Glochidiate milkwort

Herbs annual, single-stemmed, 1–3 dm, unbranched or branched throughout; from taproot or fibrous root cluster. Stems erect, pubescent or subglabrous, hairs spreading. Leaves whorled, at least proximally; sessile or subsessile; blade narrowly oblanceolate-spatulate to linear or scalelike, 3–25 × 0.5–2(–5) mm, base cuneate, apex rounded or acute, surfaces pubescent. Racemes cylindric, 1–3 × 0.5 cm; peduncle to 1 cm; bracts deciduous, narrowly ovate. Pedicels 0.5–1 mm, glabrous. Flowers pink, purple, or white, 2.5–4.5 mm; sepals ovate to elliptic, 0.5–1 mm; wings mostly elliptic, to ovate or obovate, 3–5 × 2–3 mm, apex acute or obtuse; keel 2.7–3.8 mm, crest 2-parted with 2–4 entire or 2-fid lobes on each side. Capsules ellipsoid, 1.5–2 × 1 mm, margins not winged. Seeds 0.7–1.1 mm, pubescent, hairs glochidiate; aril vestigial or, rarely, to 0.1 mm, unlobed.

Flowering summer–late fall. Grasslands, montane slopes, near ephemeral springs or seeps; 1000–1800 m; Ariz.; Mexico (Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Sonora, Tabasco, Veracruz); West Indies; Central America; South America.

Polygala glochidata occurs in Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties.