Polygalaceae
family of plants
The Polygalaceae or the milkwort family are made up of flowering plants in the order Fabales. They have a near-cosmopolitan range, with about 27 genera and ca. 900 known species of herbs, shrubs and trees. Over half of the species are in one genus, Polygala, the milkworts.
The family was first described in 1809 by Johann Hoffmansegg and Johann Link. In 1896, Robert Chodat split it into three tribes. A fourth tribe was split off from the tribe Polygaleae in 1992. Under the Cronquist classification system, Polygalaceae were treated in a separate order of their own, Polygalales. Currently, according to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, the family belongs in Fabales.
Description
Polygalaceae are annual or perennial herbs, shrubs, trees or lianas.
The public source identifies “Polygalaceae” as family of plants. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Polygalaceae, family and plants.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q156360. The Library of Congress control number is sh88023015. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1809, 1896 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “Polygalaceae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.