| Author | Elliott | |
| Distribution | Throughout the southern 60% of the Coastal Plain, but only a few records for the northern portions. A disjunct collection from Rowan County in the central Piedmont.
This is a Coastal Plain species ranging from southern NJ and south to southern FL and west to eastern TX. | |
| Abundance | Fairly common to locally common in most of the range, but very rare in the northern portions. Casual in the Piedmont, if still present there. | |
| Habitat | This is a wetland species, typically "in-between" the pool habitat of P. cymosa and the savanna habitat of P. hookeri and several others in the genus. It does grow frequently in pine savannas, but mostly in the wetter portions, in shallow pools and depression meadows, pocosin borders, ditches, and other somewhat wet ground in acidic soils dominated by pines. | |
| Phenology | Blooms from June to August, and fruits shortly after flowering. | |
| Identification | This is a typical Polygala in height, with an erect stem to about 9-12 inches tall, and numerous short branches in the inflorescence. It has basal leaves that are short, elliptical to spatulate, rounded at the tip, and about 1.5 inches long. It has scattered alternate stem leaves, linear and ascending, and thus the stem looks somewhat devoid of leaves. The flower clusters are numerous short racemes of yellow flowers on the branch tips, producing a flat-topped inflorescence about 4 inches across. The species looks like a "runt" P. cymosa, which grows to 2-3 feet tall, grows in pools, and has longer and narrow basal leaves. P. ramosa is one of a good handful of milkworts that a biologist can see in a single day in a Coastal Plain savanna and is, by far, the more frequently seen of the two yellow-flowered species. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Short Pinebarren Milkwort, Savanna Milkwort | |
| State Rank | S4 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | OBL link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
