MILKWORT FAMILY 



POLYGALACEAE 



PURPLE MILKWORT 



Polygala sanguinea L. 



The Milkwort family is relatively small and of little 

 economic importance except that a few of its members are 

 used in medicine. Several species of Polygala occur in 



Illinois, but in most parts of the state this is 



the most common. 



It is a smooth annual herb 6-15 inches high, 

 which branches above the middle and is leafy 

 to the top. It is found in fields, meadows and 

 open places in woods from Nova Scotia to 

 Minnesota, south to Louisiana and North 

 Carolina, and blooms from June to September. 



The flowers are usually rose-purple but 

 rarely greenish and even white. They are 

 densely arranged in a globular or oblong head 

 at the end of each branch. The single flower, 

 as shown, is very irregular. There are 5 sepals, 

 of which the uppermost and the 2 lowermost 

 are small and greenish, whereas the lateral 2 

 are large and colored like the petals. The j; 

 petals are united into a tube which is split 

 down the back. Filaments ot 

 the 6 or 8 stamens are united 

 below into a split tube at- 

 tached to the petals. The 

 pistil has a 2-celled ovary and 

 a long curved style, and de- 

 velops into a 2-seeded; pod. 

 ... ,^,. , 1 ,. y Each seed bears an outgrowth 



^ v\ ^^.-..^^^fi^s^JM^.^ called a caruncle, which is 



nearly as large as itself. 



The Seneca Snakeroot, Poly- 

 gala Senega L,, is quite common in some places, especially in 

 rocky soil. Several unbranched stems come from the thick and 

 knotty rootstock, and bear the lanceolate, rough-margined leaves. 

 The white flowers are borne in a terminal cylindrical spike. The 

 wing petals are. round-obovate and concave, and the crest on the 

 back of the keel-shaped lower petal is short. The caruncle is 

 nearly as large as the seed. The plant blooms from May to July 

 and is to be found southwest from New Brunswick, Hudson Bay 

 and Alberta, Canada. 



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