Comprehensive Description
provided by North American Flora
Polygala cowellii (Britton) Blake, Contr. Gray Herb. 47: 10. 1916.
Phlebotaenia Cowellii Britton, Torreya 7: 38. 1907. Phlebolaenia portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 382. 1908.
Tree up to 10 m. high; branches sparsely appressed-pubescent, at length glabrate; leaves oblong to elliptic, 8-12.5 cm. long, 3.2-6.9 cm. wide, cuneate to rounded at each end, or abruptly pointed with obtuse apex, glabrous or with a few hairs along midvein; petioles 5-7 mm. long; racemes 2.5 cm. long, subsessile on leafless branches, 6-13-flowered, their axes like the pedicels (4-9 mm. long) densely spreading-puberulous; flowers purple; sepals broadly elliptic, rounded, purplish-green, ciliate, the upper 4 mm. long, the lower 2.5 mm. long; wings elliptic-obovate, obtuse, short -clawed, 14.5 mm. long, 9 mm. wide; keel with two rotund lateral folds, 14 mm. long; capsule suborbicular or semi-orbicular, 3.8 cm. long, 2.6-3.6 cm. wide, membranous, glabrous, very broadly winged on both cells or one wing sometimes greatly reduced, the wings many-nerved, somewhat reticulate, the seminiferous cells about 9 mm. long; one ovule usually abortive; seed obovoid, somewhat compressed, densely rufiduloussilky-pilose, 8 mm. long; aril none.
Type locality: Coamo Springs, Porto Rico. Distribution: Porto Rico.
- bibliographic citation
- John Kunkel Small, Lenda Tracy Hanks, Nathaniel Lord Britton. 1907. GERANIALES, GERANIACEAE, OXALIDACEAE, LINACEAE, ERYTHROXYLACEAE. North American flora. vol 25(1). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY