Comesperma retusum, commonly known as milkwort,[1] is a slender herb in the family Polygalaceae. It is an upright shrub with purple or mauve-pink pea-like flowers and grows in eastern Australia.
Comesperma retusum is a small, upright, leafy shrub to high and sparsely branched with more or less, pinkish warty stems. The leaves are elliptic to oblong-shaped, thick, long, wide and blunt or with a small point at the apex. The flowers are in a terminal raceme up to long, occasionally on short branches near the end of stems and the pedicels long. The purple or mauve-pink flowers are pea-like, long, outer sepals free, long, wing sepals usually long and the lateral petals equal in length as the yellow-tipped keel. Flowering occurs from November to January and the fruit is a flattened, elongated capsule long.[1] [2] [3]
Comesperma retusum was first formally described in 1806 by Jacques Labillardière and the description was published in Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen.[4] [5] The specific epithet (retusum) refers to the leaf apex.[6]
Milkwort grows in bogs and swamps in montane, subalpine locations and occasionally coastal swamps in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.[1] [3]