Maravillas milkwort

Polygala maravillasensis Correll, Wrightia 3: 131. 1965

Subshrubs, multi-stemmed, broom­like, 1.5–4 dm. Stems usually erect, usually stiff, sometimes lax or sprawling, usually glaucous, especially proximally, glabrous. Leaves early deciduous; usually sessile, rarely subsessile; blade scalelike, linear-subulate, lanceolate, or elliptic, 2(–3) × 0.5–1 mm, base and apex narrowly acute, surfaces pubescent, hairs incurved. Racemes terminal, often also appearing axillary (from branches proximal to racemes of major branches with vegetative portions highly reduced), 2–10(–15) × 0.8–1.9 cm; rachis not thorn-tipped; peduncle to 2 cm, sometimes vestigial, especially on reduced axillary racemes; bracts mostly deciduous, rarely persistent, lanceolate, narrowly ovate, or linear. Pedicels 1.5–3.2(–3.6) mm, glabrous. Flowers pink, keel green to yellow distally, (3–)3.4–5 mm; upper sepal persistent, others deciduous, ovate to elliptic, lower sepals ovate or elliptic to narrowly obovate, 1.5–2.8 mm, glabrous, margins sparsely ciliate proximally; wings obovate, (2.7–)3.5–4.7 × (1.5–)1.8–2.8 mm, glabrous, margins sometimes sparsely ciliate proximally; keel (2.5–)2.7–3.5 mm, sac incurved-puberulent in distal 1/2, beak bluntly rounded, 0.3–0.8 × 0.3–0.6 mm, pubescent. Capsules obovoid, usually narrowly so, (2.6–)3.3–4.4 × 1.8–2.6 mm, base cuneate, margins with very narrow and even wing, glabrous or sparsely pubescent apically. Seeds 2.3–2.9 mm, pubescent, usually more sparsely pubescent to often subglabrous in distal 1/5–1/2 (sometimes evenly pubescent throughout); aril 0.6–1.1 mm, lobes to 1/3 length of seed. 2n = 18 (36).

Flowering spring–fall. Crevices of limestone rocks and cliffs in desert and semidesert canyons and hills; of conservation concern; 400–900 m; Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila).

In the flora area, Rhinotropis maravillasensis occurs along the Rio Grande in Brewster and Terrell counties.