These low-growing, showy natives grow voluntarily all over my yard, in all sorts of places - I didn't plant any of them myself. Their blooms are exquisite, and uniquely shaped. They are in fact, sometimes mistaken for orchids. These plants have the incredible strategy of producing a flower that remains buried and self fertilizes without opening. Way to ensure survival!
They have other common names too, such as flowering wintergreen and fringed polygala, or fringed milkwort. To avoid confusion, the definitive name is Polygaloides paucifolia!
Their seeds are dispersed by ants, a strategy called myrmecochory (seed dispersal), try saying that after a gin and tonic!
2 comments:
LOVE THESE! We have them all around!
They truly are a delight.
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