''Gentianella amarella'', the autumn gentian, autumn dwarf gentian, or autumn felwort, is a short

biennial plant A biennial plant is a flowering plant that, generally in a temperate climate, takes two years to complete its biological life cycle. Background In its first year, the biennial plant undergoes primary growth, during which its vegetative structur ...

flowering plant in the gentian family,

Gentianaceae Gentianaceae is a family of flowering plants of 105 genera and about 1600 species. Etymology The family takes its name from the genus ''Gentiana'', named after the Illyrian king Gentius. Distribution Distribution is cosmopolitan (species), cosm ...

. It is found throughout Northern Europe, the western and northern United States, and Canada.

Description

''Gentianella amarella'' the autumn gentian, autumn dwarf gentian, or autumn felwort is a biennial

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition o ...

, which only produces a low leaf rosette with elliptical to

lanceolate The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...

leaves in its first year. In the second year it usually grows a

stem Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

from 5 to 30 (3 to 50) centimeters long. The stem is straight or branched just above the base; at flowering time it is without leaves which distinguishes it from similar species.

Generative characteristics

The flowering period is from July to early October, and the

axil A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...

s produce numerous flowers. The relatively small,

hermaphrodite A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many ...

flowers are purplish bells (reddish-violet corolla) are trumpet-shaped between 12 and 22 mm long and have five petals with double

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower. It is a structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepal ...

(calyx and corolla). The cup is much shorter than the crown tube. The five vestibules are upright and mostly somewhat unequal. The coronet is bearded. The

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

and the fruit are sedentary or rarely short-stalked. The number of

chromosomes A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most importa ...

is 2n = 36.

Taxonomy and distribution

''Gentianella amarella'' was first published in 1753 under the name (

basionym In the scientific name of organisms, basionym or basyonym means the original name on which a new name is based; the author citation of the new name should include the authors of the basionym in parentheses. The term "basionym" is used in both botan ...

) ''Gentiana amarella'' by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

. The new combination to ''Gentianella amarella'' was published in 1912 by

Carl Julius Bernhard Börner Carl Julius Bernhard Börner (28 May 1880 – 14 June 1953) was a German entomologist. Börner was born in Bremen and died in Naumburg. His collections of Collembola are located in the Natural History Museum, London and the Deutsches Entomolog ...

. The

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

''amarella'' means somewhat bitter. There are about five subspecies of ''Gentianella amarella'':

Ecology

Its habitat is in grass, often on lime-rich soil (in England typically on chalk). It grows on dry, sandy or calcareous soils, but also on wet peat or marl soils and thus thrives in bog meadows. It is growing in the molinion association.

References

External links

* *
Distribution across the Northern hemisphere
according to

Eric Hultén Oskar Eric Gunnar Hultén (18 March 1894 – 1 February 1981) was a Swedish botanist, plant geographer and 20th century explorer of The Arctic. He was born in Halla in Södermanland. He took his licentiate exam 1931 at Stockholm University and ...

* Thomas Meyer
Kranzenzian Data sheet and identification key with photos ''Flora-de: Flora von Deutschland''.

{{Authority control amarella Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus