Gentiana franchetiana Kuzn.

Annuals 2-3.5 cm tall. Stems purple, erect, branched from middle, apically, or rarely from base, densely papillate. Leaves crowded; petiole tube 0.5-1 mm, abaxially papillate; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate to ovate, subleathery, rigid, margin cartilaginous and ciliolate, apex acuminate to acute and apiculate, midvein prominent. Basal leaves withered at anthesis; leaf blade 7-10 × 2.5-6 mm. Stem leaf blades 5-9 × 1-3 mm. Flowers few to many, subsessile. Calyx narrowly obconic, 5-6 mm; lobes linear-lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm, equal, as long as tube, subleathery, rigid, margin cartilaginous and ciliolate, apex acute and apiculate, midvein prominent. Corolla outside tinged green, inside dark blue, tubular, 8-9 mm; lobes ovate, 1-1.2 mm, margin entire, apex obtuse; plicae ovate, 0.6-0.8 mm, margin entire, apex obtuse. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube, equal; filaments 2-3 mm; anthers narrowly ellipsoid, 1-1.2 mm. Style 1-1.5 mm; stigma lobes oblong. Capsules obovoid, 3-3.5 mm; gynophore to 6 mm, stout. Seeds brown, ovoid, 0.5-0.7 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr-Oct.

SW Sichuan, C and NW Yunnan.

* Hillsides; 1400-2300 m.

Gentiana pulla Franchet (1890), not Grisebach (1874).