Gentianella gentianoides (Franch.) H. Smith

Annuals 5-8 cm tall. Stems erect, branched from base, purple pilose. Basal leaves few, withered at anthesis. Stem leaf petiole flattened, to 6 mm, ciliolate; leaf blade usually tinged purple, ovate, ca. 1.2 × 1.2 cm, base contracted, margin scabrous, apex obtuse, veins 3. Cymes axillary and terminal, many flowered, crowded. Flower 5merous. Pedicel slender, 0.2-2 cm. Calyx 5-8 mm; lobes usually tinged purple, narrowly elliptic, 3.5-7 mm, sinus between lobes acute, margin scabrous, apex acuminate and caudate, veins 1-3. Corolla pale blue, with white toward base, funnelform, 0.6-1.4 cm × 3.5-6 mm; lobes narrowly oblong, 3-7 mm, apex obtuse and mucronate. Nectaries 10, green. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube; filaments white, 3-6 mm, base decurrent into wings of corolla tube; anthers yellow, ellipsoid, 0.8-1.8 mm. Style linear, 3-6 mm; stigma lobes suborbicular. Capsules ovoid. Seeds light brown, subglobose, 0.3-0.4 mm in diam.; seed coat reticulate. Fl. and fr. Oct-Nov.

S Sichuan, NE and W Yunnan.

* Grassland slopes, scrub, forests; 2700-4200 m.

Swertia gentianoides Franchet, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 46: 314. 1899; Gentiana scabratopes W. W. Smith.