Polygala sphenopteraFresen.

WFO wfo-0000488135 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Polygala sphenoptera, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. a Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-20 / obs. 176609732
Polygala sphenoptera, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. b Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173088903
Polygala sphenoptera, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. c Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176609753
Polygala sphenoptera, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. d Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173088935
Polygala sphenoptera, photographed by Kelly Abram
fig. e Kelly Abram, CC0 1.0 / obs. 176257113
Polygala sphenoptera, photographed by rosshawkins
fig. f rosshawkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172045945
Polygala sphenoptera, photographed by Kelly Abram
fig. g Kelly Abram, CC0 1.0 / obs. 176257237
Polygala sphenoptera, photographed by rosshawkins
fig. h rosshawkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172045954

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 18 botanical countries

Regions where Polygala sphenoptera is native: Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBotswanaDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Polygala sphenoptera, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 11 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Polygala aethiopica Chodat
  • Polygala filifera Chodat
  • Polygala fischeri Gürke
  • Polygala gagnebiniana Chodat
  • Polygala lentiana Gürke
  • Polygala persicariaefolia sensu Eyles non DC.
  • Polygala quartiniana Quart.-Dill. ex A.Rich.
  • Polygala ruderalis Chodat
  • Polygala sphenoptera var. sphenoptera
  • Polygala stuhlmannii Gürke
  • Polygala ukambica Chodat

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.