Swertia cincta Burkill

Annuals 30-100(-150) cm tall. Roots yellow, fibrous. Stems erect, 3-5 mm in diam., branched. Basal leaves withered at anthesis. Stem leaves petioles short, puberulent; leaf blade lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 2.5-7.5 × 0.5-2 cm, puberulent, both ends attenuate, margin ciliate, veins 3-5. Inflorescences panicles of cymes, many flowered, spreading, to 60 cm. Pedicel erect, 0.3-1.8 cm, terete, with puberulent striae; flower nodding, 5merous. Calyx tube 1-1.5 mm; lobes ovate-lanceolate, 0.9-1.5 cm × 3-6 mm, slightly unequal, margin ciliate, apex acuminate and caudate, veins 1-3. Corolla pale yellow-green, with 2 blackish purple spots above each nectary, these sometimes joined into a ± continuous ring; tube 1-1.5 mm; lobes ovate-lanceolate, 0.7-1.4 cm, margin ciliolate, apex acuminate and caudate. Nectaries 1 per corolla lobe, horseshoe-shaped, naked. Filaments 5-7 mm, basally much enlarged and connate; anthers narrowly ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm. Style 3-4 mm, slender; stigma lobes capitate. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, 1.2-2.3 cm. Seeds pale yellow, ellipsoid, 0.9-1.1 mm; seed coat reticulate. Fl. and fr. Aug-Nov.

Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan.

* Wet slopes, scrub, forests; 1400-3800 m.

Swertia alboviolacea H. Léveillé; S. purpurascens (Wallich ex D. Don) C. B. Clarke var. violaceocincta Franchet.