Gentiana catesbaei
Gentiana latidens
Catesby's or coastal plain gentian, Elliott's gentian
balsam mountain gentian
1–5, terminal from caudex, erect or nearly so.
6–100+, terminal from caudex, erect or decumbent.
cauline, ± evenly spaced;
blade usually ovate, occasionally elliptic, 1.5–7.5 cm × 4–30 mm, apex acute.
cauline, ± evenly spaced;
blade ovate, 3–15 cm × 10–55 mm, apex acuminate.
± dense 1–10-flowered cymes or heads, sometimes with additional flowers at 1–4(–8) nodes or on branches.
1–20-flowered heads, sometimes with additional flowers at 1–3 nodes.
calyx 17–55 mm, lobes erect, lanceolate, 10–35 mm, mostly longer than tube, often ± foliaceous, margins ciliate;
corolla blue or occasionally rose-violet, tubular, slightly to fully but narrowly open, 35–55 mm, lobes ± erect to spreading, deltate-ovate, 5–10 mm, usually 2–4 mm longer than plicae, free portions of plicae divided 1/2 or more of their length into 2 subequal, erect, ± triangular, lacerate segments;
anthers connate.
calyx 15–35(–45) mm, lobes spreading nearly horizontally when fresh, obovate, elliptic, ovate, orbiculate, or rhombic, 3–25(–35) mm, often strongly unequal, margins ciliate;
corolla blue, ± loosely closed, 30–55 mm, lobes ± incurved to nearly erect, ovate-triangular, 2.5–5 mm, free portions of plicae ± as long and wide as lobes, oblong, deeply and unequally bifid, summit erose;
anthers connate.
winged.
winged.
Gentiana catesbaei
Gentiana latidens
Gentiana catesbaei is believed to be extirpated from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Specimens from Alabama have been reidentified as G. saponaria as all such specimens seen in studies for this flora had the elliptic leaves and short calyx lobes typical of G. saponaria rather than the ovate leaves and much longer calyx lobes that characterize G. catesbaei.
From the more widely distributed Gentiana saponaria, G. catesbaei differs most conspicuously in its ovate rather than elliptic leaves, widest proximal to rather than near mid-length; calyx lobes widest near mid-length and usually 1.5–3 times as long as the tube; and generally with spreading rather than incurved corolla lobes.
Gentiana catesbaei is almost entirely restricted to the Atlantic coastal plain, where it displaces the closely related G. saponaria south of northeastern North Carolina. In the northern part of its range, where the ranges of these species overlap, they generally remain distinct, although a few plants apparently of hybrid origin have been found. A hybrid with the much less similar G. villosa is also known.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Gentiana latidens is known only from the Plott Balsam and Great Balsam mountains and Pisgah Ridge in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Transylvania counties, and perhaps also in Clay County.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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USDA Plants Database
