Large-sepaled sabatia, coastal rose-gentian

Gentiana calycina Lamarck in J. Lamarck et al., Encycl. 2: 638. 1788

Herbs perennial, not stoloni­ferous. Stems usually single, occa­sionally 2–several, terete or distally ± 4-angled but not winged, 0.8–5 dm, branching all or mostly alternate. Leaves all cauline at flowering time; blade elliptic to widely spat­ulate, 1–6(–10) cm × 4–30 mm. Inflorescences open, few-flowered cymes; pedicels (10–)30–60 mm. Flowers 5–7-merous; calyx tube shallowly campanulate, 1.5–5 mm, midveins slightly more prominent than commissural, veins not ridged or midveins with low, narrow ridges, lobes oblanceolate to spatulate or ± foliaceous, 8–25(–32) mm; corolla pale pink proximally, distally white, or white throughout except for eye, eye yellow, projections of eye into corolla lobes triangular, without a contrasting border, tube 3–6 mm, lobes oblanceolate to narrowly spatulate-obovate, 6–15 × 2–6 mm, apex rounded to obtuse; anthers becoming slightly recurved. 2n = 64.

Flowering summer. Marshes, swamps, wet woods, riverbanks, ditches; 0–60 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex., Va.; West Indies (Cuba, Dominican Republic).