THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE
THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE
(Click on the pictures to see them in larger size)
Spotted Gentian.
Gentiana punctata 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 20–40 cm high, solitary or several, not branched, wrapped at base by the sheaths of the basal leaves. Basal leaves 6–10 cm long, 5–7 cm wide, with 5–7 veins; cauline leaves shorter, with 3–4 veins. Flowers sessile, crowded in terminal and axillary clusters. Calyx 5–7 mm long, 4–5 times as short as the corolla, campanulate, scarious. Corolla 25–30 mm long, greenish yellow, with dark violet spots, 5–7-lobed, lobes shorter than the corolla tube, appendages very short. Capsule 20–25 mm long, fusiform. Seeds globose, with broad, scarious wings, reticulate. Flowering June-July2.
Occurs in alpine meadows and on stony, often very steep slopes, in stone rivers and screes, as well as in rock niches almost without soil layer. The slope of the localities vary from 10º to 45º, exposure is northern, northeastern or northwestern. Grows mostly on siliceous bedrock. Soils are mostly skeletal, thin, often with rock openings. Soil humidity is good due to the proximity of lakes or snow-drifts3.
Balkan Range, Vitosha region, Pirin Mts, Rila Mts; between 1800 and 2700 m altitude. The species is reported also for the Western Rhodopi Mts and Osogovo Mt but the localities have not been confirmed in the last 70 years4.
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.
The theory of evolution is a lie!