Family: Polygalaceae
Polygala virgata
Citation:
Thunb., Prod. Pl. Cap. 2:120 (1800).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Virgate sometimes almost leafless shrub to 3 m high; stems green, with swollen bases of deciduous leaves; leaves linear to narrowly elliptic, to 6 cm long, glabrous, acute to acuminate.
Margins loosely recurved flowers purple to pale-lilac, c. 1-1.5 cm long, in long terminal racemes; outer sepals elliptic; wing sepals widely elliptic to suborbicular; keel much longer than the spathulate lateral petals, with a crest of 2 much and finely branched appendages 4-5 mm long; stamens 8; filaments free for about half their length; style strongly curved, with hairs inside the curve; stigma short and broad.
capsule c. 10 mm long, c. 8 mm wide, obliquely obovate, glabrous; marginal wing c. 1 mm broad; seeds 0.5-1.5 mm long, cylindrical, shortly pubescent.
| Polygala virgata twig.
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Image source: fig 418e in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Courtenay-Lafimer et al. (1967) The flowering plants of the Tsitsikama Forest and Coastal National Park, pl. 41.
Distribution:
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S.Aust.: EP, SL, SE. N.S.W. native to Africa.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: July — Nov.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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