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Rubiaceae family

Santa Barbara Bedstraw Galium cliftonsmithii

Native Specialist-bee host
Early-season nectar — Flowers in a late-winter / early-spring window when few other plants in our catalog bloom — valuable early forage for pollinators (relative to our catalog's bloom coverage).

Santa Barbara Bedstraw is a perennial shrub native to the lower 48 states. It blooms Mar – Jun. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Galium cliftonsmithii is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family known by the common name Santa Barbara bedstraw. It is endemic to the coastal mountain ranges of California from Monterey to Los Angeles Counties. This is a perennial herb with slender, prickly climbing stems 30 to 60 centimeters long. The stems have whorls of four oval-shaped, pointed leaves tipped with hairs. The plant is dioecious, with individuals bearing either male or female flowers. Both types of flowers are yellowish and borne in small clusters. This plant was named for Clifton F. Smith, head botanist at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in 1958. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 11 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
The garden year bloom → fruit → fall colour
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Bloom
Bloom (the flower's colour)
Bloom · Mar – Jun — 23 obs · Herbarium specimens — Park et al. 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~19 caterpillar species

Galium supports ~19 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Galium in North America, including:

Costaconvexa centrostrigaria · geometer (inchworm) moth Epidemia helloides · gossamer-winged butterfly Epirrhoe alternata · Common Carpet Epirrhoe plebeculata · geometer (inchworm) moth Epirrhoe sperryi · geometer (inchworm) moth Epirrhoe tristata · Small Argent And Sable
+ 8 more species →
Grammia oithona · tiger moth Grammia turbans · tiger moth Hyles gallii · Bedstraw Hawk-Moth Hyles lineata · White-Lined Sphinx Idaea dimidiata · Single-Dotted Wave Lobocleta ossularia · Drab Brown Wave Nathalis iole · Dainty Sulphur Orthonama obstipata · geometer (inchworm) moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Galium is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (14) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[10] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[11] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[12] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[13] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[14] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
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