Gaywings, flowering wintergreen, polygale paucifolié

Polygala paucifolia Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 3: 880. 1802; Triclisperma paucifolia (Willdenow) Nieuwland

Herbs 0.5–1.5(–2) dm. Leaves: petiole 4–10 mm (to almost sessile proximally); leaves proximally highly reduced, scalelike, 2–8 mm, distally with 3–6 well-developed leaves, somewhat clustered; blade elliptic to ovate, 15–40(–50) × 10–25 mm, base cuneate, apex rounded, obtuse, or acute, surfaces often glabrous, except pubescent adaxially on midrib and margins densely incurved-ciliolate, some­times densely pubescent throughout. Inflorescences: peduncle (0–)1–2 cm; bracts ovate. Pedicels 10–20 mm, glabrous. Cleistogamous flowers usually present later in season, usually on short, erect, rarely leafy, bracteate stems proximally, 2 mm. Chasmogamous flowers 15–23 mm; sepals 4–6 mm; wings obovate or spatulate; keel 10–20 mm. Capsules obovoid or subglobose, 5–8 × 5–8 mm. Seeds 2.5–3.5 mm; aril 1.5–3.5 mm, lobes 1/2 to as long as seed. 2n = 34.

Flowering spring–early summer(–mid summer). Sandy, limestone, or granite soils, coniferous and/or mixed forests on moist soils, wooded bogs; 50–700 m; Alta., Man., N.B., Ont., Que., Sask.; Conn., Del., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Polygaloides paucifolia is isolated and morpho­logically distinct from its closest relatives in Europe and northern Africa, perhaps being a vicariant relict of a historical circumboreal flora. Its creeping herbaceous habit with relatively thin leaves and large showy crest set P. paucifolia apart from the Old World taxa (subshrubs or shrubs to 1 m with subcoriaceous leaves and small, fairly inconspicuous crest); the form of the stigma, the glanduliform disc at the base of the flower, and the few-flowered inflorescences morphologically unite the taxa.

Polygaloides paucifolia is considered to be extirpated in Newfoundland.