THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE
THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE
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Great yellow Gentian.
Gentiana lutea L.
The species is PROTECTED by the law in Bulgaria.
Listed in the Red Data Book of Bulgaria to the category "Endangered"1.
Perennial herbaceous plant with thick, vertical rhizome and sterile shoots. Stems 50–80 cm high, solitary or several together, not branched, wrapped at base by the sheaths of the basal leaves. Basal leaves 12–20 cm long, 5–10 cm wide, with 4–5 veins; cauline leaves smaller, with 3 veins. Flowers many, in axillary and terminal cymes. Calyx twice as short as the corolla, slightly inflated, scarious. Corolla 16–25 mm long, yellow, without spots, 5–7-lobed, lobes linear, patent, much longer than the corolla tube. Capsule 10–12 mm long, oblong-lanceolate. Seeds globose, with broad scarious wings, tuberculate. Flowering July - August2.
Occurs on stony slopes and wood meadows, near the timberline, on silicate or limestone. Soils most often thick, variably moist. Slope varies from almost flat to 45º. Most of the habitats are open, with southern exposures3:
Balkan Range, Vitosha, Pirin, Rila, Rhodopi Mts; between 1600 and 2150 m alt4.
C and SE Europe, Iberian Peninsula, Corsica and Sardinia, Balkan Peninsula, expanding to Asia Minor and India5.
1 Lyuba Evstatieva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.
2 Lyuba Evstatieva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.
3 Lyuba Evstatieva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.
4 Lyuba Evstatieva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.
5 Lyuba Evstatieva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.