Polygala cruciata L.

Drumheads; Cross Leaf Milkwort; Purple Candyroot

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Drumheads is a native herbaceous annual in the Milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It occurs nearly statewide in Alabama, but is most common in the southern third of the state. Drumheads occurs in bogs, in wet meadows, in seeps, and on wet roadsides. It is a single-stemmed annual from a taproot. Stems are erect, 3-8 inches in height, usually branched above the middle, glabrous, and green in color. Leaves are in whorls of four, sessile, linear to spatulate or elliptic in outline, glabrous, and with entire margins. Flowers are produced in dense terminal head-like racemes. Flowers are purple or pink in color and have five sepals and three petals. Two of the sepals are larger, spreading, triangular and petal-like (wings). The three petals are fused. The lower petal is the keel and has a 2-parted crest with 2 or 3 entire or 2-forked lobes on each side. The fruit is a two seeded capsule with a winged stipe-like base. The seed are pubescent.—A. Diamond.

Most of our plants have 5-12 leaf-bearing nodes. Sometimes a more northern entity with 3-5 leaf bearing nodes is recognized as either a var.(Polygala cruciata L. var. aquilonia Fern. & Schub.) or a subspecies (Polygala cruciata ssp. aquilonia (Fern. & Schub.) A. Haines). If the more northern entity occurs in Alabama, it would more than likely be in the extreme northern counties.

Native

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