Polygala longifolia Poiret

Herbs annual, 20-47(-150) cm tall. Stems slender, winged or ridged, sparsely pubescent, little branched. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade papery; basal leaves dense, ovate, 5-10 × ca. 5 mm; upper leaves sparse, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate; subterminal leaves linear-lanceolate, 2-2.5 × 0.2-0.5 cm, green, glabrescent, midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins obscure, base cuneate, margin entire, slightly recurved, apex acuminate. Racemes terminal, ca. 5 cm, to 10(-20) cm after anthesis, glabrous or slightly pubescent, densely flowered; bracteoles 3, caducous, pubescent, median one triangular-subulate, ca. 2 mm, lateral ones ovate-lanceolate, ca. 1 mm. Sepals 5, persistent; outer sepals 3, median one keel-like, ca. 2 mm, lateral ones small; inner sepals 2, petaloid, obovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm, base unguiculate, apex rounded. Petals 3, connate in lower 1/3, pink or purplish; lateral petals shorter than keel, subrhomboid or ± obovate; keel apex with papilionaceous appendages. Stamens 8, lower 1/2-3/4 united forming an open staminal sheath, split in upper 1/4-1/2 into 8 free filaments; anthers yellow, ovoid. Ovary ovoid, ca. 0.5 mm in diam.; style curved, hooklike; stigma mammilliform. Capsule oblong, ca. 3 mm, ca. 2 mm in diam.; carpel with foveolate striation, margin unequally obliquely winged. Seeds black, oblong, white pubescent; strophiole white, membranous, pubescent, 3-lobed. Fl. and fr. Aug-Nov.

Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal), India, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Indo-China, China, Malaysia, Australia.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kashmir, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia].

900-1500 m

Forest margins, grasslands on slopes of hills; 1100-1400 m.

Polygala discolor Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don; P. leptalea Candolle; P. oligophylla Candolle; P. pyramidalis H. Léveillé.