Polygala vulgarisL.

Common Milkwortcommon milkwort

WFO wfo-0000488110 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Polygala vulgaris, photographed by John Kenrick Gibson
fig. a John Kenrick Gibson, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 205584476
Polygala vulgaris, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. b Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205384806
Polygala vulgaris, photographed by E. A.
fig. c E. A., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203142389
Polygala vulgaris, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. d B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202939884
Polygala vulgaris, photographed by Andrés Romero Bravo
fig. e Andrés Romero Bravo, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199452879
Polygala vulgaris, photographed by Katrin Simon
fig. f Katrin Simon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197062439
Polygala vulgaris, photographed by Victor Heng
fig. g Victor Heng, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197592386
Polygala vulgaris, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. h Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203773893

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Polygala vulgaris is native: Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine TürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine BalearesFøroyarSardegna
Native distribution of Polygala vulgaris, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Türkiye TUR ASIA-TEMPERATE

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 263 in flower of 266 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Polygala vulgaris observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 263 of 266 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 23 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 angustifolia Gilib.
  • Polygala aquitanica Clavaud
  • Polygala babingtonii Druce
  • Polygala ballii Nyman
  • Polygala basaltica Lamotte
  • Polygala caespitosa T.Nees
  • Polygala coerulea Miégev. ex Rchb.
  • Polygala dubia Dumort.
  • Polygala insubrica Gremli.
  • Polygala involutiflora Lamotte
  • Polygala lensei Boreau
  • Polygala michaletii Gren.
  • Polygala moriana Brittinger
  • Polygala oberthueri Sennen
  • Polygala oxyptera Rchb.
  • Polygala reticulata C.Presl & J.Presl
  • Polygala spuria Steven ex Ledeb.
  • Polygala stojanovii Stef.
  • Polygala transsilvanica Schur
  • Polygala vaillantii Besser
  • Polygala verviana Lej.
  • Polygala vulgaris subsp. oxyptera Lange
  • Polygala vulgaris subsp. oxyptera (Rchb.) Schübl. & G.Martens

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.