C.B.Clarke
Description
Gentiana micans is an alpine gentian of the eastern and central Himalaya, with GBIF occurrences spanning southwest China, Bhutan, India and Nepal. It is a characteristic component of moist alpine meadow, seepage slopes and short turf above the treeline, generally between 3,500 and 4,800 m. The illustrated plant was recorded at Yume Samdong in northern Sikkim at about 4,600 m in August, coinciding with the late-monsoon flowering peak when these gentians carpet the high pastures alongside Primula, Pedicularis and Saxifraga.
The species is a small annual or short-lived herb with slender, ascending to erect stems often branching from the base and frequently tinged purple. The leaves are small, sessile, ovate to lanceolate and arranged in opposite pairs. The flowers are solitary and terminal on the branchlets, with a tubular to narrowly campanulate corolla that is brilliant deep blue, the five lobes spreading and separated by small plicate folds; the calyx is tubular with narrow teeth. The fruit is a stalked, two-valved capsule containing numerous minute seeds adapted to wind dispersal.
Gentiana micans belongs to the species-rich Himalayan assemblage of small annual gentians (section Chondrophyllae and allies), a group whose delicate taxonomy rests on corolla, calyx and seed characters. Though individually inconspicuous, these annuals are ecologically important early colonisers of disturbed and grazed alpine ground. The taxon is widespread and not considered threatened, but its meadow habitats are sensitive to overgrazing and to the shifting precipitation regimes of the monsoonal high Himalaya.
Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 16 (Gentianaceae), Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Ho & Liu: A Worldwide Monograph of Gentiana