FIELD MILKWORT 



Polygala sanguinea L. 



July - August This member of tlie very diversified Milkwort 



Upland fields, open hills family is. in the manner of most of its mem- 

 bers, unlike most of the group. It is a slender 

 little plant with somethinfr of the appearance of a spring llower, but it 

 blooms in midsununci- in diy, clay soil, usually on dry ujjlands in com- 

 pany with p(>v(Mty grass, ironwei'd, and spiny pufThalls. 



Field milkwort has thin, angled. i)ale green stems which branch in 

 the upper part of the ])lant; on the tip of each branch there is a clover- 

 like head of fiowers. The flowers themselves are tiny, and are closely over- 

 lapped, arranged like the scales of a pine cone, but are ojien at the top 

 of the llower head. The flowers are bright rose-purple below and grow 

 paler toward the top of the flower, where they are i)ale green or almost 

 white. The leaves are narrow and still", arranged alternately on the thin 

 stems. Before the flowers bloom the i)lants arc so inconsjjicuous that they 

 are almost invisible in the wilderness of gra.-s. But when July comes and 

 the uplands bake in the sunshine, the flowers of milkwort bloom, and 

 at a distivnce the slojie is purple with their small magnificence. 



There on the upland the field sparrow sings in the hot sunnner sun- 

 shine. The meadow mice continue to cut new runways through the sparse 

 grass and arch the runways with grassblades to keep them from the all- 

 seeing eye of the hovering hawk. And around the stems of the milkworts 

 the brown mice run. and tliriftily garner the milkwort seeds when they 

 drop to the ground. 



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