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Plant · P-947
Northern Bedstraw
Galium boreale
Northern Bedstraw is a rhizomatous perennial herb that forms spreading colonies of small white flowers, valued as a groundcover and historically as a source of red root dye and a tea made from the dried flowering stems. Circumboreal in range, it grows wild across northern Eurasia and much of Canada and the northern United States in moist, sometimes rocky open woods, meadows and streamsides. It tolerates partial sun to shade - its leaves scorch in strong sun - and spreads readily by both seed and creeping rhizome once established.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 5–7.2
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 12–36 in
- Mature spread
- 12–18 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–18 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Barren Strawberry
Waldsteinia fragarioides
Barren Strawberry is a low woodland groundcover with strawberry-like leaves and yellow spring flowers, but despite the name and the leaf…
Groundcover · USDA 4–7
Beach Strawberry
Fragaria chiloensis
Beach strawberry is a low, evergreen, mat-forming strawberry native to Pacific coast dunes and bluffs from Alaska south through California to…
Groundcover · USDA 4–10
Bilberry
Vaccinium myrtillus
Bilberry is a low, suckering shrub of acid heaths and cool mountain woodland, spreading by rhizome into a knee-high mat. Its small dark…
Groundcover · USDA 3–7
Black Medick
Medicago lupulina
Black Medick is a low, sprawling nitrogen-fixing clover relative that forms a mowable mat through fall, winter and spring before dying back…
Groundcover · USDA 3–9
Brahmi
Bacopa monnieri
Brahmi is a low, fast-spreading creeping perennial of wet ground and shallow water across warm temperate and tropical regions worldwide,…
Groundcover · USDA 8–11
Carpet Bugle
Ajuga reptans
Carpet Bugle forms a fast, dense, rooting mat that thrives in dry shade - the hardest niche on most properties to fill, since dry ground…
Groundcover · USDA 3–10
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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