Gentiana clausa - (image 1 of 5)
Taxonomy
Family: Gentianaceae
Habitat
Moist meadows, woods, thickets.
Associates
These were found in a beaver meadow with Steeplebush and many Carex sp..
Distribution
New England west to OH and south to TN and NC. More eastern than G. andrewsii.
Morphology
Perennial herb to 1 m. Leaves opposite, lanceolate to obovate, to 4 cm wide. Corollas blue, white at the base, 4-parted, more than 2.5cm long, the lobes prolonged beyond their adnation (connection) to the plaits into firm, rounded, ovate or oblong lobes; plaits about as long as the corolla lobes and shallowly 2-3-toothed or -lobed.
Notes
Flowers September and October
Wetland indicator: Facultative Wetland
The closed nature of bottle gentians compel pollinators to force their way into the flowers. White forms occasionally found and sometimes grown as an ornamental. The more wide-ranging species, G. andrewsii Griseb., is very similar but has narrow, mostly lanceolate calyx lobes that are exceeded by fringed plaits which form most of the summit of the corolla.
Gentiana andrewsii - Prairie Bottle Gentian
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.
USDA, NRCS. 2002.
The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov).
National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
|
Michael Hough © 2004 |