Galium parisiense Wall Bedstraw

A small rather delicate upright, annual bedstraw whose leaves have forward pointing bristles along their edge and a conspicuous mucronate tip. The thin, angled stems are clothed in backward pointing hairs and the flowers are usually creamy white or slightly pinkish, sometimes becoming more red with age. It is a plant of dry and usually calcareous skeletal substrates like gravelly ground, open mosaic sites and old walls. It is a Sub-mediterranean-Sub-atlantic species which is uncommon in Britain with most records concentrated in the southeast of England where it is regarded as native and  listed as vulnerable on the Red List. However, there have been increased records of it in the southwest of Britain in recent decades, e.g. along the south coasts of Cornwall and Wales, but the status of these plants is uncertain. While this may be a natural range extension in reponse to warmer winters and climate change, some have suggested that these new sites are being populated by alien seed originating from Europe. Many of these new records are from ruderal habitats and populations are often casual. It was first recorded in Glamorgan by CH and Hilary Hipkin in 2011 in a very large population on Baglan Energy Park where it has persisted for at least 15 years. Massive populations now occur in coastal open mosaic habitats compartments in Neath Port Tabot and in more recent years new inland populations have been found in the gravelled edges of forest roads,

Native status uncertain