Yellow Milkwort

(Polygala lutea)

 

   

 

 

Color Photograph: Plants Database, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Yellow Milkwort (Polygala lutea L.)

Identification: Flowers yellow-orange, arranged in a compact, rounded flower head suggesting a clover head. Flower heads either apical or at the ends of branches. Leaves elongate, ovate, alternate up and down the stem. Plant 6 to 12 inches in height.

Distribution: Found primarily along the Atlantic coastal plain from Long Island southward to Florida and westward to Louisiana.

Habitat: Yellow Milkwort is found in pine barrens and other sandy soils.

Flowering period: June to October.

Similar Species: The yellow-orange, globular flower heads are distinctive.

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