Annual herb 5 - 20 cm tall Stem: erect and branched. Leaves: in whorls of three to five, rarely opposite, with reduced or scale-like lower leaves. Middle and upper leaves are 1 - 2.5 cm long, 1.5 - 3.5 mm wide, and linear to linear-oblong with a pointed tip. Inflorescence: a dense cluster (raceme) on a 0.5 - 4 cm stalk, 0.6 - 1.5 cm long, to 7 mm across, narrow cylindrical to cone-shaped. Flowers: white to greenish, with three small outer sepals and two petal-like inner sepals (wings) 4 - 5 mm long. The three petals are fused into a tube shorter than the wings, and one petal is fringed. Lower flowers drop as soon as the fruit begins to mature. Fruit: a dehiscent capsule, 1 - 1.6 mm long, oval, with finely hairy seed. The seeds are attached to an appendage (aril) with two oblong to narrow egg-shaped lobes one-third to three-fourths the length of the seed.

Similar species: The typical variety of Polygala verticillata is taller (10 - 40 cm tall), can have pinkish flowers, and the inflorescence stalks are up to 7 cm long.

Flowering: early July to mid October

Habitat and ecology: Usually in sparsely vegetated areas of dry prairies and sandy black oak savannas, but also in glacial kame hill prairies.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Etymology: Polygala comes from the Greek words polys, meaning much, and gala meaning milk, referring to the old belief that milkworts would aid in milk secretion. Verticillata means whorled. Isocycla means "with equal cycles."

Author: The Morton Arboretum