Asperula scoparia

Asperula scoparia, the prickly woodruff, is a slender, tufted perennial herb of the Rubiaceae endemic to south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Plants form low, much-branched clumps 10-40 cm tall, with wiry, four-angled stems that are often rough to the touch with minute retrorse prickles. The narrow, linear leaves are 5-15 mm long, grass-like, sharply pointed, and arranged in whorls of four to six along the stem. The herbage is glabrous to slightly scabrid and has a faint hay-like fragrance when crushed. Small white to pale pink, four-lobed, funnel-shaped flowers about 3 mm across are produced in loose terminal cymes from spring into summer, attracting small flies and beetles. Fruits are smooth, paired schizocarps about 2 mm in diameter. The species inhabits open eucalypt forest, woodland, grassy heath, and rocky slopes, typically on free-draining sandy or gravelly soils, where it persists among tussock grasses and small shrubs.