Japanese name: ヤエムグラ（八重葎） Scientific name:Galium spurium var. echinospermon
[Overview]
An annual to biennial found near human dwellings.
The stem is 60–90 cm long, much branched, and rises obliquely, leaning on other plants.
The stem has 4 ridges, and the ridges bear downward-pointing prickles.
The leaves are broadly linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 1–3 cm long and 0.1–0.4 cm wide, whorled in sixes to eights.
Downward-pointing prickles grow on the leaf margin and on the midrib of the underside.
Cymes at the leaf axils and stem tips bear flowers sparsely.
The flowers are yellowish green, 1 mm across, and the corolla is 4-lobed.
The fruit is 2–2.5 mm across and has hooked prickles.
