Swertia marginata Schrenk

Perennials 15-35 cm tall. Rhizomes blackish, short, with few slightly fleshy rootlets. Stems erect, simple, base sheathed by blackish remains of old petioles. Basal leaves 3 or 4 pairs; petiole flattened, 3-7.5 cm; leaf blade linear-elliptic to oblanceolate, 3-8 × 0.8-2.5 cm, base narrowed, apex obtuse, veins 3-5. Stem leaves 1 or 2 pairs, sessile or short petiolate; leaf blade bractlike, linear-elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 1.5-3.5 cm × 4-10 mm, both ends obtuse, veins 1-3. Inflorescences narrow, interrupted, many-flowered thyrses 8-15 cm. Flowers 5merous. Pedicel 0.5-1.5 cm. Calyx lobes lanceolate, 8-10 mm, margin broadly membranous and distinct, apex acuminate, veins 3. Corolla yellow, blue on middle of outer surface, 1.3-1.5 cm in diam., tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes oblong to narrowly so, 1-1.2 cm, margin erose, apex rounded. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, cupular, with pilose fimbriae 3-4 mm. Filaments 7-9 mm, base fimbriate-barbate; anthers blue, ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes oblong to suborbicular. Capsules narrowly ovoid, as long as persistent corolla. Seeds brown, ellipsoid, 1.2-2 mm, longitudinally rugose. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

W Gansu, N Xinjiang [Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia (E Siberia), Tajikistan].

Grasslands on hillsides; 2500-3000 m.