Sherardia arvensisL.

Field madder

WFO wfo-0000309707 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Sherardia arvensis, photographed by Andrew Skotnicki
fig. a Andrew Skotnicki, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205867926
Sherardia arvensis, photographed by Clay Gibbons
fig. b Clay Gibbons, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205030685
Sherardia arvensis, photographed by mefisher
fig. c mefisher, CC0 1.0 / obs. 205018083
Sherardia arvensis, photographed by AnimalObserverDeniz321
fig. d AnimalObserverDeniz321, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205161607
Sherardia arvensis, photographed by Nico
fig. e Nico, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204170553
Sherardia arvensis, photographed by Lee
fig. f Lee, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200710764
Sherardia arvensis, photographed by Jesse Rorabaugh
fig. g Jesse Rorabaugh, CC0 1.0 / obs. 200882054
Sherardia arvensis, photographed by Josh Hedley
fig. h Josh Hedley, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200051631

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.

Flowering n = 5,602 observations

Peak flowering in Apr, from 5,602 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 25 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.

  • Asperula sherardia var. maritima (Griseb.) Höck
  • Asperula sherardia var. typica Höck
  • Asperula sherardii Hallier
  • Asterophyllum scherardianum K.F.Schimp. & Spenn.
  • Galium sherardia E.H.L.Krause
  • Hexodontocarpus arvensis (L.) Dulac
  • Sherardia affinis Gand.
  • Sherardia agraria Tornab.
  • Sherardia arvensis f. argentina Hicken
  • Sherardia arvensis f. maritima (Griseb.) Litard.
  • Sherardia arvensis subsp. maritima (Griseb.) Soják
  • Sherardia arvensis subsp. maritima (Griseb.) Jáv.
  • Sherardia arvensis var. albiflora Tinant
  • Sherardia arvensis var. crispa Fr.
  • Sherardia arvensis var. hirsuta Baguet
  • Sherardia arvensis var. hirta R.Uechtr.
  • Sherardia arvensis var. littoralis Conill
  • Sherardia arvensis var. maritima Griseb.
  • Sherardia arvensis var. mutica Wirtg.
  • Sherardia arvensis var. neglecta Guépin ex Nyman
  • Sherardia arvensis var. walrawenii Wirtg. ex Baguet
  • Sherardia elliptica Gand.
  • Sherardia maritima (Griseb.) Borbás
  • Sherardia pantocsekii Gand.

and 1 more.

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.

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