Maryland Milkwort

Polygala mariana Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8 Polygala no. 6. 1768.
Polygala fasligiata Nutt. Gen. 2: 89. 1818.
Slender erect annual, 1.5-4 dm. high, sparsely papillose-puberulent above; leaves all alternate, linear or the lower spatulate, 6-24 mm. long, 0.5-2.5 mm. wide, cuspidate, usually ascending; racemes capitate or short-cylindric, obtuse or apiculate, 6-11 mm. thick, the axis 0.5-3.5 cm. long; bracts subulate-ovate, erose, often ciliolate, deciduous; pedicels 1.8-2 mm. long; flowers pink or purple; sepals oval to ovate-lanceolate, obtuse to subacuminate, sometimes ciliolate, 0.8-1.8 mm. long; wings elliptic-obovate, 2.7-3.6 mm. long, 1.3-2.2 mm. wide, slightly apiculate, cuneate at base, 6-nerved; keel papillose below, 2.3-3.2 mm. long, the crest on each side of a lamella and a single lobe; capsule suborbicular or rhombic-suborbicular, with broad stipe-like sterile base, 2.2 mm. long, 1.8-2 mm. wide; seed subglobose-pyriform, rostrate at base, rounded or apiculate at apex, short-pilose, 1.1 mm. long; aril 0.4 mm. long, the 2 oblong cellular lobes fastened to the point of seed, loosely descending and standing forward.
Type locality: Maryland.
Distribution: New Jersev to Florida, and westward to Kentucky and Texas.

Polygala mariana, the Maryland milkwort, is a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It is endemic to the southern and eastern United States. It is an annual with a height between 4 and 16 inches (10 and 41 cm) and it flowers between June and October.