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Galium odoratum
Also called Sweetscented bedstraw, Sweet Woodruff, Sweet White Woodruff, Sweet Scented Bedstraw
Sweet woodruff is a low, rhizomatous perennial with whorled leaves and small white flowers, grown mainly as a shade groundcover and for its sweet, hay-like scent. Keep it moist and shaded, as it dislikes hot, dry sun.
Galium odoratum, the sweet woodruff or sweetscented bedstraw, is a flowering perennial plant in the family Rubiaceae, native to much of Europe. It is widely cultivated for its flowers and its sweet-smelling foliage.
Industrial usage of the plant for sweets was prohibited in Germany in 1974, due to coumarin, the flavorant found in woodruff, being toxic to rats and mice in studies. It has, however, not been found to be harmful to humans, even in large doses, in which it follows a different metabolic pathway. The flavour is still popular for sweets in Germany, but is achieved artificially with 6-methyl coumarin. Products targeted towards adults, such as alcoholic drinks, are still permitted to include coumarin, in limited quantities.
The plant is native to much of Europe from Spain and Ireland to Russia, as well as Western Siberia, Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus, China, and Japan. It is also sparingly naturalised in scattered locations in the United States and Canada.
It is widely cultivated for its flowers and sweet-smelling foliage.
White bedstraw · Alpine Bedstraw · Stickywilly · Lamarck's bedstraw · False baby's breath · Roughfruit corn bedstraw · Bedstraw
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Galium odoratum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
