Burkill
Description
Gentiana micantiformis Burkill is a diminutive alpine gentian of the high Sino-Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Japan (gbif_countries: CN, NP, BT, IN, JP) with a modest 59 occurrences in GBIF, reflecting both its small stature and restricted high-elevation range. It inhabits short alpine turf, open stony slopes, moist meadows and the margins of snow-melt flushes, generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The image data, from the Chopta valley in Sikkim at 4200 m in June and Chele-La in western Bhutan at 3700 m in May, place it firmly in the early-season alpine zone where it flowers as the snow recedes.
It is a small annual or short-lived herb forming low tufts, with slender, often branched stems. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to oblong and crowded toward the base, frequently with cartilaginous mucronate tips and white membranous margins. The flowers are solitary or few at the stem apices, with a tubular-campanulate, lobed calyx and a tubular-funnelform corolla that is blue to pale blue-violet, the lobes alternating with smaller plicate folds (plicae) characteristic of section Chondrophyllae. The capsule is stipitate and many-seeded, dehiscing to release minute seeds.
Gentiana section Chondrophyllae comprises numerous small annual Asian gentians whose delimitation is notoriously difficult, and the epithet signals close affinity with G. micans. Flowers open in bright sun and close in cold or cloud, a heliotropic adaptation typical of high-alpine gentians and aiding warmth-dependent insect pollination. Although nowhere abundant, the species is widely scattered across the high ranges and is not regarded as threatened.
Author: Burkill · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Gentianaceae), Flora of Bhutan, Ho & Liu monograph A Worldwide Monograph of Gentiana