White River or Sunnyside frasera

Swertia gypsicola Barneby, Leafl. W. Bot. 3: 155. 1942

Herbs perennial, 1–3.5 dm, glabrous. Stems 1–few from each division of the caudex, often with several rosettes. Leaf blades white-margined, basal 3–8 × 0.1–0.3 cm, narrowly lin­ear; cauline leaves opposite, blades similar to basal. Inflorescences narrow but not dense, few-flowered. Flowers: calyx 3–4 mm; corolla cream, dark purple-dotted, 5–9 mm, lobes lanceolate, apex acute to short-acuminate; androecial corona scales oblong, ca. 2 mm, margins subentire to ± lacerate; style slender, distinct; nectaries and foveae 1 per corolla lobe, foveae opening ± round, distal to nectaries but without a differentiated area on the corolla surface, rim deeply, evenly fringed all around.

Flowering summer. Valley bottoms, in white-barren soils; of conservation concern; 1500–1700 m; Nev., Utah.

Frasera gypsicola is endemic to two small calcareous mountain areas in northeastern Nye County and adja­cent White Pine County, Nevada, and western Millard County, Utah.

Because of its multicipital caudex with the divisions more strongly divergent than in other Frasera species except F. coloradensis, F. gypsicola has a distinctive cespitose habit.