Gentiana

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Gentianaceae

• Scientific Name

  Gentiana

• Description

  Genus Description - Fls (4)5-merous; cal-tube campanulate, obconic, or tubular, with a membrane or rim around the inside at the summit, the lobes arising from just beneath the rim, well developed or sometimes ± reduced; cor tubular to funnelform or campanulate, sometimes remaining closed, convolute in bud, the lobes alternating with folds or plaits in the sinuses, these often of different color or texture, sometimes as long as or even longer than the proper lobes; a whorl of nectary-glands present around the base of the ovary, not on the cor; ovary ellipsoid to cylindric, often ± stipitate; style short and stout; stigma 2-lobed; seeds many, small; herbs, usually glabrous or only inconspicuously papillate-puberulent, most spp. perennial, ours all from a cluster of fleshy- fibrous to sometimes tuberous-thickened or merely fibrous roots; lvs sessile or subsessile; fls ± showy, blue or less often white, yellowish, or greenish. 300, ± cosmop., except Afr. (Dasystephana)

• Common Names

  gentian