*** Welcome to piglix ***

Sherardia arvensis

Blue field-madder
Sherardia arvensis 050731.jpg
Sherardia arvensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Subfamily: Rubioideae
Tribe: Rubieae
Genus: Sherardia
L.
Species: S. arvensis
Binomial name
Sherardia arvensis
L.
Synonyms
  • Asperula sherardia Hallier
  • Asterophyllum scherardianum Schimp. & Spenn.
  • Galium sherardia E.H.L.Krause
  • Hexodontocarpus arvensis (L.) Dulac
  • Sherardia affinis Gand.
  • Sherardia agraria Tornab.
  • Sherardia elliptica Gand.
  • Sherardia maritima (Griseb.) Borbás
  • Sherardia pantocsekii Gand.
  • Sherardia umbellata Gilib.

Sherardia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family. The genus contains only one species, viz. Sherardia arvensis or (blue) field madder, which is widespread across most of Europe and northern Africa as well as southwest and central Asia (from Turkey to Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan) and Macaronesia (Canary Islands, Azores, Madeira, Savage Islands). It is also reportedly naturalized in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Kerguelen, Ethiopia, Sudan, southern Africa, Mexico, Costa Rica, South America, Bermuda, Cuba, Haiti and much of Canada and the United States (especially the Pacific States and the lower Mississippi Valley).

Sherardia arvensis is an annual plant with trailing and upright stems growing up to 40 cm long, having a square cross-section. The rough pointed bristly leaves of about 1 cm in length are in whorls of four to six (normally six at the ends of the shoots, but four nearer the root).


...
Wikipedia

...