Polygala myrtifolia L.
Myrtle-Leaf Milkwort, Myrtle-leaf milkwort (EN), September Bush, butterfly-bush
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Polygala myrtifolia, the myrtle-leaf milkwort, is an evergreen 2–4 m tall South African shrub or small tree found along the southern and south-eastern coasts, from near Clanwilliam in the Western Cape to KwaZulu-Natal. It is a fast-growing pioneer plant, a typical fynbos component, and may be found on dunes, rocky places, along forest margins, beside streams, and in open grassland. It belongs to the milkwort family of Polygalaceae.
Text from Wikipedia, “Polygala myrtifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Polygala
Polygala is a large genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Polygalaceae. They are commonly known as milkworts or snakeroots. The genus is distributed widely throughout much of the world in temperate zones and the tropics. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Polygala”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Polygala amoena Thunb.; Polygala clutioides Burch.; Polygala clutioides Burch. ex DC.; Polygala cluytioides Burch.; Polygala cluytioides Burch. ex DC. and 26 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January to June and September to October in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (414 mm of 575 mm) takes 8 months, March to April and July to December. Mean temperature moves 7.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: January to June and September to October.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 575 mm a year, wettest April at 60 mm, driest February at 39 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
575 mm a year at the habitat, 414 mm of it March to April and July to December. Wettest month April at 60 mm, driest February at 39 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 410 mm to 1051 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 48 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 8.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.3 °C, the absolute minimum 6.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.3 °C to 12.9 °C), warmest day 24.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 24 / 21–29 | 25 / 22–29 | 24 / 21–27 | 22 / 19–25 | 20 / 17–22 | 18 / 15–20 | 17 / 15–20 | 18 / 15–21 | 19 / 16–22 | 20 / 18–24 | 22 / 19–26 | 23 / 20–28 |
| Night °C | 17 / 14–19 | 17 / 15–19 | 16 / 14–18 | 14 / 11–17 | 13 / 8–15 | 10 / 5–14 | 10 / 4–13 | 10 / 6–13 | 11 / 7–14 | 13 / 10–15 | 14 / 11–16 | 16 / 13–18 |
| Rain mm | 41 / 24–126 | 39 / 21–111 | 52 / 28–92 | 60 / 37–85 | 42 / 23–112 | 39 / 20–143 | 43 / 21–153 | 53 / 29–122 | 44 / 23–92 | 60 / 37–101 | 55 / 31–110 | 47 / 26–116 |
| DLI | 47 / 40–52 | 42 / 36–47 | 34 / 31–38 | 26 / 25–28 | 20 / 19–23 | 17 / 16–20 | 19 / 17–21 | 23 / 22–26 | 31 / 29–33 | 38 / 34–42 | 45 / 39–49 | 48 / 41–52 |
| RH % | 62 / 56–64 | 63 / 57–65 | 63 / 57–65 | 61 / 56–64 | 58 / 53–62 | 56 / 53–60 | 56 / 52–60 | 59 / 54–61 | 61 / 54–62 | 61 / 56–63 | 61 / 56–63 | 61 / 56–64 |
Each figure is the median across the 264 grid cells holding the 480 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2485:3977 (-34.275, 18.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 264 distinct grid cells holding the 480 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2485:3977 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -34.50_18.750, lapse-corrected +363 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 436 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Sixolile Faith, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dave Richardson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) YvettevWijk, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Polygala myrtifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Babiana patersoniae Moth Bobbejaantjie
Agapanthus praecox African Lily
Osteospermum moniliferum Bitou
Mesembryanthemum cordifolium Brack Mesemb
Cyrtanthus fergusoniae Garden Route Firelily
Asparagus aethiopicus African AsparagusHistory & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 43 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








