(threepetal bedstraw)
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Photo of Galium trifidum by Jean Pawek(Re-use granted by attribution of photographer.)
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Threepetal bedstraw is a small herb with whorls of stem leaves and tiny flowers, found growing in wetlands. Plants grow 5-50 cm tall, sprawling, often forming tangled clumps. The leaves are narrowly
elliptic, with rounded tips. All leaves grow along the stem, in whorls of four at a
node. Stems are
simple to loosely branched. Flowers are
perfect, produced from the
axils, one to three on a stem. As the common name implies, each flower has only three petals, distinguishing it from the more common Northern bedstraw,
Galium boreale. Fruits are smooth, two round
capsules fused at the center.
Galium trifidum is a perennial and
deciduous plant that flowers in mid-summer.
Flowers are bisexual, and potentially insect pollinated. The pollination and dispersal biology of Galium trifidum has not been studied. Seeds do not have any notable dispersal adaptations.
Galium trifidum is a widespread incompletely circumpolar species (circumboreal). Gallium trifidum occurs widely across most of the North American continent, except for the southeastern U.S. States. In Alaska, this species occurs in suitable boreal habitats throughout the state from the southern valleys of the Brooks Range southwards to the panhandle and Aleutian chain. In Denali, this species occurs in boreal areas on both sides of the Alaska Range.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right, depicting recent Denali data.
In Denali, all specimens of this species were found at low elevations (average 280 m). Sites were almost always on low slopes (average 2.42 incline). Of the four specimens that were found on slopes steeper than five degrees, all were on southern aspects.
Details are shown in the Plots & Charts found at right. For more on how to interpret these figures, visit Understanding Data Presented.
Wet to moist sites.
