D.Don
Description
Gentiana depressa is a cushion-forming alpine gentian of the Himalaya, native to Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, the c. 301 georeferenced records tracing a range across the central and eastern high ranges. It grows in open alpine turf, on grassy and stony slopes, banks and amongst dwarf shrubs, generally between about 3000 and 4500 m, and is a notable autumn-flowering species. The plant was photographed at Pansing in Nepal at 3150 m in October, a season and elevation typical of the species, which produces its broad flowers late in the year as the surrounding herbage senesces.
It is a low, prostrate perennial forming dense mats, with creeping, much-branched stems clothed in crowded, small, ovate to elliptic leaves arranged in tight rosettes and overlapping pairs. The flowers are large relative to the plant and sit terminally, almost sessile within the leaf cluster, depressing the foliage around them (depressa). The corolla is broadly campanulate to funnel-shaped, pale greenish-yellow to whitish or sky-blue, conspicuously speckled and streaked within, with five short lobes separated by small plicate folds (plicae). The calyx is tubular and five-toothed; the fruit is a many-seeded capsule, often on a short stipe, releasing fine winged seeds.
Gentiana (tribe Gentianeae) is divided into numerous sections, and G. depressa belongs to the Himalayan autumnal cushion gentians of section Frigida and allies, distinguished by their plicate corollas and prostrate, mat-forming habit. The broad pale flowers borne flat against ground level are an adaptation to the cold, wind-exposed late-season alpine environment, maximising warmth for the developing capsule. Widespread and locally common across its range, the species is not regarded as threatened, though specialised cushion-formers are sensitive to trampling and climatic warming.
Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ho & Liu monograph of Gentiana