Leaves:- Simple, exstipulate.

Flowers:- Hermaphrodite, zygomorphic, in spikes or racemes. Sepals 5, free; petals 3-5, more or less united; stamens 8, with filaments partly united. Ovary 2-locular, with 1 seed in each loculus.

POLYGALA

General description:- Small, perennial herbs, rarely annuals or small shrubs.

Leaves:- Usually alternate, entire or subentire.

Flowers:- Usually in terminal racemes, rarely in axillary racemes or solitary in leaf-axils. Sepals unequal, the 2 inner (wings) much larger than the 3 outer. Petals 3, united proximally into a corolla-tube, free distally, the lower (keel) of different form from the 2 upper, and usually bearing a fringed (fimbriate) crest. Filaments partly or wholly united into a tube, which is partly attached (adnate) to the corolla-tube. Gynophore often present, usually elongating in fruit. Stigma 2-lobed, only the posterior lobe receptive.

Fruit:- Capsule compressed, usually with a marginal wing. Seeds hairy, with a usually 3-lobed strophiole.