Crosswort Cruciata laevipes

Features

Cruciata laevipes is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is commonly known as crosswort, smooth bedstraw or Luc na croise in Gaelic. The Latin epithet laevipes refers to the smooth stalk.

Species	Perrenial
Living space	Bush crowns, Field, Meadow, Treeline
Size	up to 50 cm

Description

This perennial sprawling plant can grow to a height of 15–50 cm, spreads by seeds and stolons and has, unusually amongst this group, yellow hermaphrodite flowers. The inner flowers are male and soon fall off, whilst the outer are bisexual and produce the fruit. The flowers smell of honey. Of the whorls of four leaves, only two in each group are real leaves, the other two being stipules. It is associated with arbuscular mycorrhiza that penetrate the cortical cells of the roots. It grows in light forests, on forest edges, among bushes and in meadows.