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Western Isles Wildflowers

Western Isles wildflowers is a collection of information about our Hebridean wildflowers including identification hints, traditional herbal uses and general plant lore.

 

Common Milkwort

Polygala vulgaris

Gaelic: Lus a' Bhainne

Common milkwort grows on the machair and in places where shell-sand has either been deliberately added to enrich the soil or wind-blown.

This wildflower is a low-growing plant which has several stems, each of which carry long oval-shaped pointed leaves in pairs and small flowers which are shaped like tiny udders. Common Milkwort usually occurs in either blue or pink forms, but sometimes (and much rarer) in white.

On the moorland, and on wet marshy grassland, another species of milkwort, the heath milkwort grows.

Saltwort also is found in the Western Isles, that plant is sometimes known sea milkwort, it is not related to the common milkwort or heath milkwort and has no resemblance.

Common milkwort is a native wildflower of the Western Isles.

Photography © Suzanne Harris
Riof - Isle of Lewis - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
9th June, 2007