Gentiana flavida
Gentiana linearis
white prairie or white or cream or yellowish or pale gentian
gentiane à feuilles linéaires, narrow-leaf gentian
1–10, terminal from caudex, decumbent to erect.
1–30, terminal from caudex, erect.
cauline, ± evenly spaced;
blade lanceolate to ovate, 5–15 cm × 15–50 mm, apex acuminate.
cauline, nearly evenly spaced or somewhat more widely spaced distally;
blade linear to lanceolate, 4–9 cm × 3–14 mm, apex acute.
dense 1–20-flowered cymes, often also with additional clusters at 1 or 2 nodes.
± dense 1–7-flowered cymes, sometimes with additional flowers at 1–4 nodes, sessile or on branches to 12 cm.
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.
calyx 8–28 mm, lobes linear to oblong, 2–12(–15) mm, margins not ciliate;
corolla blue or occasionally violet or white, tubular, loosely closed or slightly open, 25–50 mm, lobes ± incurved, semicircular, 2.5–5 mm, free portions of plicae obliquely triangular, margins entire or shallowly erose, with a minute, deflexed second segment;
anthers connate.
winged.
winged.
= 26.
= 26.
Gentiana flavida
Gentiana linearis
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.)
Gentiana linearis is extirpated from New Jersey. Reports from Manitoba and Minnesota have been based on circumscriptions of G. linearis that included G. rubricaulis, mostly prior to the recognition of G. rubricaulis as a distinct species in standard floras. A report from North Carolina is incorrect, having been based on a misunderstanding as to where a photograph was taken (W. F. Hutson, pers. comm.). Narrow-leaved specimens of G. saponaria are occasionally misidentified as G. linearis but can be distinguished by their ciliate calyx lobes and by the shape of the calyx lobes and the free portions of the corolla plicae.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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