This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
Color, greenish or dull purple. Sepals, 5, 3 green, 2 colored like the petals. These form the wings, larger than the others. Flowers, in clover-like heads or spikes, on low stems, 4 to 15 inches high. Stems, square, slightly winged. Leaves, in whorls of 4, long, narrow, a few scattered. Heads of flowers rather large and showy. July to September.
Marsh milkwort (Poly gala Cruciata)
Sandy swamps, from Maine to Florida and westward. Sometimes in drier soil. When growing together they have a moss-like appearance. (See illustration, p. 320.)
P. brevifolia. - Color, rose purple. A species resembling the last, but smaller, lower, more slender. Leaves, also in whorls of fours, and often scattered.
Time of blossoming and range nearly the same as P. cruciata.
 
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