Click on images to enlarge
habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
habit (Photo: Greg Jordan)
creeping habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves and flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of four-angled stems and leaves borne in groups (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
the pale mauve flowers are borne in small clusters (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of flowers (Photo: Greg Jordan)
close-up of flower clusters from side-on, each surrounded by several leafy bracts (Photo: Greg Jordan)
Scientific Name
Sherardia arvensis L.
Family
Rubiaceae
Common Names
blue field madder, blue fieldmadder, field madder, herb sherard, meadow bedstraw, spurwort
Origin
Native to Europe, the middle-east and western Asia.
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalised in southern and eastern Australia (i.e. in eastern New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, the south-eastern and southern parts of South Australia and south-western Western Australia). Also sparingly naturalised in south-eastern Queensland and naturalised on Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.
Also widely naturalised in North America (i.e. throughout most of Canada and the USA).
Notes
Field madder (Sherardia arvensis) is regarded as a minor environmental weed in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia.