Gentiana phyllocalyx - Leaf-Sepal Gentian

Leaf-Sepal Gentian is a perennial herb 3-12 cm tall. Roots are few, slender. Stolons are up to 5 cm. Stems are ascending to erect, simple, hairless. Flowers are borne at branch ends, solitary, stalkless. Sepal-cup is pale yellow-green, tube broadly tubular, 1.2 cm. Sepals are oblong, pointed, widely separated, half as long. Flowers are blue, with dark blue stripes, broadly tubular to tubular-bell-shaped, 2.5-3 cm, petals erect, broad-triangular, alternating with irregular triangular lobles. Leaves are crowded toward base of stem. Stem leaves are 3-5 pairs, widely spaced; stalk 5-8 mm; leaf blade obovate, 0.6-2.6 x 0.4-1.6 cm, base narrowed into stalk, tip rounded and emarginate, veins 1-3. Capsules are ovoid-ellipsoid, 2.3-2.5 cm; gynophore to 4.6 cm. Seeds compressed, orbicular, 1.4-1.6 mm. Leaf-Sepal Gentian is found in grassland and rocky slopes, stony pastures and scrub of the Himalayas, from Nepal to Sikkim and SW China, at altitudes of 3000-5200 m. Flowering: June-October.