Sherardia
genus of plants
Sherardia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus contains only one species, Sherardia arvensis, the (blue) field madder, which is widespread across most of Europe and northern Africa as well as southwest and central Asia (from Turkey to Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan) and Macaronesia (Canary Islands, Azores, Madeira, Savage Islands). It is also reportedly naturalized in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Kerguelen, Ethiopia, Sudan, southern Africa, Mexico, Costa Rica, South America, Bermuda, Cuba, Haiti and much of Canada and the United States (especially the Pacific States and the lower Mississippi Valley).
Description
Sherardia arvensis is an annual plant with trailing and upright stems growing up to 40 cm (16 in) long, having a square cross-section. The rough pointed bristly leaves of about 1 cm (0.39 in) in length are in whorls of four to six (normally six at the ends of the shoots, but four nearer the root).
The tiny pale lilac or pink flowers are approximately 3 mm (0.12 in) in diameter and have a long tube, with only the end part of the four petals free. The flowers grow in clusters of two or three together in an involucral structure formed out of a ring of six bracts.
The fruit are dry and about 3 mm (0.12 in) long with two lobes giving rise to two small, dry, indehiscent fruits called nutlets.
The four-angled stems with whorls of bristly leaves and tiny flowers are reminiscent of the Bedstraws and other related Rubiaceae, but Sherardia is distinguished by its mauve/pink flowers that are organized in clusters and having a long corolla tube.
Sherardia arvensis plants are hermaphroditic and pollinated by flies.
The public source identifies “Sherardia” as genus of plants. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sherardia, genus and plants.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14566705. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sherardia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.