Common Name: GENTIAN FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb [to trees]. Stem: decumbent to erect, < 2 m, simple or branched. Leaf: simple, cauline, sometimes also basal, opposite or whorled, entire, sessile or basal +- petioled; stipules 0. Flower: bisexual, radial, parts in 4s or 5s except pistil 1; sepals fused, persistent; petals fused, +- persistent, sinus between lobes often unappendaged; stamens epipetalous, alternate corolla lobes; ovary superior, chamber 1, placentas parietal, often intruding, stigmas 1--2. Fruit: capsule, 2-valved. Seed: many.
Genera In Family: +- 90 genera, 1800 species: worldwide; some cultivated (Eustoma, Exacum, Gentiana). Note: Gentianella tenella moved to Comastoma. Key to genera revised by Bruce G. Baldwin.
eFlora Treatment Author: James S. Pringle, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: GENTIAN
Habit: Annual to perennial herb, generally glabrous. Stem: generally simple below inflorescence. Leaf: cauline, opposite (also basal or not). Inflorescence: compact cyme or flowers 1. Flower: parts generally in 5s (generally in 4s in Gentiana prostrata, 4s or 5s in Gentiana fremontii); calyx tube generally > lobes; corolla tube narrow-bell-shaped, lobes spreading, < tube, base of sinus between lobes truncate or generally with a variously shaped, sometimes fringed appendage, nectary pits 0 (nectaries on ovary stalk); ovary stalked, style +- 0 or short, entire, persistent, stigmas 2.
Species In Genus: +- 400 species: temperate to subarctic, alpine America, Eurasia. Etymology: (Gentius, king of Illyria, who used roots to treat malaria)
Common Name: ALPINE GENTIAN
Habit: Perennial herb. Stem: arising laterally from caudex, below rosette, decumbent, 1--several, 0.5--10(35) cm. Leaf: basal, lower cauline 8--50(75) mm, 2--25 mm wide, widely spoon-shaped to oblanceolate, rounded or mucronate; upper cauline few, generally > internodes, 6--30(45) mm, 1--8(13) mm wide, oblanceolate to linear, acute. Inflorescence: flowers 2--5 or generally 1. Flower: calyx (10)14--30 mm, lobes linear to narrow-ovate, acute; corolla 23--55 mm, lobes 7--17 mm, elliptic-obovate, short-acuminate, sinus appendages divided into 2 triangular, +- serrate to jagged-cut parts tapered to thread-like tips. Seed: winged.
Note: Varieties intergrade in CaRH, northern SNH (e.g., plants with large stem, leaf, flower and white corollas, or plants with small stem, leaf, flower and blue corollas).
Unabridged Note: Varieties intergrade in central part (CaRH, northern SNH) of sp. range (e.g., plants with stem, leaf, flower in upper part of size ranges for sp. but with white corollas, or plants with stem, leaf, flower in lower part of size ranges for sp. but with blue corollas).