Yellow milkwort

Pilostaxis rugelii (Shuttleworth ex A. Gray) Small

Herbs annual or biennial, single- or multi-stemmed, 2–7.8 dm, usually branched distally or unbranched; usually from fibrous root cluster or taproot. Stems erect, glabrous. Leaves sometimes with basal rosette at anthesis; alternate; sessile or subsessile, proximal leaves sometimes with narrow, petiolelike base to 2 mm; basal blade spatulate, cauline obovate, oblanceolate, or spatulate proximally, becoming lanceolate distally, basal to 30–60 × 5–15 mm, cauline 8–45 × 2–8(–12) mm, succulent, base cuneate or acute, apex usually acute, sometimes obtuse or rounded proximally, surfaces glabrous. Racemes capitate, usually 2.5–3(–5) × 1.8–2.5 cm; peduncle 1–15 cm; bracts usually deciduous, narrowly ovate to linear-lanceolate. Pedicels winged, 2–2.5 mm, glabrous. Flowers bright yellow, drying pale yellow to dark greenish brown, 6–9 mm; sepals decurrent on pedicel, deltate-subulate to ovate, 1.5–2.5 mm, ciliolate; wings oblong, elliptic, or obovate, 4.5–9 × 2–4 mm, apex acuminate, acumen 0.5–0.8 mm, invo­lute; keel 5–6 mm, crest 2-parted, with 2–4 2-fid lobes on each side. Capsules obovoid, ellipsoid or subglobose, 1.5–2 × 1.5–2 mm, margins not winged. Seeds 1.2–1.6 mm, pubescent; aril 1.1–1.6 mm, lobes subequal to or greater than length of seed. 2n = 64, 68.

Flowering spring–late fall. Wet flatwoods, open areas (including prairielike or savannalike openings); 0–50 m; Fla.

Polygala rugelii occurs in all of the peninsular counties.