Botanical name: Swertia macrosperma    Family: Gentianaceae (Gentian family)
Synonyms: Swertia scandens, Swertia randaiensis, Ophelia macrosperma

Large-Seed Swertia is an annual herb 1-3 ft tall. Flowers are white or pale blue, 5- or rarely 4-merous, 3-5 mm in diameter, tube about 0.5 mm; petals elliptic, 4-8 mm, tip blunt, with 2 hairy, cupshaped nectaries 2 per petal. Filaments are 4-5 mm; anthers ellipsoid, about 1.5 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes headlike. Sepal-tube is about 0.5 mm; sepals ovate-elliptic, 2.5-4 mm, tip pointed, midvein distinct. Flower-stalks are erect, 4-15 mm, slender. Flowers are borne in panicles of cymes, many flowered, spreading branched. Stems are erect, 4-angled narrowly winged on angles, branched from middle. Basal and lower stem leaves wither at flowering, stalked; leaf blade spoon-shaped, 2-6.5 x up to 1.5 cm, base narrowed, margin entire or finely toothed, tip blunt, veins 1-3. Middle stem leaves are stalkless, lanceshaped, oblong, ovate, or rarely obovate, 0.4-4.5 x 0.3-1.5 cm, base blunt, tip pointed, veins 3-5. Capsules are ovoid, 5-6 mm. Seeds 3-4 per capsule, brown, ellipsoid to almost spherical, 1.5-2 mm. Large-Seed Swertia is found growing beside streams, grasslands on hillsides, scrub, mixed forests, bamboo thickets, at altitudes of 1400-4000 m, in Eastern Himalayas, from Nepal to NE India, S. China and N. Myanmar, Taiwan. Flowering: July-November.
Medicinal uses: Large-Seed Swertia is a traditional folk medicine used for its anti-hepatitis, antipyretic and antidotal effects as Dida or Zangyinchen in Tibet, Yunnan and Guizhou province for a long time, and it has been reported for its anti-diabetic effects in a Chinese patent.

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The flower labeled Large-Seed Swertia is ...