Healing Gardens

King Gentian

 

Family Name:  Gentian (3)

Family Name:  Gentianaceae (3)

 

Latin Name:  Gentinian sceptrum

 

Common Name:  Gentian

 

Related Species: Gentiana platypetala—Broad-Petalled Gentian (1:228),  Gentiana lutea (2:46)

 

Body System Affiliations:  Digestive System (3)

 

Botanical Description:

            Habit:  Open, acidic, mulchy, well-drained (3), Perennial (1:228)

            Size:  25-100 cm tall (1:228)

            Flowers:  “Blue, often streaked or spotted with green 3-4.5 cm long, tubular with 5 flaring, oval lobes, folded or pleated (accordion-like) between the lobes, the pleates squared off or rounded at the top; sepals fused into a short tube with 5 well-developed lobes, usually several in a cluster atop the stem, with a few others on short stalks in upper leaf axils” (1:228)

            Underground Parts:  thick fleshy roots (1:228)

 

 

References Cited:

 

1. Mackinnon, Andy, and Jim Pojar.  Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast.  Vancouver, British Columbia: Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.

 

2. Hoffman, David.  The Herbal Handbook:  A User’s Guide to Medical Herbalism.  Rochester, VT:  Healing Arts Press, 1998.

 

3.  Eloheimo, Marja.  sayuyay Botanical Project:  Educational Garden Plant List.

            The Evergreen State College:  Healing Gardens, 2006.