Polygala verticillata (Whorled Milkwort) - photos and description
Very
difficult to find unless crawling on your hands and knees
Leaves
arranged in whorls on stem
Leaves
arranged in whorls on stem
General: Weak-stemmed annuals with a branching growth habit. Plants glabrous.
Flowers: Flowers greenish-white in spikes from leaf axils. Spikes measured at 12 mm long, flowers measured at 2 mm long.
Leaves: Leaves cauline, in whorls of 2 to 5, linear, sessile, with a prominent mid-rib. Leaf measured at 2 cm long by 2 mm wide.
Height: Height given in Budd's Flora from 10 to 40 cm, we measured plants to only 9 cm tall. Small things, and this measurement was taken in a year with abundant rainfall, too.
Habitat: Moist grassland in the extreme southeast of Saskatchewan.
Abundance: Very rare, ranked as an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Photographed July 14th, August 1st and 7th, coulee outwash slopes, grassland, Souris River valley, about 200 km southeast of our home in Regina, SK.