Polygala nana seed

LATIN NAME: Polygala nana

COMMON NAME: Dwarf Milkwort

The dwarf milkwort is a handsome, low, tufted, evergreen perennial herb of the dry, open places, and its fine, small, oval or spoon-shaped leaves and its small, bright-yellow or orange, pea-like flowers in the short, dense heads have made it a treasured and charming little plant of the rock garden. It grows as a low, tufted, evergreen perennial herb, reaching up to twenty centimetres or so, with the low, tufted, branching stems bearing the small, crowded, oval or spoon-shaped, glossy leaves and, through the spring and the summer, the small, bright-yellow or orange, pea-like flowers in the short, dense, terminal heads, followed by the small, dry, few-seeded capsules. It is a species of the flowering plant in the milkwort family, and it is native to the dry, open places of the eastern United States, while it is grown as a treasured little plant of the rock garden, and it is known as the dwarf milkwort.

In the milkwort family it is the bright little yellow flower of the dry ground, a plant that makes the rock garden look settled from the first season.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The milkwort family has a long record in the traditional plant chemistry of the many lands, and the dwarf species of the eastern United States has been looked at for the constituents of its parts by the natural-product chemists. The botanists have sorted out its place in the dry, open grassland of the east, and the horticulturists of the rock garden have studied its growth and its flowering for the alpine house and the sunny slope. The plant is best kept as a subject of study rather than a casual home remedy, and the growers of the small rock-garden plants keep it in their collections.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the rock garden, the dwarf milkwort is the bright tuft that asks for nothing. Its small, bright-yellow, pea-like flowers feed the small bees, the low, evergreen growth carpets the sunny slope, and the neat tufts fill the crevices and the alpine house with colour. The traditional uses of the milkwort family keep the plant in the old practice, and it grows well in the gritty, free-draining, sunny ground. Yellow, tufted and uncomplaining.

Scatter the seeds over the surface of a pot of gritty, free-draining soil and only just press them in, keep the pot in a bright, airy spot and water it gently, and the little tufts will thread up through the grit in their own good time.