Plant: perennial herb; stems erect or decumbent, 8-42 cm tall; puberulent in rows as continuations of the leaf margins

Leaves: lanceolate to ovate, 1.5-4.5 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, often broadly ovate below, narrowing to lanceolate above, frequently appressed, the margins puberulent

INFLORESCENCE: usually a dense apical cluster of several flowers, occasionally with a single terminal flower, rarely with axillary flowers 1 or 2 nodes below the apex; each flower arising from the axil of a boat-shaped bract, closely subtended by 2 narrower bracteoles

Flowers: blue, occasionally white, 3-4 cm long; calyx tube entire or cut along one side, the lobes to 8 mm long and equaling the tube or reduced and nearly obsolete; corolla campanulate, 2-2.5 cm wide, the lobes 5-8 mm long, rounded, often apiculate, the plicae 1-4 mm long, often bifid

Fruit: cylindric capsules, short-stipitate. SEEDS marginally winged

Misc: Open moist mountain meadows; 2450-3500 m (8000-11,500 ft); Aug-Sep

REFERENCES: Mason, Charles T. 1998 Gentianaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 30(2): 84.