D. Don
Description
Swertia multicaulis is a high-alpine Himalayan gentian distributed through Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and recorded marginally from Kazakhstan, with GBIF holding around 144 occurrences along the main Himalayan chain. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, growing on damp, peaty or gravelly meadows, moist rock ledges, seepage slopes and the margins of glacial lakes and snowbeds. The specimen from Saniti Lake in Sikkim at about 4250 m in August typifies its preference for cold, moisture-saturated high-altitude turf, where it flowers late in the short growing season as the monsoon wanes and snowmelt keeps the substrate constantly wet.
As its epithet indicates, it is a low perennial herb producing several stems from a stout, often branched rootstock crowned by a rosette of leaves. The basal leaves are obovate to spathulate, entire and narrowed to a petiolar base, forming a compact tuft, while the few stem leaves are small and sessile. The flowers are borne singly or in few-flowered clusters and are typically 4- or 5-merous; the corolla is rotate and deep blue-purple to violet, the lobes ovate-lanceolate and each furnished at the base with one or two fringed nectary scales characteristic of the genus. The stamens alternate with the corolla lobes, and the superior ovary ripens into a many-seeded capsule.
Described by D. Don, Swertia multicaulis is part of the speciose, taxonomically complex Sino-Himalayan radiation of the genus, where species are separated largely by nectary structure, corolla colour and habit. Its cushion-forming, multi-stemmed growth is an adaptation to wind-swept, frost-prone high-alpine conditions. The plant accumulates bitter secoiridoids and xanthones and, like other swertias, has a reputation in local folk medicine. Restricted to intact high-elevation wetland and meadow habitats, it may be vulnerable to grazing and to upward habitat compression under a warming climate.
Author: D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hara Enumeration of Flowering Plants of Nepal, Clarke revision of Swertia