Thicket/ Cross-leaved Milkwort

COMMON NAME: Cross-Leaved Milkwort

OTHER COMMON NAME(S): Drumheads

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Polygala cruciata

FAMILY: Polygalaceae

COMMUNITY: Thicket

STATUS: Native   

LIFESPAN: Annual

HEIGHT: 4 to 12 inches

FLOWERING TIME: Early July to October

FRUITING TIME:

DISTRIBUTION: Maine to Florida ~ Throughout the Coastal Plain, most abundant in the Pine Barrens and fringes in New Jersey

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS: Drum heads (cluster of flowers at end of a spike) erect ~ Branches few ~ Leaves chiefly whorls of 3 or 4 ~ Flowers pale rose-purple or greenish purple, very sweet fragrance, terminate in slender cusp

GENERAL INFORMATION: This family (Polygalaceae) commonly known as the Milkwort family consists of 18 genera and 950 species of herbs, shrubs, lianas and trees.  The Greek name polugalon (from polus, “much” and gala, “milk) was applied by Dioscorides to a plant, “harsh to the taste and this also being drunk is thought to cause more milk”.  It Milkwort family was thought to “engendreth plenty of milk; therefore it is good to be used of nurses that lack milk”. The name of plants in this genus (Polygala) means “much milk”.  The species name (cruciata) refers to the cross-shaped arrangement of four leaves. In 1851 Thoreau wrote “Polygala cruciata, cross-leaved polygala, in the meadow behind Trillium Woods and the railroad.  This is a rare and new to me.  It has a very sweet, but as it were intermittent, fragrance, as of a checkerberry and mayflower combined”. In his Irish Herbal (1735) K’Eogh wrote of the Milkwort: “it has a hot dry nature, and it encourages the production of milk in nursing mothers.”  In modern times the reputation for increasing milk production in nursing mothers is deemed to be unfounded.

Please note: While harvesting wild berries/fruit is permitted at Island Beach State Park, visitors must adhere to park regulations at all times and must not damage vegetation or go off designated trails.  This information is presented for educational purposes.