Galium tomentosum detail of fruit-bearing stems

The stalked fruits of Galium tomentosum, globose and black, remain hanging from the soft, densely hairy upper stems of the plant after flowering. This continues for long enough for the fruit to accompany some stems when carried off as building material by birds preparing for raising a family.

This is a significant and successful seed dispersal system for the species. Often only one of the seeds per flower develops from the two ovules originally in the ovary. The seed is comparatively large in the small fruit.

The fruit pedicels are less hairy than the stems lower down but were very hairy earlier during flowering. The pedicels elongate after flowering.

Different stems, hairless and thicker, hold on to dry leaves in the photo (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Shearing and Van Heerden, 2008; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist; https://www.fernkloof.org.za).