Senega Snakeroot
Senega officinalis
Senega Snakeroot
Flower Top/Back
Ruby Lake Recreation Site, 15 km North of Hudson Bay
11-July-2024
There is a stylized diagram of the flower in the upper left hand corner of the image. It depicts the flower as viewed from the side, looking directly toward the apex of one of the two large sepals. Note the one small sepal at the bottom left of the diagram, the two small sepals at the bottom right, and a couple of fimbrillae at the top right. The arrow shows the position of the observer with respect to the diagram when viewing photo depicted here.
The flower contains two large lateral sepals, two small frontal sepals, and one small sepal at the back. The two lateral sepals and the single sepal at the back are clearly visible in this photo, while only a portion of one of the two frontal sepals can be seen. There are two upper lateral petals which overlap with each other, and one lower petal. The lower petal contains a raised surface known as the landing platform. There is a crest along the margin of the landing platform and the crest contains several finger-like projections call fimbrillae. The lower petal also contains a furrow through which a pollinating insect inserts its proboscis to extract nectar and pollen.
 | Officinalis: This species used to be known as Polygala senega. The following are answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species, assuming it was part of genus Polygala. Thus these questions distinguish this species from other species in the original Polygala.
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