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Senega polygama; photograph Fritzflohrreynolds, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAFritzflohrreynolds, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Senega polygama (Walter) J.F.B.Pastore & J.R.Abbott

Polygalaceae · Nova Scotia, Ontario +33

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-16.7°C
Record low -29.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,228mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
11–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 9 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Senega polygama, the racemed milkwort, is a species of flowering plant in the family Polygalaceae, native to eastern Canada and the central and eastern United States.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Senega polygama", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (943 mm of 1,221 mm) takes 9 months, March to August and October to December. Mean temperature moves 23.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to February and April to June.

Rain

1,221 mm in the median year at the habitat, 943 mm of it March to August and October to December. Wettest month June at 109 mm, driest month January at 88 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 874 mm to 1,444 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,228 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,221 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -16.7 °C, the absolute minimum -29.1 °C, 5,546 frost nights in 44 years, 126.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -5.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -12.0 °C to 5.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -52 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Senega polygama through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -5.0 °C; 1,221 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost34.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-29.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–40RH 56–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 285 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C3 / -4–154 / -2–178 / 4–2114 / 11–2520 / 17–2925 / 22–3227 / 25–3326 / 24–3322 / 20–3016 / 13–2511 / 6–205 / -1–16
Night °C-5 / -12–6-4 / -11–70 / -6–105 / 1–1410 / 8–1916 / 13–2219 / 16–2419 / 16–2415 / 12–219 / 6–164 / -1–11-2 / -8–7
Rain mm88 / 38–11389 / 37–125106 / 48–135102 / 71–124103 / 81–128109 / 94–136107 / 82–137103 / 82–130101 / 86–126103 / 74–128106 / 57–126104 / 46–126
DLI13 / 11–1819 / 17–2226 / 25–2933 / 31–3737 / 36–4040 / 38–4139 / 38–4134 / 33–3828 / 25–3220 / 17–2613 / 10–2011 / 8–16
RH %59 / 57–6458 / 56–6257 / 56–5956 / 54–5958 / 55–6159 / 57–6359 / 57–6360 / 58–6460 / 57–6259 / 57–6059 / 58–6159 / 57–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 285 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (317 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 971:2141 (41.425, -72.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -29.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 285 distinct grid cells holding 317 of the 318 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 971:2141 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.50_-73.125, lapse-corrected -52 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 97 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3191425 (Polygala polygama Walter, 862 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeNova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker41.464, -72.157 · in the densest population, 222 records (32% of those in range)
Kew's description“biennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 700 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 317 of them in the land cells it reads, of 318 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 331 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 38 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 382 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3191425 (Polygala polygama Walter): Kew's file holds it as Polygala polygama Walter (synonym under Senega polygama (Walter) J.F.B.Pastore & J.R.Abbott); 862 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 700 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Amelanchier canadensis Amelanchier canadensis Canadian serviceberry Photo: CC0, author not statedIonactis linariifolia Ionactis linariifolia Flax-leaved aster Photo: CC BY, Tom NortonQuercus prinoides Quercus prinoides Dwarf chinkapin oak Photo: CC0, author not statedUtricularia radiata Utricularia radiata Little floating bladderwort Photo: CC BY, Steven LamondeCoreopsis verticillata Coreopsis verticillata Whorled tickseed Photo: CC0, author not statedMyriophyllum heterophyllum Myriophyllum heterophyllum Broadleaf water-milfoil Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Senega 7 in the reference

Senega alba Senega alba Polygalaceae Photo: Public domain, Jim PisarowiczSenega lutea Senega lutea Polygalaceae Photo: Public domain, Homer D. House, New York State…Senega nana Senega nana Polygalaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tres FisherSenega officinalis Senega officinalis Polygalaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank MayfieldSenega paniculata Senega paniculata Polygalaceae Photo: CC BY, Forest & Kim StarrSenega rugelii Senega rugelii Polygalaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Bob Peterson from North Palm Beach…Senega sanguinea Senega sanguinea Polygalaceae Photo: Public domain, Robert H. Mohlenbrock. USDA NRCS. 1995.…

Names & registers

Also known as Polygala aboriginum; Polygala rubella; Polygala polygama f. ramulosa; Polygala polygama; Anthalogea polygama and 7 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Polygalaceae
Described by
(Walter) J.F.B.Pastore & J.R.Abbott
Native to
Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec +32
Wild records
700 in range · 331 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Senega polygama (Walter) J.F.B.Pastore & J.R.Abbott (plant_name_id 3308727), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 862 records of GBIF's key 3191425, Polygala polygama Walter (Kew's file holds it as Polygala polygama Walter (synonym under Senega polygama (Walter) J.F.B.Pastore & J.R.Abbott)): the GBIF download; 16 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (8 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.50_-73.125, lapse-corrected -52 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 77321265-1, POWO 77321265-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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