Tennessee › Rubiaceae
Northern Bed Straw
Also known as
Northern Bedstraw
Calculated with the same rules as North Carolina, using Tennessee host-range and conservation-rank inputs. Native-status evidence is shown separately.
Tennessee scoring method and limits
Insect resources, birds and habitat
| Caterpillars | 11 recorded species on the genus Host genera of native Lepidoptera recorded in Tennessee; host association and range overlap, not confirmed local feeding. |
| Bees | 3 recorded species on the genus Southeastern North America |
| Specialist bees | 0 recorded species on the genus Eastern North America |
| Birds | 8 recorded species on the genus North America |
| Structure | Forb/herb |
Baseline 54; additional insect credit +0. Rarity adjustment -5 using the NC rule (unranked: −5; final score floor: 5). Missing records do not establish zero ecological use.
Tennessee native status unresolved. Tennessee yard-fit calculations are not available yet.
Recorded in your county?
Choose a county to check the available records.
County occurrence is not proof of native range or yard suitability. A missing record does not establish absence.
| Tennessee status | Tennessee native status unresolved |
| Source conservation rank | SNR |
| Recorded in Tennessee | 1 counties in the atlas snapshot |
Growing conditions
Part shade, moderately wet to medium moisture level, not fussy about type of soil but should not be planted in heavy poorly drained soils, moderately acid to neutral pH. 1-2 feet height, white flowers, blooms in summer, spreads aggressively by creeping roots and self-seeding.
Native Region: Not reported by Tennessee Herbarium. However, reported as a Tennessee native by both US Department of Agriculture and US Forest Service. UT Smart Yards source
Native-status evidence
Combined TN–KY atlas flag: Y. A regional flag alone does not settle Tennessee native status.
Combined-source assessment
Tennessee native status unresolved
A TN-specific UT native-guide page or an exact entry in the Tennessee rare-plant list supports a direct source claim. Otherwise, TN occurrence plus an atlas native flag and exact-name native evidence from NC flora or USDA L48 supports a provisional state inference. No one regional claim or occurrence alone establishes TN nativity; NC and L48 claims retain their actual scopes.
TN–KY Plant Atlas: native (TN–KY).
Sources
- Tennessee–Kentucky Plant Atlas
- UT Smart Yards
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025: Tennessee range and host extract
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database, growth habit (public domain)
Machine-readable: plant evidence.
Quercus Score v0.6.4 · built 2026-09-26 · Tennessee beta · sources and limitations on every page