Polygala cruciata

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Distribution Map: Based on vouchered plant specimens only. View county names by placing the mouse cursor over a particular county.

Family:POLYGALACEAE
Species:Polygala cruciata L.
Common Name:Drumheads; Cross Leaf Milkwort; Purple Candyroot
Habitat:**
Associated Ecological Communities:**
Growth Habit:Herb
Duration:Annual
Category:Vascular
USDA Symbol:**
Plant Notes:Drumheads is a native herbaceous annual in the Milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It occurs nearly statewide in Alabama, but is most common in the southern third of the state. Drumheads occurs in bogs, in wet meadows, in seeps, and on wet roadsides. It is a single-stemmed annual from a taproot. Stems are erect, 3-8 inches in height, usually branched above the middle, glabrous, and green in color. Leaves are in whorls of four, sessile, linear to spatulate or elliptic in outline, glabrous, and with entire margins. Flowers are produced in dense terminal head-like racemes. Flowers are purple or pink in color and have five sepals and three petals. Two of the sepals are larger, spreading, triangular and petal-like (wings). The three petals are fused. The lower petal is the keel and has a 2-parted crest with 2 or 3 entire or 2-forked lobes on each side. The fruit is a two seeded capsule with a winged stipe-like base. The seed are pubescent.—A. Diamond.
Taxonomic Notes:Most of our plants have 5-12 leaf-bearing nodes. Sometimes a more northern entity with 3-5 leaf bearing nodes is recognized as either a var.(Polygala cruciata L. var. aquilonia Fern. & Schub.) or a subspecies (Polygala cruciata ssp. aquilonia (Fern. & Schub.) A. Haines). If the more northern entity occurs in Alabama, it would more than likely be in the extreme northern counties.
Status:Native
References:**
Specimen: View specimen details in the Alabama Herbarium Consortium Specimen Database

** Not applicable or data not available.

Classification

FamilyPOLYGALACEAE - Milkwort family
Genus Polygala
Species Polygala cruciata L. - Drumheads; Cross Leaf Milkwort; Purple Candyroot

Citation

Citation Polygala cruciata Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 706. 1753.
Basionym: **
Type: USA: VIRGINIA: Without data, Clayton 157 (lectotype: BM). Lectotypified by J.L. Reveal, in C.E. Jarvis, Order out of Chaos 755. 2007.

** Not applicable or data not available.

Synonyms

SynonymFull CitationBasionymType
Polygala cruciata subsp. aquilonia Polygala cruciata subsp. aquilonia (Fernald & B.G. Schub.) A. Haines, Stantec Bot. Notes 13(add.): 1. 2010.Polygala cruciata var. aquilonia Fernald & B.G. Schub. 
Polygala cruciata var. aquilonia Polygala cruciata var. aquilonia Fernald & B.G. Schub., Rhodora 50(595): 163–166, pl. 1100. 1948.  
Polygala cruciata var. ramosior Polygala cruciata var. ramosior Nash ex B.L. Rob., Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 1(1[2]): 458. 1897.  
Polygala ramosior Polygala ramosior (Nash ex B.L. Rob.) Small, Man. S.E. Fl. 771. 1933.Polygala cruciata var. ramosior Nash ex B.L. Rob. 

Specimens and Distribution

This species has been reported in the following counties by the herbaria listed. An overview of the individual specimens are provided in the table that follows. Click on the accession number to view details; click on column headers to sort; choose a county or herbaria to filter the specimen data.

Counties included on distribution map: Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun, Choctaw, Coffee, Conecuh, Covington, Crenshaw, DeKalb, Escambia, Etowah, Houston, Lamar, Mobile, Montgomery, Randolph, Russell, Shelby, Sumter, Washington

Counties represented by specimen data listed below:

Herbaria represented by specimen data listed below: ALNHS, AUA, JSU, SAMF, TROY, UNA, USAM, UWAL

Range of years during which specimens were collected: 1952 - 1980

Barcode / Accession No.
County
Coll. Date
Collector &
Collection No.
Herbarium &
Herbarium Name Used
Image
TROY000022214 Autauga 30 Jul 1980 Dalrymple, Larry
49		 TROY
Polygala cruciata Linnaeus var. aquilonia Fernald & Schubert
AUA_ACC_63615 Autauga 30 Jul 1980 FREEMAN, JOHN D.
49		 AUA
POLYGALA CRUCIATA L.
UWAL0033917 Autauga 05 Oct 2014 Keener, Brian R.
8663		 UWAL
Polygala cruciata L.
UNA00023259 Baldwin 13 Sep 1952 Chermock, Ralph L.
s.n.		 UNA
Polygala cruciata L. var. cruciata
UNA00023252 Baldwin 05 Jul 1963 McDaniel, Sidney
3588		 UNA
Polygala cruciata L. var. cruciata
AUA_ACC_5876 Baldwin 27 Jul 1968 SCARSBROOK, ELLEN
 AUA
POLYGALA CRUCIATA L.
AUA_ACC_17327 Baldwin 25 Jul 1969 THORNHILL, RANDY
164		 AUA
POLYGALA CRUCIATA L.
AUA_ACC_19596 Baldwin 25 Jul 1969 MOORE, HAROLD D.
507-69		 AUA
POLYGALA CRUCIATA L.
USAM000012957 Baldwin 30 Jul 1972 LeLong, Michel G.
6654		 USAM
Polygala cruciata Linnaeus
UNA00023257 Baldwin 24 May 1980 Davenport, Lawrence J.
1908		 UNA
Polygala cruciata L. var. cruciata
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