Erect slender shrub 30–160 cm high; stems and leaves glabrous, smooth to minutely tuberculate. Leaves elliptic to oblong, 5–15 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, concolorous, flat to slightly concave, obtuse or rounded. Flowers pale pink to magenta, in corymbose racemes; raceme axis 0.3–1 cm long; pedicels 2–7 mm long; sepals free, the outer 3 broad-ovate, 1.5–2 mm long, often purplish, wings obovate, 5–7 mm long, keel yellow-tipped, 1–2 mm shorter than wings, broadly hooded and 3-lobed at apex; upper petals c. oblong, usually shortly exceeding keel, united with it to near midway. Capsule spathulate, c. 1 cm long, truncate or shallowly notched at apex; seeds ellipsoid, c. 2.5 mm long, hairy all over with fine silky hairs 5–10 mm long; raphe not developed. Flowers Nov.–Jan.
VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, CVU, GGr, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, OtR, MonT, VAlp. Also Qld, NSW, Tas. Fairly common in alps and subalps in wet heathalnds and Sphagnum bogs, with disjunct occurrences at low altitudes (e.g. Grampians, Otways, Mallacoota area); occasionally occurring with C. ericinum in the east.
Source:
Walsh, N.G. (1999). Polygalaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 130–137. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
