Polygala tenuifolia Willd.

Herbs perennial, 15-50 cm tall. Principal root to 10 cm, stout, base fleshy. Stems much branched, caespitose, erect or inclined, ridged and sulcate, pubescent. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade linear to linear-lanceolate, 10-30 × 0.5-1(-3) mm, papery, glabrous or very sparsely puberulent, midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins obscure, base cuneate, margin entire, recurved, apex acuminate. Racemes terminal, secund, 5-7 cm, slender, becoming slightly pendulous, sparsely few flowered; bracts 3, caducous, lanceolate, ca. 1 mm, apex acuminate. Sepals 5, persistent, glabrous; outer sepals 3, linear-lanceolate, ca. 2.5 mm, apex acute; inner sepals 2, petaloid, obovate or elliptic, ca. 5 × 2.5 mm, midvein green, base unguiculate, margin membranous, violet, apex rounded, mucronate. Petals 3, connate in lower 1/3, purple; lateral petals obliquely oblong, ca. 4 mm, inside hairy at base; keel longer than lateral petals, apex with fimbriate appendages. Stamens 8; filaments forming an open staminal ciliate sheath split in upper 1/4 with 2 separate single filaments with anthers in middle, and on either side of these a united group of 3 filaments each carrying 3 sessile oblong anthers at tip. Ovary compressed-orbicular, apex retuse; style curved, apex trumpet-shaped; stigma in trumpet. Capsule orbicular, ca. 4 mm in diam., narrowly winged, eciliate, apex retuse. Seeds black, ovoid, ca. 2 mm in diam., densely white pubescent, with 2-lobed decurrent strophiole. Fl. and fr. May-Sep. 2n = 32, 34.

Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan [Korea, Mongolia, Russia].

Prairies, grasslands, shrub forests, thickets on mountain slopes; (200-)500-2300 m.

Polygala sibirica Linnaeus var. angustifolia Ledebour; P. sibirica var. tenuifolia (Willdenow) Backer & Moore.

Polygala tenuifolia (yuǎn zhì; Chinese: 远志) is an herb in the family Polygalaceae which is hardy to USDA Zone 6.