Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Habit:  herb

Description:  "Trailing or scandent perennial, the pliable stems to 60 cm long or longer; stems and leaves more or less densely set with long coarse hairs (canescent to nearly glabrous), the leaves usually canescent beneath.  Leaves in fours, mostly 5-10 (-16) mm long, more or less obviously 3-nerved, ovate or elliptic, plane or rolled, narrowed to a broad or frequently petiolar base, usually acute or apiculate at apex.  Inflorescences on short, lax, well exserted, indeterminate branches, each usually with a terminal flower and 2 equal or unequal, proliferating, divaricate branchlets.  Corolla rotate, greenish or yellowish to sordid white, rarely reddish externally, generally glabrous, the lobes blunt at apices.  Fruit with upturned hairs"  (Dempster, 1993; pp. 27-28).

Habitat/ecology:  "1300-4400 m, growing in tangled masses, sprawling, pendulous, or climbing among shrubs, in open grassland, thickets, damp cliffs, or open forest" (Dempster, 1993; pp. 27-28).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  "Peru (Dept. Lima) northward and eastward in the Andes through Ecuador and Colombia to Monagas in northeastern Venezuela" (Dempster, 1993; pp. 27-28).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Floreana Group	Floreana Island	probably introduced invasive	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Santa Cruz Group	Santa Cruz Island	probably introduced invasive	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Colombia Colombia	Colombia (Republic of)	native	Dempster, Lauramay (1993) (p. 27)
Ecuador (Mainland) Ecuador	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native	Dempster, Lauramay (1993) (p. 27)
Perú Perú	Perú (Republic of)	native	Dempster, Lauramay (1993) (p. 27)

Comments:  Probably not native to the Galápagos Islands, possibly introduced, per Charles Darwin Research Station.

Additional information:
Additional online information about Galium canescens is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Galium canescens as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Galium canescens may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Charles Darwin Research Station. 2005. CDRS Herbarium records.

Dempster, Lauramay. 1993. Rubiaceae-Rubieae [162(23).]. Flora of Ecuador 47, pp.21-36.