Eared or auricled gentian

Gentiana auriculata Pallas, Fl. Ross. 1(2): 102, plate 92, fig. 1. 1789

Herbs annual or winter annual, 2–25(–30) cm. Stems erect, usu­ally simple or branched distally only, occasionally at or near base. Leaves: basal sometimes withered by flowering, blades spatulate-obovate to oblanceolate or elliptic, 4–30 × 1–13 mm; cauline blades elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, (5–)14–40 × 3–10(–15) mm. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, few-flowered, dichasial cymes or solitary flowers; pedicels 0–35 mm. Flowers 4(or 5)-merous; calyx 7–16 mm, lobes all ovate-triangular to sub­orbiculate, similar in length but the outer lobes wider, 2–8 mm; corolla pale to dark violet-blue [white], narrowly funnelform-salverform, 15–30 mm, lobes spreading, narrowly ovate, 3–8 mm, apex rounded or obtuse, adaxial corolla surface with a scale fringed ca. 0.6 times its length at base of each lobe; ovary subsessile. 2n = 48 (Siberia).

Flowering late summer–fall. Gravelly, open slopes; 0–300 m; Alaska; Asia (n Japan, Kamchatka, coastal Siberia).

In the flora area, Gentianella auriculata is known only from Attu in the Aleutian Islands and St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait.

The two larger calyx lobes of Gentianella auriculata are abruptly narrowed at the base, which therefore appears cordate or more or less auriculate, hence the specific epithet.

Gentianella auriculata is the only species of Gentianella, as the genus is circumscribed here, reported to have a chromosome number other than a multiple of 9. Although its 2n = 48 might suggest a closer relationship to Comastoma and Lomatogonium, molecular studies indicate that this species is appropriately included in Gentianella (K. B. von Hagen and J. W. Kadereit 2001).