Polygala cymosa Walter

Tall Pinebarren Milkwort

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Tall Pinebarren Milkwort is a native herbaceous biennial in the Milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It occurs in the southernmost counties of Alabama. Tall Pinebarren Milkwort occurs in bogs, in seeps, in pine flatwoods, and in pond cypress depressions. It usually grows with the base of the plant in standing water. It is a single-stemmed biennial with a fibrous root system. Stems are erect, 1-3 feet in height, usually branched only in the inflorescence, glabrous, and green in color. Leaves are basal and cauline. The basal leaves form a rosette and are larger than the stem leaves. The basal leaves are often withered at flowering. Stem leaves are alternate, sessile, spreading, and greatly reduced in size upwards. The leaves are linear to lanceolate in outline and glabrous. Flowers are produced in flat topped cymose panicles. Flowers are bright yellow, becoming green upon drying. Flowers have five sepals and three petals. Two of the sepals (wings) are larger, elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate in outline, with abruptly cuspidate tips. 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 globose capsule. The seed are glabrous.—A. Diamond.

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Native OBL (NWPL)

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