Nuttall’s milkwort

Herbs annual, single-stemmed, 1–3 dm, usually branched; from taproot. Stems erect, appearing glabrous, but usually puberulent, at least proximally, hairs appressed (very rarely with a few sparse, incurved to spreading hairs). Leaves alternate; sessile or subsessile; blade oblanceolate proximally to linear distally, 3–16 × 0.5–1(–1.5) mm, base acute, apex acute or obtuse, surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Racemes densely cylindric, 0.5–4 × 0.4–0.7 cm; peduncle 0.5–2.5 cm; bracts persistent, linear-lanceolate. Pedicels 0.5(–1) mm, glabrous. Flowers purple, dull reddish pink, or greenish, 2.4–3.4 mm; sepals ovate, 0.5–0.8 mm; wings elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 2–3 × 0.5–0.7 mm, apex acute to obtuse, sometimes minutely apiculate; keel 2–3.2 mm, crest 2-parted, with 2 or 3 blunt lobes on each side. Capsules ovoid, ellipsoid, or subglobose, 1.5–2.4 × 1.1–1.8 mm, margins not winged. Seeds 0.9–1.4 mm, pubescent; aril 0.3–0.7 mm, lobes to 1/2 length of seed. 2n = 46.

Flowering summer. Dry, sandy meadows, open moist disturbed areas, pocosin margins, pine woodlands, bogs, wet flatwoods, powerline cuts, roadsides; 0–300 m; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ky., Md., Mass., Miss., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Va.

Polygala nuttallii has been reported for Ontario, Canada; no vouchers are known (J. M. Gillett 1968b).