Log In New Account Sitemap
  • Home
  • Specimen Search
    • Search Collections
    • Map Search
    • Exsiccati Search
  • Images
    • Image Browser
    • Search Images
  • Flora Projects
    • Arizona
    • New Mexico
    • Colorado Plateau
    • Plant Atlas of Arizona (PAPAZ)
    • Sonoran Desert
    • Teaching Checklists
  • Agency Floras
    • NPS - Intermountain
    • USFWS - Region 2
    • BLM Flora
    • Coronado NF
  • Dynamic Floras
    • Dynamic Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Additional Websites
    • New Mexico Flores
    • Plant Atlas Project of Arizona (PAPAZ)
    • Southwest Colorado Wildflowers
    • Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness
    • Consortium of Midwest Herbaria
    • Consortium of Southern Rocky Mountain Herbaria
    • Intermountain Region Herbaria Network (IRHN)
    • Mid-Atlantic Herbaria
    • North American Network of Small Herbaria (NANSH)
    • Northern Great Plains Herbaria
    • Red de Herbarios del Noroeste de México (northern Mexico)
    • SERNEC - Southeastern USA
    • Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria (TORCH)
  • Resources
    • Help
    • Webinars
    • Joining a Symbiota Portal
Polygala incarnata L.  
Go To Encyclopedia of Life...
Family: Polygalaceae
Procession-Flower, more...procession flower
Polygala incarnata image
  • vPlants
  • Gleason & Cronquist
  • Web Links
The Morton Arboretum
Annual herb 15 cm - 0.6 m tall Stem: slender, unbranched or few-branched, grooved, covered with a waxy whitish coating (glaucous). Leaves: alternate, 0.5 - 1.2 cm long, linear, usually falling from plant by flowering time. Inflorescence: a dense cluster (raceme), 1 - 4 cm long, 1 - 1.5 cm across, nearly cylindrical. Flowers: pale rose purple, with three smaller outer sepals and two petal-like inner sepals (wings). The three petals are fused into a tube more than twice as long as the wings (7 - 10 mm) and one petal is fringed. Fruit: a dehiscent capsule with a hairy seed 2 mm long and a cellular appendage (aril) 1 mm long.

Similar species: Polygala incarnata, Polygala paucifolia, Polygala polygama, Polygala sanguinea, and Polygala senega all have alternate leaves. Polygala paucifolia is a creeping perennial with flowers longer than 11 mm. Polygala polygama and Polygala senega each have clusters of several stems. Polygala sanguinea has leaves that are larger (1 - 4 cm long) and persist after flowering.

Flowering: mid July to late September

Habitat and ecology: One of the rarest prairie plants in the Chicago Region.

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. Incarnata means flesh-colored.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Annual; stems slender, glaucous, simple or sparingly branched, 2-6 dm; lvs alternate, erect or ascending, linear, 5-12 mm; racemes dense, 1-4 cm נ10-15 mm; fls pale rose-purple, 7-10 mm, the cor more than twice as long as the wings, promptly deciduous after anthesis; seeds hairy, 2 mm, with a cellular aril 1 mm. Dry soil, upland woods, barrens, and prairies; L.I. to Mich., Wis., Io., and Kan., s. to Fla. and Tex. June-Aug. (Galypola i.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
  • Encyclopedia of Life
  • W3Tropicos
  • USDA PLANTS Database
  • Flora of North America
  • International Plant Names Index
  • Google Search Engine
  • Google Images
  • BOLD Systems - Barcode of Life Data Systems
  • Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI)
  • NCBI - National Center for Biotechnology Information
Polygala incarnata
Open Interactive Map
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium  
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium  
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Polygala incarnata image
Click to Display
100 Initial Images
- - - - -
View All Images
The National Science Foundation
Developments of SEINet, Symbiota, and associated specimen databases have been supported by National Science Foundation Grants (DBI 9983132, BRC 0237418, DBI 0743827, DBI 0847966)