This mat-forming prostrate, leafy perennial grows on dry, grassy and acid spoils. It has very many tiny white four-petalled sickly smelling flowers (2-4mm) in loose panicles and its leaves are narrow with forward-pointing bristles and are in whorls of six to eight. Flowering from June to August it then produces fruit which is covered by pointed warts. This native plant is widespread throughout Ireland and belongs to the family Rubiaceae..
I first identified this little flower in 1976 in Laragh, Co Wicklow and photographed it in the same location in 2002.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
