Polygala virgata Thunb.
purple broom
Perennial somewhat-branched shrub up to 2 m high. Young stems with short curly hairs, glabrous when older. Lvs all alternate, glabrous or sparsely hairy, oblanceolate, obovate or linear, obtuse to acute, mucronate, entire, subsessile, 10-40 mm long. Fls in loose, branched or simple, terminal racemes; perianth coloured pink to purple toward apex; pedicels 5-10 mm long; bracts ovate-triangular, c. 2 mm long, deciduous; 3 outer sepals elliptic to obovate, 4-5 mm long; wings petaloid, c. 10-12 mm long, ± = or > corolla; outer petals entire, c. 1/2 length of keel; keel fimbriate at apex. Capsule glabrous, c. 6-10 mm long with a marginal wing c. 1 mm wide, 1/2-⅔ length of persistent calyx wings; seeds hairy, narrow-oblong, c. 4-5 mm long; strophiole 3-lobed.
N.: locally established in Northland, also collected once near Hamilton.
South Africa 1914
Waste places, scrubland.
FL Sep-Jan.
Purple broom is cultivated as an ornamental shrub.
