Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BLOOD MILKWORT

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Polygala sanguinea L.

Cherokee County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 4-16 inches

Family: Polygalaceae - Milkwort Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Purple milkwort, purple polygala, blood polygala.

Stems:

Erect, usually single, simple or branching above, somewhat angled, glabrous.

Leaves:

Alternate, numerous, erect or ascending, linear to elliptic-linear, .2 to 1.6 inches long, less than .2 inch wide; margins finely-toothed; tips abruptly short pointed.

Inflorescences:

Raceme, head-like to short cylindric, blunt and dense, 1/5 to 1/2 inch in diameter, 1/4 to 1.4 inch long; terminal on stalks 1/6 to 1 inch long.

Flowers:

Pinkish, purplish, greenish or white; sepals 5, 2 lateral wings ovate-oval, less than 1/4 inch long, 1/10 to 1/8 inch wide, tips rounded; petals 3, united into a tube shorter than sepals, lowest petal or keel about 1/10 inch long, crested; stamens 8.

Fruits:

Capsules, nearly circular, 2-seeded; seeds tiny, spherical, short-hairy.

Habitat:

Sandy prairies, open woods and moist meadows.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas.

Blood milkwort leaves