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| Photo
by Renee Brecht |
Britton and Brown. See
credits below. |
| Botanical name: |
Polygala cruciata |
| Common
name: |
Crossleaved
milkwort
|
| Synonomy |
n/a
|
| Group: |
Dicot |
| Family: |
Polygalaceae |
| Growth
Type: |
Forb/herb
|
| Duration: |
Perennial
|
| Plant
height: |
4-12", leaves in whorls of 4.
|
| Flower
color: |
purplish-pink
or greenish-white on short stalks; side petals about as wide as long.
|
| Flower
size: |
3/8"-1/2" |
| Flowering/fruiting time |
Late July to early October.
|
| Habitat: |
dry
to moist, sandy or infertile soil, bogs, old fields |
| Range in
New Jersey: |
Common in damp ground in the Pine
Barrens and locally in the Middle, Coast and Cape May districts,
occuring at a few stations north of our limits, but all within the
coastal plain.
|
| Heritage ranking if any: |
n/a
|
| Distribution: |
 |
| Misc.: |
USDA
lists as a facultative wetland + species, i.e., usually occurs in
wetlands (estimated probability
67%-99%), more often in wetlands, but occasionally found in
non-wetlands.
P.
cruciata is listed as a species of concern (rare,
threatened, or endangered) in eight states throughout its range.
This species, according to Stone (1911), and the smaller P. nuttalli, are the most
widely and uniformally distributed species of Polygala; occuring everywhere
throughout the New Jersey costal plain...even down to the very edge of
the salt marsh.
He continues, While usually about the color of red clover, which it
somewhat resembles as we see it scattered about among the grass and
sedges, Polygala cruciata is
sometimes entirely greenish, a condition that is more familiar in P. viridescens, in which the two
color phases were originally described as different species.
Polygala,
Much milk, stems from a belief
that cattle grazing in fields with this plant produced more milk, and cruciata, cross-shaped leaves
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