The Yellow Bedstraw is to be found all over the country. It grows in
pastures, and on the hedge-banks, and it is in flower all summer and
autumn.
There is a white bedstraw as well as a yellow, and you will often find
great masses of both growing like a carpet on the grassy hedge-banks.
The stems of the Yellow Bedstraw are not strong, although they grow to a
great length, and the plant is usually lying in a tangled mass near the
ground.
The flowers are very tiny. They grow in dense clusters. Each cluster has
a short stalk which branches opposite another stalk on the main stem.
The flowers have four petals and four stamens, and these stamens have
almost no stalks. They look just like dots lying on the yellow petals.
The leaves of the Yellow Bedstraw are very tiny. They resemble small
green straps, and they grow in circles, with eight to ten leaves in a
circle round the main stem, close to where the flower clusters grow. You
also find a circle of leaves growing on the short stalks which hold the
clusters of flowers. These tiny leaves are hairy underneath.