Galium trifidumL.

three-petal bedstrawthreepetal bedstraw

WFO wfo-0000970445 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Galium trifidum, photographed by Eric Lamb
fig. a Eric Lamb, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-05 / obs. 156443860

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
1577041
Filed as
Galium trifidum subsp. subbiflorum (Wiegand) Puff
Det. by
C. Puff 1974-03-01
Collected
B. Maguire 1936-07-26
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 92 botanical countries

Regions where Galium trifidum is native: Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Primorye, Sakhalin, Taiwan, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Austria, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Finland, France, Iceland, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, Poland, South European Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, Alaska, Alberta, Aleutian Is., Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Greenland, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Prince Edward I., Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yukon, Dominican Republic, Haiti AltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskManchuriaPrimoryeSakhalinTaiwanTibetTranscaucasusTürkiyeTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiyaAustriaBaltic StatesCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaFinlandFranceIcelandNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayPolandSouth European RussiaSwedenUkraineAlaskaAlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutGreenlandIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaLabradorMaineManitobaMassachusettsMexico CentralMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SouthwestMichiganMinnesotaMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew MexicoNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaNunavutOhioOklahomaOntarioOregonPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTexasUtahVermontWashingtonWisconsinWyomingYukonDominican RepublicHaiti Korea
Native distribution of Galium trifidum, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Aleutian Is. ALU
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Connecticut CNT
Greenland GNL
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southwest MXS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nova Scotia NSC
Nunavut NUN
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Manchuria CHM
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Central European Russia RUC
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Iceland ICE
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
Poland POL
South European Russia RUS
Sweden SWE
Ukraine UKR
Dominican Republic DOM SOUTHERN AMERICA
Haiti HAI

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is., Aleutian Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are 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.

Flowering 133 in flower of 147 examined

Proportion of examined Galium trifidum in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 0 0 too few examined
Feb 0 0 too few examined
Mar 0 0 too few examined
Apr 0 0 too few examined
May 8 8 100% 68% to 100%
Jun 28 29 97% 83% to 99%
Jul 56 58 97% 88% to 99%
Aug 24 29 83% 65% to 92%
Sep 15 20 75% 53% to 89%
Oct 2 3 too few examined
Nov 0 0 too few examined
Dec 0 0 too few examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Galium trifidum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 133 of 147 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,005 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -24.9 °C -12.3 °C 3.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.8 °C 22.8 °C 27.7 °C
Annual rainfall 428 mm 824 mm 3,276 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 32 mm 101 mm 412 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,005 research-grade observations of Galium trifidum 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 23 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 baicalense Pobed.
  • Galium brandegeei A.Gray
  • Galium claytonii subsp. subbiflorum (Wiegand) Piper & Beattie
  • Galium claytonii var. subbiflorum (Wiegand) Wiegand
  • Galium columbianum Rydb.
  • Galium cymosum Wiegand
  • Galium ruprechtii Pobed.
  • Galium subbiflorum (Wiegand) Rydb.
  • Galium taquetii H.Lév.
  • Galium tinctorium var. subbiflorum (Wiegand) Fernald
  • Galium trifidum f. halophilum (Fernald & Wiegand) B.Boivin
  • Galium trifidum subsp. distentum Printz
  • Galium trifidum subsp. pacificum (Wiegand) Piper & Beattie
  • Galium trifidum subsp. typicum R.T.Clausen
  • Galium trifidum var. brevipedunculatum Regel
  • Galium trifidum var. europaeum Rupr.
  • Galium trifidum var. halophilum Fernald & Wiegand
  • Galium trifidum var. pacificum Wiegand
  • Galium trifidum var. pusillum A.Gray
  • Galium trifidum var. subbiflorum Wiegand
  • Galium trifidum var. trifidum
  • Galium triflorum var. europaeum F.Schmidt
  • Rubia linnaeana Baill.

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.