Gentiana andrewsii
Gentiana autumnalis
Andrew's bottle gentian, bottle or fringe bottle or prairie closed gentian, closed bottle gentian
pine-barren gentian
1–20, terminal from caudex, decumbent to erect.
1(–3), terminal from caudex, decumbent to erect.
cauline, ± evenly spaced;
blade elliptic-oblong to lanceolate or narrowly ovate, 3–16 cm × 10–50 mm, apex acuminate.
cauline, gradually more distantly spaced distally;
blade linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 2–10 cm × 0.5–5 mm, apex obtuse (proximal leaves) to acute.
1–25-flowered heads, often with additional flowers at 1–6(–9) nodes or on short branches.
solitary flowers, occasionally also terminating 1 or 2 branches, not subtended by bracts.
calyx 9–29 mm, lobes lanceolate to ovate or occasionally oblanceolate, 2–15 mm, margins ciliate;
corolla blue, white, or rarely rose-violet, tubular, completely closed, 28–45 mm, lobes reduced to a mucro or ± triangular, 0.5–2(–3) mm, free portions of plicae oblong, shallowly and nearly symmetrically bifid, summit truncate, erose;
anthers connate.
calyx 17–40(–53) mm, lobes linear, 10–25(–36) mm, margins not ciliate;
corolla deep blue with greenish yellow dots adaxially on lobes or occasionally rose-violet or white, funnelform, open, 30–65 mm, lobes spreading, widely ovate, 10–20 mm, free portions of plicae shallowly to deeply divided into 2 subequal, lacerate, attenuate segments;
anthers distinct.
winged.
winged.
= 26.
Gentiana andrewsii
Gentiana autumnalis
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
Gentiana andrewsii is the only species of Gentiana in which the plicae of the corolla are distinctly longer than the lobes.
Gentiana andrewsii has often been reported outside its actual range. Although the epithets of some of the species that have been confused with or considered inseparable from G. andrewsii have priority, the familiar name G. andrewsii is often misapplied, sometimes because it is assumed that any “closed gentian” is G. andrewsii. As G. clausa was not distinguished from G. andrewsii in standard floras prior to 1950, reports from the northeastern United States based on specimens identified before 1950 should be considered doubtful if the specimens have not been reexamined. Old reports from the southern Appalachians are also questionable because G. austromontana was not recognized until 1964. Some reports from the southeastern and south-central United States and along the Atlantic seaboard have been based on specimens of G. saponaria. True G. andrewsii is distinguishable as the only Gentiana species in which the corolla plicae distinctly exceed the minute lobes. The fringed tip of the completely closed corolla, at first white, soon turning reddish brown, is an excellent field mark for distinguishing G. andrewsii from G. clausa. In G. clausa, the summit of the intact corolla appears completely blue (in the typical color form), and the plicae are concealed. Gentiana andrewsii grows in calcareous soils and G. clausa in noncalcareous soils.
Because of this ecological separation, there are only a few records of hybridization between Gentiana andrewsii and G. clausa. In the tall-grass prairies, G. andrewsii hybridizes with G. flavida, producing G. × pallidocyanea J. S. Pringle, and with G. puberulenta, producing G. × billingtonii Farwell (as species). Northward, it occasionally hybridizes with G. rubricaulis, producing G. × grandilacustris J. S. Pringle, and in the southeastern part of its range it hybridizes with G. saponaria.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Gentiana autumnalis is believed to have been extirpated long ago from Delaware and Maryland.
Variation in the number of floral parts, from four to seven per whorl, is more frequent in Gentiana autumnalis than in the other species of Gentiana in the flora area.
There is a record of a hybrid of Gentiana autumnalis with the highly dissimilar G. villosa in North Carolina.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Corolla lobes reduced to a mucro or at most minutely triangular, less than 1 mm. | var. andrewsii |
1. Corolla lobes triangular or ± rounded, 1–2(–3) mm. | var. dakotica |
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