Flora of North America species comparison

Gentiana puberulenta is evidently extirpated from Ontario, Louisiana, Maryland, and New York, where outlying prairie communities have largely been eliminated by agricultural and urban expansion.

The name Gentiana puberula Michaux 1803, not Franchet 1890, and the homotypic synonym Dasystephana puberula (Michaux) Small have long and often been misapplied to this species but are typified by a specimen of G. saponaria.

Some small plants of Gentiana puberulenta appear similar to G. affinis var. affinis, but only a few specimens appear actually to be hybrids between these species. Where their ranges approach each other, the flowers of G. affinis are generally much smaller than those of G. puberulenta, and the corolla lobes of G. affinis are generally less than twice as long as the free portions of the plicae, whereas those of G. puberulenta are more than twice as long. The flower size of G. affinis var. ovata more closely approaches that of G. puberulenta, but in that variety, the range of which does not overlap that of G. puberulenta, the leaves are usually ovate to elliptic rather than narrowly oblong-lanceolate, and the distal internodes are often about as long as or longer than the leaves, in contrast to the proportionately shorter internodes of G. puberulenta. For further guidance in distinguishing between G. puberulenta and G. affinis, see discussion under 13. G. affinis.

Hybrids of Gentiana puberulenta with the strikingly dissimilar G. andrewsii, constituting G. × billingtonii Farwell (as species), and with G. flavida, constituting G. × curtisii J. S. Pringle, occur in the tall-grass prairies. Hybrids with G. saponaria formerly occurred in western Maryland.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Gentiana saponaria is believed to be extirpated from the District of Columbia. Reports from west of the range given here have been based mostly on specimens of G. andrewsii × G. puberulenta, occasionally on G. flavida × G. puberulenta or other hybrids. Some reports from the northeastern United States, including all records from Vermont and upstate New York, were based on specimens of G. clausa that antedate the recognition of that species in standard floras. Other reports have been based on misidentified G. linearis.

The name Gentiana puberula Michaux is typified by a specimen of G. saponaria but has generally been misapplied to G. puberulenta.

Plants from the northern parts of the range of Gentiana saponaria tend to have corollas more nearly closed than those from the southern parts of the range, but their corollas are not so firmly closed as those of G. clausa, the corolla lobes are larger, the summits of the plicae are usually more or less visible in herbarium specimens, and the shape of the calyx lobes is distinctively different. Plants of G. saponaria in the southernmost part of its range tend to have somewhat larger and more open corollas, approaching G. catesbaei in these respects, but they differ in their elliptic rather than ovate leaves and calyx lobes mostly shorter than or about as long as the tube rather than longer. Plants from bog and lake-shore habitats in Watauga County, North Carolina, at 1200 m, above the usual altitudinal range of G. saponaria, have attracted interest because of their linear to narrowly elliptic leaves mostly 3–9 mm wide. Their calyx and corolla morphology strongly supports their inclusion in G. saponaria, as does the occurrence of occasional plants with wider leaves in the same populations. Plants with similarly narrow leaves occur elsewhere in the range of G. saponaria and include those that have been identified as G. cherokeensis.

The epithet saponaria refers to a resemblance of the stems and leaves of this species to those of soapwort or bouncing-bet, Saponaria officinalis (Caryophyllaceae). Soaplike substances were not obtained from the gentian, so the invention of “soap gentian” as a common name is not appropriate.

Gentiana saponaria hybridizes with G. andrewsii relatively frequently in the Ohio Valley and occasionally elsewhere. Hybrids with G. catesbaei, G. clausa, G. decora, and G. puberulenta are also known.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)