Yellow milkwort

Polygala rugelii

Polygala rugelii is a common plant of wet flatwoods that is found only in the Florida peninsula.
Yellow Milkwort This is a picture of Polygala rugelii at Savannas Preserve State Park in Port Saint lucie, Florida. Geotagged,Polygala rugelii,Summer,United States,Yellow milkwort

Appearance

The inflorescence is a solitary thimble shaped head of tiny lemon yellow flowers. This cluster is pointed at the apex and up to 3 cm (1-1/8 in.) tall and 2.5 cm (1 in.) wide. Yellow milkwort can grow to 81 cm tall (32 in.) but is almost always much shorter. The leaves are alternate, entire and smooth, with the lower ones obovate and the upper oblanceolate or lanceolate.
Bright yellow flower I've been calling these "lion flowers" because they kind of remind me of a lion's mane, but I have not had much luck identifying it. They live in pine woods that are more on the damp side, the kind that are often near a transition to more swampy or marshy habitats. The cluster is about an inch across, and on top of a stalk that is about twelve inches tall. Geotagged,Polygala rugelii,Spring,United States,Yellow milkwort

Distribution

Endemic to Florida. The range extends from Dixie and Lafayette Counties in the Big Bend area to Flagler County on the east coast and southward, not including Monroe County (Everglades and the keys).

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://www.wildflphoto.com/species.php?k=p&id=390
Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionAngiosperms
ClassEudicots
OrderFabales
FamilyPolygalaceae
GenusPolygala
SpeciesPolygala rugelii
Photographed in
United States of America