The gentian family is one of the smaller plant families, containing only 70 genera and about 800 species, but it is certainly one of the loveliest and most fascinating. In North America, we are fortunate to possess no less than 18 genera and 110 species of these beautiful plants.
Included in this group are the following:
- Rose-gentians
- Marsh-pinks
- Sea-pinks
- Sabbatia
- The catchfly gentians
- Eustoma
- The deers-ears
- Pyramid-flowers
- Yellow-gentians, Frasca
- The rare pennywort
- Obolari
- The centuries, Centaurium
Best-loved, however, are the blue-flowered members, formerly all grouped under the misleadingly all-inclusive name of Gentian, but now usually divided up into smaller, more convenient, and homogeneous genera based on technical characters of the variously-shaped flowers.
The best-blown species in the eastern portion of our continent are the eastern fringed-gentian, atrichopogon crinitus, with its four wide-spreading corolla-lobes beautifully long-fringed at their apex, the soapwort gentian, Dasystephana Saponaria, and bottle gentian, Dasystephana andrewsi, with closed club-shaped flowers.
The first of this triumvirate is found in moist woods and meadows, while the two latter may be looked for in swamps and wet meadows and among bushes in low places.
These plants vary from about 8” to 40” inches and are completely smooth and shiny throughout.
The sight of a colony of fringed-gentians, each plant with a dozen or more open flowers, is never forgotten.
Especially vigorous individuals occasionally have as many as a hundred blossoms on one plant!
Fringed Gentian Species
Smaller Fringed-Gentian
A second species of the northeast is the smaller fringed-gentian, A. procerus, in which the fringes are much shorter, or even only toothlike, and are distributed over practically the whole margin of the corolla-lobes. The leaves are much narrower.
In the northwest, these species are replaced by the very similar A. tons us and A. macounii, the former found in wet meadows from Minnesota and South Dakota northward into Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Mackenzie region.
And the latter inhabiting prairies, gravelly soil, and the edges of marshes from western Ontario to Montana and northward into Alberta and British Columbia.
Rocky Mountain Fringed-Gentian
The Rocky Mountain fringed-gentian A. guns often have stems with as many as 20 bright-blue flowers, each with lighter patches or streaks towards its base.
It is a denizen of moist sub-alpine parks throughout the Rockies, while higher up, near, and at the peaks, it is often replaced by a low, single-stemmed, single-flowered variety. var. unicaulis.
Perennial Fringed-Gentian
Rather rare in the mountains of Colorado is the perennial fringed-gentian A. barbellatus, a plant only about 4” inches in height, each stem with one or two dark-blue blossoms.
In splendid isolation far to the north, where few human beings ever see it, lives the swollen gentian.
A. ventricosus. This species is remarkable because its solitary terminal flowers have their corollas completely hidden by a large, swollen, green calyx.
Fringeless Species
Related to the bottle and soapwort gentians, but differing in not having their corollas tightly closed when in full bloom, is a group of fringeless species with oblong funnel-form or cylindric corollas.
One of these, D. Florida is most unusual because its flowers are greenish or yellowish-white.
It may be looked for in moist soil from Ontario to Minnesota and south to Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia.
Striped Gentian
The striped gentian D. chose, has greenish-white corollas, striped with purplish. It lives in shaded places from southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Florida and Louisiana.
All the rest have blue or purple flowers, and among the most handsome are D. linearis, with very narrow, almost grass-like leaves, and D. grayi, with broad and rather distant lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate leaves.
In the wet soil of riverbanks, swampy woods, and ditches on our southeastern coastal plain, one may find two species of lovely rose-purple flowers:
- Portfolio
- D. latifolia
And in the moist mountain woods of the Blue Ridge, one may encounter the purple-flowered D. decora if lucky.
A species of dry prairies and stony soil from western Maryland to South Dakota and thence southwards to Kansas and northwestern Georgia is the rose-purple-flowered D. puberula, noteworthy for having a wide open corolla-throat with flaring lobes.
A western form, with usually clustered stems and narrowly funnelform corollas, is D. affinis, found from Minnesota to British Columbia and in the Rockies.
Most Handsome Of All
However, the most handsome of this group is the pine barren gentian, D. Porphyrio, of moist pine barrens from New Jersey to Florida, with gloriously bright-blue broadly funnelform or bell-shaped flowers that are often brown-dotted within.
Meeting this plant in full bloom on a bright sunny day in its native haunts is a thrilling experience!
In general, with smaller flowers than those of the preceding groups are the gentians of the genera Gentianella and Amarella.
The agueweed, G. quinquefolia, has its blue or yellowish flowers in tight, almost stalkless clusters of one to seven at the ends of the stems and numerous side branches. It is well known in the eastern part of the continent.
Six species of Amarella inhabit moist slopes and glades, springs, meadows, and mountain woods in the far north, northern Canada and Alaska, and our Midwest.
All gentians should be protected, especially the larger, showier species which suffer so much from indiscriminate picking and uprooting by thoughtless vandals.
In my youth, gentians were common plants in our vicinity and were well-known to all who lived in the countryside or visited there often.
Now it is a red-letter day when one finds gentian in one’s rambles.
Let us protect assiduously those that are left so that future generations may not be deprived of the inspiration that these glorious blossoms provide the lover of beauty.
44659 by Dr. Harold N. Moldenke