GENTIAN FAMILY GENTIANACEAE 
FRINGED GENTIAN 
Gentiana crinita Froel. 
The Fringed Genetian has been exterminated in many places 
and has become very rare in others, but is still found occasionally 
on low grounds in the northern part of the state, particularly in 
the northeast. The rare 
beauty of the sky-blue 
flowers makes the plant 
much sought for by 
thoughtless people, who do 
not understand that picking 
the flowers may destroy it. 
Its range is from central 
Maine and Quebec, south 
to Georgia, Ohio and Iowa. 
The plant blooms in 
late summer and autumn. 
It is not a perennial and 
must therefore depend upon 
seed for its perpetuation. 
The fringed borders of the 
4 blue corolla lobes give the 
flower its name. The calyx 
is also 4-lobed and its parts 
are somewhat unequal. The 
4 stamens are attached to 
the tube of the corolla, al- 
ternating with its lobes, and 
between their filaments at 
the base is a row of glands. 
The pistil consists of a 1-celled ovary and 2 stigmas. The fruit 
is a capusle containing many small rough seeds. 
‘aN a 
A Fringed Gentian, Gentiana affinis Griseb., very similar, grows 
in the Rocky mountains, but it is darker purple-blue. 
The White Gentian, Gentiana flavida Gray, is the only eastern 
species that is not blue. Its generally unbranched stem grows 1-2 
feet high in thickets and open woodlands scattered throughout 
Illinois, but not commonly. Its creamy white flowers, about an 
inch across, are clustered at the top and occasionally in the upper 
axils. This species is frequently mistaken for a white-flowered form 
of the Closed Gentian, page 237. 
236 
