Polygala nana (Michx.) DC.

Dwarf Milkwort; Candyroot; Low Bachelor's Button

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Yellow Bachelor's Button is an herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial in the Milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It is found throughout most of Alabama. Yellow Bachelor's Button occurs in moist pine or hardwood forests, in moist, sandy clearings, in roadside ditches, and on roadsides. It is a biennial or short-lived perennial with a tap root. The tap root has a sweet, licorice-like flavor when chewed. This gives members of this genus their alternate common name of “candy root”. Most of the leaves are confined to a basal rosette, with few on the stems. Leaves are oblanceolate to spatulate in outline, glabrous, and entire. The leaves are a yellowish-green color and almost succulent to the touch. Stem leaves are alternate, sessile, and similar to the basal leaves but smaller. Each basal rosette produces 1-many upright stems. Stems are 4-6 inches tall, yellowish-green in color, glabrous, and terminate in a compact head-like raceme. The individual flowers have 3 small sepals and two larger petal-like sepals (wings) that are lemon yellow in color. The 3 petals are united into a tube with the central lobe lacerate. The petals are also lemon yellow in color. The fruit is a capsule. The seed have paired elaiosomes (fleshy often oily appendages) that are an adaptation for ant dispersal of the seed.--A. Diamond

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Native FAC+ (NWPL)

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