Gentiana affinis
Gentiana flavida
bottle gentian, gentian, pleated gentian, prairie gentian, Rocky Mountain gentian, Rocky Mountain or oblong-leaf or marsh gentian
white prairie or white or cream or yellowish or pale gentian
1–10(–20), terminal from caudex, decumbent to erect, glabrous or puberulent in lines below leaf bases or more extensively.
1–10, terminal from caudex, decumbent to erect.
cauline, variably spaced;
blade oblong or elliptic to ovate, lanceolate, or nearly linear, 1–5 cm × (2–)3–20(–25) mm, generally 2+ times as long as wide, margins ciliate, apex obtuse to acute.
cauline, ± evenly spaced;
blade lanceolate to ovate, 5–15 cm × 15–50 mm, apex acuminate.
racemoid thyrses of ± dense 1–6-flowered cymules, terminating main stem and usually on short branches at distal 1–6(–12) nodes.
dense 1–20-flowered cymes, often also with additional clusters at 1 or 2 nodes.
calyx 5–18(–23) mm, tube occasionally deeply cleft, lobes linear to narrowly elliptic-lanceolate or occasionally some rudimentary, (0–)1–13 mm, margins ciliate;
corolla blue, sometimes with pale dots adaxially on lobes, or rarely pale violet or white, tubular-funnelform, open, (12–)18–40(–45) mm, lobes ± spreading, oblong-ovate, 3–7(–10) mm, free portions of plicae divided less than 1/2 their length into 2 ± triangular, lacerate segments;
anthers distinct.
calyx 10–30 mm, lobes spreading, with bracketlike keels, lanceolate to ovate-triangular, 3–15 mm, margins not ciliate;
corolla white, sometimes with yellowish or greenish tinge (drying yellowish), with veins outlined in green, tubular, loosely closed or slightly open, 30–55 mm, lobes incurved to nearly erect, widely ovate-triangular, 4–6 mm, free portions of plicae obliquely triangular, erose to shallowly lacerate, with minute, deflexed second segment;
anthers connate or some sooner or later distinct.
winged.
winged.
= 26.
Gentiana affinis
Gentiana flavida
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
Gentiana affinis is highly variable, and some authors have divided it into several species, or have recognized more varieties than the two accepted in this flora. N. H. Holmgren (1984b) speculated that further studies might disclose patterns that would warrant the recognition of additional infraspecific taxa in G. affinis. From studies for the present and earlier works, however, only two varieties appear to be well differentiated, and even these intergrade in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and northern California, especially in Del Norte County, California. Despite the very different vegetative aspects of the extremes, which sometimes occur more or less sympatrically, intergradation is so extensive that the recognition of these taxa as distinct species seems inappropriate. The treatment of G. affinis presented here, although based on an independent approach involving the study of numerous specimens, is essentially in agreement with that of Holmgren and is supported by biometric analyses by J. R. Spence (unpubl.), which confirmed the intergradation between var. affinis and var. ovata.
Only var. affinis approaches the range of Gentiana puberulenta. Large plants of G. affinis generally differ from small plants of G. puberulenta in the proportionate lengths of the corolla lobes and the free portions of the plicae. In G. affinis, the lobes are less than two times as long as the free portions of the plicae; in G. puberulenta they are generally two or more times as long.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
The name Gentiana alba Muhlenberg has often been applied to this species. Uncertainty had long persisted, first as to whether the name G. alba was validly published by G. H. E. Muhlenberg in 1813, then, after that publication had been deemed invalid, whether it was validated by T. Nuttall in 1818. A group of nomenclatural authorities considered this issue on behalf of this flora and concluded that neither of those publications of the name G. alba had been valid, and that G. flavida A. Gray was the earliest validly published name for this species (K. N. Gandhi, pers. comm.).
Outlying eastern populations of Gentiana flavida in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are no longer extant, and the continued existence of other peripheral populations in isolated prairie remnants is precarious. Reports from Manitoba have been based on misidentified G. rubricaulis. A report from Maryland was based on the misreading of a label of a specimen actually from Indiana (studies for this flora).
In contrast to those of the other species of Gentiana in the flora area, with the exceptions of G. clausa and G. latidens, the calyx lobes of G. flavida spread widely, with keels like shelf brackets decurrent on the tube.
Morphological variation in Gentiana flavida should be given further study. According to J. T. Curtis (1959), plants of this species from the northern part of its range, as seen in the field, appear distinctly different in inflorescence form from plants native farther south.
In the tall-grass prairies, Gentiana flavida hybridizes with G. andrewsii, producing G. × pallidocyanea J. S. Pringle, and G. puberulenta, producing G. × curtisii J. S. Pringle. Reports of G. flavida with the corollas distally lilac have been based on plants derived from such hybridization, probably through backcrossing.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. All leaf blades generally linear to lanceolate, narrowly oblong, or narrowly ovate; calyx lobes narrowly linear (occasionally some or all rudimentary); corollas (12–)18–30(–35) mm, lobes usually 3–5 mm. | var. affinis |
1. Proximal and mid-stem leaf blades elliptic to ovate; calyx lobes linear to elliptic-lanceolate (occasionally some rudimentary); corollas (12–)30–40(–45) mm, lobes usually 5–7 mm. | var. ovata |
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