沼猪殃殃 zhao zhu yang yang

Herbs, perennial, tender, from slender rhizomes. Stems 10-60 cm tall, somewhat retrorsely aculeolate along 4 angles. Leaves of middle stem region in whorls of 6-8, sessile; blade drying papery and glossy, narrowly oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 3-16 × 1-3 mm, glabrous, ± retrorsely aculeolate on veins and margins, base acute, apex acute; vein 1. Inflorescences terminal and in upper leaf axils, with 2- to several-flowered cymes of 2-5 cm; axes glabrous, smooth; bracts none or inconspicuous, 2-4 mm; pedicels 1-5 mm. Ovary ellipsoid, ca. 0.5 mm, glabrous. Corolla white, subcampanulate, 2-3 mm in diam., lobed for ca. 2/3; lobes 4, triangular, acute. Mericarps obovoid, ca. 1 × 1.5-2 mm, glabrous, smooth or granular. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Wet grasslands; ca. 2600 m. ?Sichuan, Xinjiang, ?Yunnan [Mongolia, Russia; C and SW Asia, Europe].

Galium uliginosum is a typical member of G. sect. Trachygalium and closely related to the G. rivale group, represented in China by G. karataviense. It differs from it by a much more slender habit and much shorter corolla tubes. All other Chinese species of G. sect. Trachygalium s.l. have rotate corollas.

We have seen specimens of Galium uliginosum from Xinjiang only. In view of the more northerly distribution of the species, the indications for Sichuan and Yunnan (in FRPS 71(2): 258. 1999) may refer to another taxon and should be verified.