#polygala

Polygala nicaeensis KOCH., Polygalaceae

11.5.2017, Vitsa Monodendri, Pindos

Avec le copain Philippe, début janvier, on est allés à la Ciotat.

Aux confins du Parc National des Calanques, voici le Parc du Mugel, blotti derrière l'énorme masse du Bec de l'Aigle, et à l'aplomb de la calanque du Petit Mugel. Une bambouseraie, des Faux-Poivriers à l'odeur de poivre rose (dernière photo), des cactus, des palmiers..

Two fun finds from Davis Memorial, Adams co. Both Seneca snake root, and lily leaved tway-blade were in bloom. Ive actually never seen Lily leaf tway blade in full anthesis.

Lily Leaf Tway Blade

Liparis liliifolia

a species of tway blade orchid known to have a fairly decent range and is an indicator species of fungal diverse hillsides with alkaline soil aggregate structure. The species it's self is considered to have unique nectar spur morphology and shows signs of insect mimicry in it's shape; with this said, it can be pollinated fairly easily by many generalists and mainly a long bodied small fly in the genera Pegoplata, aka short horned flys. which makes that spur, a mystery since we don't know if the fly is praying on moths or if it is praying on other long tongued insects looking for nectar, or if it's just somehow attracted to the flower proper.

Seneca Snake Root, senegal milkwort

Polygala senega

a rocky mesic hillside species that should be more common but is easily poached for its roots much like goldenseal, goldenroot, or ginseng and is usually locally abundant in spots and increasingly rare out of monitored preserves. The root can be boiled in tea form for mucus expectorants. High doses of powdered senega root or tincture are emetic and irritating to the GI tract, can cause reduced inflammation but also nerve transport/communication issues. The name is derived from it's anti inflamatory properties and nerve disrupting properties alone and was used but first nation tribes like the seneca/senagal and manatoba in aid for rattlesnake bites; this would need to be used with nervains( specifically Verbena spp. and blood clotter plants to work fully like Rattlesnake master, Eryngium yuccifolium.

Rattle Snake Master research is on going for usages:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18499203/

lipophilic chemicals that are associated are pretty interesting too.

when you add a lipid breaking and a protein breaking stew of chemicals, as well as phenolic bioactive compounds that are readily digestible and useful in a tea you can see why the plants were all used in conjunction to fight venom.

haemotoxic venom of adders can cause latent hemoraging at pressure points where platelet stacking and fat can cause massive stacking events. It mainly causes the opposite though in the fact that it disrupts the clotting cascade causing leaking veins and bleeding to not stop.

A couple of milkworts growing in Glen Nevis in Scotland! I’m not familiar with the genus Polygala, so identifying these was tricky for me. Given their small size and opposite basal leaves, I think they’re probably Polygala serpyllifolia, heath milkwort, which is common in peat bogs, heaths, and grasslands.  Polygala serpyllifolia is very similar to Polygala vulgaris, common milkwort, which has larger flowers and alternate leaves, though, and I can’t say with 100% certainty they - and in particular the bottom plant - aren’t P. vulgaris instead. 

Interestingly, when we were researching this plant, we found that a botanist in 1854 misidentified Polygala amara subsp. amara using the name P. serpyllifolia. Our understanding of plant systematics has changed a lot since the 1800s, and all three plant names listed in the International Plant Names Index as published by poor Carl von Fischer-Ooster are no longer accepted. 

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ヒメハギ(ポリガラ・ミルティフォリア)と言う花でした