Coastal-plain or scale-leaf milkwort

Herbs annual or short-lived perennial, usually single-stemmed, sometimes 2 or 3 stems near base, 1–5 dm, usually branched distally; from taproot or, when perennial, sometimes with slender taprootlike caudex with persistent stem base. Stems erect, glabrous. Leaves alter­nate; sessile; blade subulate, squamiform, 0.5–1.6(–2) × 0.3–0.7 mm, base obtuse, apex acute, surfaces glabrous. Racemes cylindric, 0.4–3.5 × 0.3–0.5 cm; peduncle 0.1–0.5 cm; bracts deciduous, lanceolate. Pedicels 0.2–0.5 mm, glabrous. Flowers usually white, sometimes pinkish tinged, 1.8–2.7 mm; sepals ovate to lanceolate-ovate, 0.6–1(–1.5) mm; wings elliptic to obovate, 1.5–2.5 × 0.6–1.1 mm, apex usually obtuse to bluntly rounded, rarely acute, often minutely apiculate or cuspidate; keel 1.5–2.2 mm, crest 2-parted, with 2or 3 lobes on each side. Capsules ovoid to ellipsoid, 1.7–2.2 × 1.2–1.5 mm, margins not winged. Seeds 0.8–1.2 mm, pubescent; aril vestigial.

Flowering year-round. Moist to somewhat dry flatwoods, pine-palmetto woodlands, margins of seepage bogs; 0–100 m; Fla., Ga.

The protologue description of Polygala setacea with “in Carolina septentrionali” is the likely source of later reports of the species occurring in the Carolinas, (for example, J. K. Small 1933; R. W. Long and O. Lakela 1971; R. K. Godfrey and J. W. Wooten 1981). There are no known specimens from either of the Carolinas; the locality reported by Michaux may be erroneous. Small reported Polygala setacea also from Mississippi; no supporting specimens are known. The presence of this species in Mississippi or either of the Carolinas would represent a disjunction from the range documented by known vouchers.