Cumberland or Appalachian rose-gentian, upland sabatia

Pleienta capitata Rafinesque, Fl. Tellur. 3: 30. 1837; Lapithea capitata (Rafinesque) Small

Herbs annual. Stems single, terete or slightly 4-ridged but not angled or winged, 1.5–4.5(–7) dm, branching oppo­site or alternate. Leaves basal and cauline present at flow­ering time; blade oblong to elliptic, 2–5(–7) cm × 7–20(–25) mm. Inflorescences heads, sessile. Flowers 7–12-merous; calyx tube widely campanulate, 3–6 mm, not ridged, lobes linear, 4–10 mm; corolla pink or rarely white, eye pale yellow, projections of eye into corolla lobes semicircular, without a contrasting border, tube 5–7 mm, lobes narrowly spatulate-obovate, 12–25 × 5–13 mm, apex rounded; anthers remaining straight or nearly so, not coiling. 2n = 76.

Flowering summer–early fall. Open dry or mesic oak-hickory woods, sandstone regions; of conservation concern; 200–900 m; Ala., Ga., Tenn.

Sabatia capitata is endemic to the southernmost por­tions of the Cumberland Plateau and the Ridge and Valley Province in northern and central Alabama, north­western Georgia, and southeastern Tennessee. An old specimen was labeled by a later recipient as being from North Carolina, but its provenance is uncertain.