MILKWORT FAMILY 21 



Family 78. POLYGALACEAE. 



Milkwort Family. 



Herbs, shrubs or rarely trees, often with glands in the leaf-tissue. Leaves alter- 

 nate, opposite or whorled, simple, entire, without stipules. Flowers perfect, irreg- 

 ular, racemose, spicate or solitary, each subtended by a bract and 2 bractlets. Sepals 

 5, the two lateral (wings) usually much larger and petaloid. Petals 3 or rarely 5, 

 hypogynous, the anterior one (keel) boat-shaped often with a terminal beak or crest, 

 the two upper usually ligulate or oval, often united to the staminal sheath at base. 

 Stamens usually 8, and generally with the filaments united into a sheath; anthers 

 opening by a subterminal pore. Ovary 2-celled ; style simple ; stigma 2-lobed ; ovules 

 solitary in each cell, pendulous. Fruit a capsule, drupe or samara. Seeds usually 

 pubescent, arillate ; endosperm present ; embryo straight, axial. 



A family of 10 genera and approximately 1,000 species, widely distributed in temperate and tropical 

 ons. 



regions. 



1. POLYGALA L. Sp. PI. 701. 1753. 



Herbs, shrubs or trees, with alternate, opposite or whorled leaves. Flowers in termi- 

 nal or axillary racemes, sometimes also cleistogamous and subterranean. Capsule com- 

 pressed contrary to the partition, often margined or winged, loculicidally dehiscent or 

 indehiscent. Seeds usually pubescent and arillate. [Name Greek, meaning much milk.] 



About 450 species of wide geographic distribution; about 180 species occur in North America. Type species, 

 Polygala vulgaris L. 



Flowers 8-12 mm. long; keel beaked. 

 Plants not spinescent. 



Capsule thin- walled, distinctly reticulate; aril with short rounded umbo; wings glabrous; basal racemes 



bearing cleistogamous flowers. 1. P. californica. 

 Capsule firm- walled, obscurely or not at all reticulate; aril with a conspicuous conical or cylindrical 

 umbo; no basal racemes. 



Flowers greenish yellow; wings conspicuously puberulent. 2. P. cornuta. 



Flowers purplish; wings merely ciliate. 3. P. Fishiae. 



Plants spinescent. 4. P. subspinosa. 



Flowers 4-5. S mm. long; keel beakless. 5. P. acanthoclada. 



1. Polygala californica Nutt. California Milkwort or Polygala. Fig. 3011. 



Polygala californica Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, FI. N. Amer. 1: 671. 1840. 

 Polygala cucullata Benth. PI. Hartw. 299. 1849. 



Stems numerous from a slender woody root, slender, erect or spreading, 2-4 dm. long, some- 

 what puberulent with incurved hairs. Leaves elliptic to oval, 1-4 cm. long, obtuse, sparsely 

 puberulent. Cleistogamous flowers usually present, near the bases of the stems. Normal flowers 

 in few-flowered terminal racemes, rose and violet-purple; wings 10-12 mm. long, sparsely ciliolate 

 on the upper margins near the base, otherwise glabrous ; beak of keel strongly papillose, 3 mm. 

 long; capsule 6-7.5 mm. long, thin-walled and reticulate. 



Usually in woods, Humid Transition Zone; Josephine County, Oregon, to Monterey County, California. 

 Type locality: probably Monterey, California. May-July. 



2. Polygala cornuta Kell. Sierra Milkwort or Polygala. Fig. 3012. 



Polygala cornuta Kell. Proc. Calif. Acad. 1 : 62. 1855. 



Stems several to many from a stout woody root, shrubby, usually spreading and with ascend- 

 ing branches, 3-8 dm. high. Leaves narrowly elliptic-lanceolate to oval, 2-A cm. long, obtuse or 

 rounded at apex, sparsely puberulent ; racemes rather dense, 2^ cm. long ; pedicels 2-5 mm. long ; 

 flowers yellowish white or greenish white ; wings oval-obovate, 1 cm. long, densely puberulent ; 

 beak of keel 1.5-2 mm. long; capsule 8 mm. broad, firm-walled, scarcely reticulate. 



Open coniferous forests. Arid Transition Zone; eastern Humboldt and Siskiyou Counties, south through 

 the Sierra Nevada to Fresno County, California. Type locality: Placerville, California. June-bept. 



3. Polygala Fishiae Parry. Fish's Milkwort or Polygala. Fig. 3013. 



Polygala Fishiae Parry, Proc. Davenp. Acad. 4: 39. 1884. 



Polygala cornuta var. Fishiae Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 594. 1925. 



Slender shrub 1-1.5 m. high, the branchlets puberulent. Leaves linear to narrowly oblong 

 or oblong-lanceolate, 15-45 mm. long, rounded at the apex, sparsely puberulent on the midvein 

 above and on the margins, or often glabrous, pale green ; racemes 2-10 cm. long, flowers tew 

 to many; sepals elliptic, 1.5-2 mm. long; wings rose-purple, 6-9 mm. long, obovate, hnelv cilio- 

 late, otherwise glabrous ; keel yellow, 7-8 mm. long ; beak slender, 0.7 mm. long ; capsule sub- 

 orbicular, 8 mm. broad, firm-walled, scarcely reticulate. 



Shaded canyon slopes, Upper Sonoran Zone; Ventura County, California, south to Lower California. Type 

 locality: near Sauzal, Todos Santos Bay, Lower California. June-Aug. 



