Green Gentian Guide - New York Natural Heritage Program

Green gentian is a monocarpic perennial plant that may live as basal leaves up to 30 years or more. The large basal leaves can grow up to 1 1/2 feet and are lance-shaped and wider towards the tip. The stem leaves are in whorls of four and are progressively smaller towards the top. The flowering stem can grow from 3-6 feet tall and is topped by a large inflorescence with many branches containing 50-100 flowers and fruits. The showy flowers have four greenish-yellow petals that are purple-dotted and about 1/2 to 3/4" long. Below the middle on each petal is a large elliptic gland surrounded by a long fringe. The large fruits, almost an inch long, are elliptic and flattened.

Best Life Stage for Proper Identification

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This plant may be identified vegetatively and can easily be confirmed with a digital photo. This is one our our easiest rare plants to identify vegetatively.

Similar Species

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This is a very unique looking plant that should not be confused with anything in our flora.

Green Gentian Images

click to enlarge

The Best Time to See

As a plant that only flowers once in its lifetime, seeing flowering plants can be difficult. Entire populations are often only present as vegetative plants. Fortunately, this plant can be identified easily from the vegetative basal rosettes. As such, surveys may be conducted at any point during the growing season. Successful surveys are even possible during the non-growing season if someone is familar with the tall flowering stalks and if the population recently flowered. When this plant flowers, flowers are typically present from early June to mid-July.

Vegetative

Flowering

Fruiting

The time of year you would expect to find Green Gentian vegetative (blue shading), flowering (green shading) and fruiting (orange shading) in New York.

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© 2004-2012 New York Natural Heritage Program, a partnership between
the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and
the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Please cite this page as:
New York Natural Heritage Program. 2013. Online Conservation Guide for Frasera caroliniensis. Available from: http://www.acris.nynhp.org/guide.php?id=9089. Accessed June 18th, 2013.