Facts About the Fringed Gentian

Species

• Populations of nine fringed gentian species grow in the U.S. Their range encompasses growing conditions from Alaska's Northwest Arctic County and central Maine, to southeastern Arizona and northern Georgia. Collection of wild plants and threats to their habitats have earned greater (G. crinita) and lesser (G. virgata) fringed gentians threatened, endangered or extirpated status in seven states.

Preferred Habitats

• Fringed gentians share a love of cool, moist habitats, from bogs and meadows to lakeshore sand dune hollows. The Rocky Mountain fringed gentian (G. thermalis) takes its species name from Yellowstone National Park's hot springs. It also boasts the title of Yellowstone's park flower. Lesser fringed gentians create sweeps of summer blue on the limestone-rich flats along Lake Huron and Lake Michigan's northern shores. Perennial fringed gentian (G. barbellata) finds the cool conditions it loves in the sub-alpine meadows of the Southwest, Colorado and the high plains states. Greater fringed gentian, the most widespread of all the species, grows along stream banks and in meadows and moist woodlands from Maine south to the northern Georgia mountains and in the upper Midwest.

Bloom Times

• Bryant and Dickinson waxed poetic about the greater fringed gentian's brilliant blue, late autumn flowers. Other species, however, bloom as early as midsummer. Lesser fringed gentian's royal blue flowers open as early as June. Rocky Mountain fringed gentian produces clumping stems of blue-violet or purple, bell-shaped flowers in July and August. Wedgewood blue, delicately fringed flowers crown G. barbellata's 1- to 5-inch, spreading stems in late summer and early fall.

Taxonomical History

• The Gentian (Gentiana) genus takes its name from Kingdom of Illyria's last ruler, King Gentius. After the Adriatic kingdom fell to the Romans in 165 B.C., Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder credited King Gentius with discovering the malaria-treating properties of yellow gentian (Gentian lutea) root. Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus named the genus for the king. The Gentiana genus contained more than 300 species until 25 plants with fringed petals moved to the new Gentianopsis -- meaning Gentianlike -- genus.

Growing Fringed Gentians

• Fringed gentians adapt to life as garden ornamentals with the right conditions. The secret to their successful cultivation lies in re-creating each species' natural habitat as closely as possible. They need full sun, consistently moist soil, and a location where their roots can remain undisturbed. They sometimes take years to grow from seeds. Finding started plants from a local nursery or wildflower society produces quicker results.