Japanese name: ハナムグラ（花葎） Scientific name:Galium tokyoense
[Overview]
A perennial growing in moist places along rivers.
The stem is branched and ascending, with 4 ridges, and the ridges bear downward-pointing prickly hairs.
The leaves are oblanceolate to narrowly oblong, 1–3 cm long and 0.3–0.7 cm wide, whorled in fours to sixes, with entire margins; downward-pointing prickly hairs grow on the midrib of the underside and on the margin.
The leaf tip is often slightly notched, with a short point at its end.
Of the whorled leaves, the true leaves are the 2 opposite ones, and the others are stipules of the same shape.
Cymes at the stem tips and leaf axils bear many flowers.
The flowers are white, 2 mm across, and the corolla is 4-lobed.
The fruit is hairless.
