In this week’s column, I write about the colors of October, including an incredible group of wildflowers known as gentians. There are several types of gentians found in our area, most colored the richest, deepest blue. There are also white and yellow gentians.
Bottle gentians grow in moist areas, especially in roadside ditches along the forest edge, and the edges of wet meadows and prairies. They are often accompanied by white turtleheads. These flowers are unusual in that their blooms never fully open, but maintain an upright, closed, bottle shape. Another name for this plant is, in fact, closed gentian.
Bumblebees are the only common insect that are able to pollinate this plant, as their body weight is sufficient to pry open the “bottle cap” and allow the bee to climb inside to reach the sweet nectar.
Fringed gentians, with their delicate, feathery blooms, grow in sandy, bright areas, such as dry prairies, slopes and shoreline beaches. There are two types of fringed gentian found in our area, the lesser and the greater fringed gentians. Both have similar flowers, with flared open tops featuring these heavily “fringed” or feathered petals.
These amazing wildflowers bring an end to the growing season, along with asters and witch hazel, with the deepest, richest blues of the year.
Like all wildflowers, gentians are protected from collection in the wild on public lands. Do not attempt to dig these plants and bring into your garden. For one, they will likely not survive. Gentians, like all natives, grow very deeply, and most people do not dig deep enough when attempting to transplant wildflowers.
— Rob Zimmer: 920-993-1000, ext. 7154, email@example.com; on Twitter @YardMD