Galium karakulense Pobed.

Herbs, perennial, weak to procumbent, 40-70 cm tall. Rootstock slender, with prolonged rhizomes. Stems 4-angled, flaccid, much branched, retrorsely aculeolate, hispidulous or glabrescent at nodes. Leaves in whorls of 4(or 5), subpetiolate; blade drying papery, elliptic to oblanceolate, (12-)15-20(-30) × (2-)5-8(-12) mm, densely antrorsely aculeolate adaxially and along margins, retrorsely aculeolate on abaxial midrib, base attenuate to cuneate, margins thinly revolute, apex rounded to bluntly pointed; vein 1. Inflorescences paniculate, terminal and lateral cymes with several to many flowers (usually more than 4); peduncles scabrous and ± divaricate; bracts ovate to elliptic, 3-7 × 1-3 mm; pedicels 2-4.5 mm, rough, elongated in fruit. Ovary didymous, glabrous. Corolla white, cup-shaped, 3-4(-4.5) mm in diam., 4-lobed to ca. 1/2. Mericarps (sub)globose, 1.5-2.5(-3.5) mm, glabrous, slightly verrucose. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.