galium mexicanumKunth

Mexican bedstraw

WFO wfo-0000969457 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Galium mexicanum, photographed by Gerard Walschlager
fig. a Gerard Walschlager, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-07-29 / obs. 46603972

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Galium mexicanum is native: Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Washington, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Venezuela ArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMontanaNevadaNew MexicoOregonTexasWashingtonBelizeColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáVenezuela
Native distribution of Galium mexicanum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Mexican Pacific Is. MXI
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
Oregon ORE
Texas TEX
Washington WAS
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Venezuela VEN

Not drawn on the map: Mexican Pacific Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 85 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -11.1 °C -3.7 °C 7.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.9 °C 25.7 °C 31.0 °C
Annual rainfall 480 mm 603 mm 1,661 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 31 mm 44 mm 96 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 85 research-grade observations of Galium mexicanum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 11 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Galium asperrimum A.Gray
  • Galium asperrimum var. asperulum A.Gray
  • Galium asperulum (A.Gray) Rydb.
  • Galium caripense Kunth
  • Galium granadense Willd.
  • Galium mexicanum var. asperrimum (A.Gray) L.C.Higgins & S.L.Welsh
  • Galium mexicanum var. asperulum (A.Gray) Dempster
  • Galium mexicanum var. flexicum (Dempster) B.L.Turner
  • Galium mexicanum var. glabratum Greenm.
  • Galium mexicanum var. platyphyllum Greenm.
  • Galium piliferum Kunth

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.