What is "polygala paucifolia"

gay-wings \gay-wings\ n. A common trailing perennial milkwort ( Polygala paucifolia) of eastern North America having leaves like wintergreen and usually rosy-purple flowers with winged sepals.

Syn: flowering wintergreen, gaywings, bird-on-the-wing, fringed polygala, Polygala paucifolia.

Wintergreen \Win"ter*green`\, n. (Bot.) A plant which keeps its leaves green through the winter.

Note: In England, the name wintergreen is applied to the species of Pyrola which in America are called English wintergreen, and shin leaf (see Shin leaf, under Shin.) In America, the name wintergreen is given to Gaultheria procumbens, a low evergreen aromatic plant with oval leaves clustered at the top of a short stem, and bearing small white flowers followed by red berries; -- called also checkerberry, and sometimes, though improperly, partridge berry.

Chickweed wintergreen, a low perennial primulaceous herb ( Trientalis Americana); -- also called star flower.

Flowering wintergreen, a low plant ( Polygala paucifolia) with leaves somewhat like those of the wintergreen ( Gaultheria), and bearing a few showy, rose-purple blossoms.

Spotted wintergreen, a low evergreen plant ( Chimaphila maculata) with ovate, white-spotted leaves.

bird-on-the-wing \bird-on-the-wing\ n. a common trailing perennial milkwort of eastern North America ( Polygala paucifolia), having leaves like wintergreen and usually rosy-purple flowers with winged sepals.

Syn: flowering wintergreen, gaywings, gay-wings, fringed polygala.

Polygala paucifolia, known as gaywings or fringed polygala, is a perennial plant of the family Polygalaceae.

Mature plants are 3 to 6 inches tall. Stems are smooth, slender and green. Leaves are clustered at the top, appearing to be whorled, but they are not. Leaflets are oblong to lanceolate — narrow at the base with a pointed tip. Leaves have an entire margin and are thin.

Flowers are pink and white, blooming in April and May.

In 2011, John Richard Abbott segregated Polygala paucifolia (fringed milkwort) from the rest of Polygala, placing it in the currently-unused genus Polygaloides.