Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Suffrutescent perennial herb with erect, ascending, stiff, crowded stems 3-25 cm long from a woody root; stems densely leafy, flexuous, densely canescent-puberulent.

Leaves: Linear, 8-18 mm long, 5-7 mm wide, middle and upper leaves progressively narrower and longer, oblong-lanceolate to linear-lancelate, 1.5-4 mm wide, 1.5-3.5 cm long, acute to acuminate or rarely obtuse.

Flowers: Loose racemes 2-10 cm long, purplish flowers, lanceolate sepals 2.2-3.5 mm long, minutely puberulent, wings suborbicular to broadly oval 2.4-4 mm wide, 3.5-5.5 mm long, rounded at apex, puberulent on outer surface and near apex; keel 4-5.7 mm long glabrous.

Fruits: Oval capsule 7-8 mm long, glabrous sides, finely reticulate-veined.

Ecology: Found on the banks of arroyos and rocky hillsides from 3,000-5,000 ft (914-1524 m); flowers March-May, September-October.

Distribution: AZ, s NM, TX; south to s MEX.

Notes: A perennial, often with few-many erect fuzzy-haired stems stems from the base; pubescent linear leaves (the similar P. obscura has broader leaves) without glandular dots which progressively get smaller as you move up the stem, becoming scalelike near the top; flowers are purple with a yellow beak and two white to lavender wings on each side followed by flattened, egg-shaped capsule with hairless sides and margins (P. obscura has hairy sides and margins).

Ethnobotany: Unknown for this species, but other species in this genus have many uses. 

Etymology: Polygala is from Greek polys, many or much, and gala, milk, while barbeyana is an honorific for 20th century Swiss botanist William Barbey.

Synonyms: Polygala longa

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015