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East-Asian Gentian
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East-Asian Gentian
P Native Photo: M. Sawmliana
Common name: East-Asian Gentian • Chinese: Hua nan long dan
Botanical name: Gentiana loureiroi    Family: Gentianaceae (Gentian family)
Synonyms: Ericoila loureiroi, Varasia loureiroi, Gentiana pedicellata var. rosulata

East-Asian Gentian is a perennial herb 3-8 cm tall, sometimes with runners up to 2.5 cm. Flower are blue to blue-purple, rarely outside pale yellow-green, funnel-shaped, 1-1.7 cm; petals ovate, 2-2.5 mm, margin entire, tip blunt; plicae ovate-round, 1-1.5 mm, margin entire or finely toothed, tip rounded. Stamens are inserted at middle of flower tube, 3-6 mm, anthers 1.8-2.5 mm, style 1.5-2 mm. Sepal-cup is bell-shaped, 5-6.5 mm; sepals erect to sometimes spreading, linear-lanceshaped to lanceshaped, 2.5-4 mm, margin indistinctly membranous and fringed, tip pointed and cuspidate. Stems are purple, erect, simple or few branched, loosely cespitose, densely papillate. Basal leaves usually developed; leaf-stalk 3-7 mm, ciliolate; leaf blade elliptic, 1.5-3 cm x 3-5 mm, below hairless, above densely and minutely papillate, margin indistinctly cartilaginous, densely minute ciliolate, tip blunt to pointed, often with a short sharp point, midvein indistinct or below slender. Flower-stalks are 4-12 mm, densely warty. Stem leaves are widely spaced; leaf-stalk 5-8 mm, leaves lanceshaped to elliptic, 4-8 x 1-2.5 mm, tip pointed, cuspidate. Capsules are narrowly obovoid to obovoid, 4.5-5.5 mm; gynophore up to 1.8 cm. East-Asian Gentian is found on roadside slopes, hillsides, forests, in Bhutan, NE India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China, at altitudes of 300-3200 m. Flowering: February-September.
Medicinal uses: In China, the whole plant is used for skin inflammation, jaundice, genital discharge, boils, snakebites.

Identification credit: J.M. Garg Photographed in Hmuifang, Mizoram.

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