tles (3-7 dm. high; summer)
--8.

7b. Ovary and fruit not bristly (early summer) --11.

8a. Leaves with 1 principal vein (flowers dull purple)
=Bedstraw, Galium pilosum.=

8b. Leaves with 3 principal veins --9.

9a. Flowers bright-white =Bedstraw, Galium boreale.=

9b. Flowers greenish, yellowish, or purplish --10.

10a. Leaves acuminate =Bedstraw, Galium lanceolatum.=

10b. Leaves acute or obtuse =Bedstraw, Galium circaezans.=

11a. Corolla-lobes 3 (2-6 dm. high; flowers white or greenish) --12.

11b. Corolla-lobes 4 --13.

12a. Flowers in clusters of 2 or 3 =Bedstraw, Galium claytoni.=

12b. Flowers solitary in the axils, on long hair-like pedicels
=Bedstraw, Galium trifidum.=

13a. Corolla brownish or purple (3-6 dm. high)
=Bedstraw, Galium latifolium.=

13b. Corolla white (1-4 dm. high) --14.

14a. Flowers rather numerous in small cymes
=Bedstraw, Galium palustre.=

14b. Flowers in clusters of 2 or 3, or solitary --15.

15a. Principal leaves spreading or ascending
=Bedstraw, Galium tinctorium.=

15b. Principal leaves recurved or reflexed
=Bedstraw, Galium labradoricum.=

16a. Ovary and fruit bristly or hispid --17.

16b. Ovary and fruit not bristly (summer) --18.

17a. Leaves narrowly lanceolate to linear, mostly 6-8 in a whorl (stem
5-15 dm. long; flowers white; spring and summer)
=Bedstraw, Galium aparine.=

17b. Leaves narrowly oval or elliptical, mostly in whorls of 6; flowers
in clusters of 3 (1-5 dm. high; flowers greenish, summer)
=Bedstraw, Galium triflorum.=

18a. Leaves cuspidate or mucronate at the apex (flowers white)
--19.

18b. Leaves obtuse at the apex (flowers white or greenish; 2-6 dm.
high) --20.

19a. Flowers very numerous in terminal panicles (stem 3-8 dm. long)
=Bedstraw, Galium mollugo.=

19b. Flowers in axillary clusters (1-3 dm. high)
=Bedstraw, Galium tricorne.=

19c. Flowers few, in small loose te