Swertia cuneata Wall.

Perennials 15-30 cm tall. Rhizomes blackish, short, with few slightly fleshy rootlets. Stems erect, striate, simple, base sheathed by blackish remains of old petioles. Leaves mostly basal; petiole winged, 1.2-3 cm; leaf blade spatulate to obovate, 1.5-3.5 × 0.9-1.2 cm, base narrowed and decurrent into wings of petiole, apex rounded, veins 3-7, arcuate. Middle to upper stem leaves 2 or 3 pairs, sessile or short petiolate; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, 2-5.5 cm × 6-11 mm, base narrowed, apex obtuse, veins 3-5. Inflorescences ra-cemelike, 5-7-flowered. Flowers 5merous. Pedicel spreading, 2.7-7 cm. Calyx lobes usually spreading, oblong-spatulate to elliptic, 6-9 mm, base usually distinctly contracted into a claw, margin dark brown and slightly revolute, apex rounded. Corolla pale blue, 2-3 cm in diam.; tube 1.5-2 mm, base bearing 5 bundles of yellow hairs; lobes ovate-elliptic, 1.5-2 cm, apex obtuse. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, linear-oblong, radially elongated, with pilose fimbriae 2.5-3 mm. Filaments 9-10 mm; anthers ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes suborbicular. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, 0.9-1.2 cm. Seeds brown, subglobose, ca. 2 mm; seed coat reticulate. Fl. and fr. Sep-Oct.

Himalaya (Kumaun to Sikkim), Assam, S.E. Tibet.

SW Xizang [W India, Nepal, Sikkim].

3900-5000 m

Alpine meadows; 3600-4700 m.

Swertia asterocalyx T. N. Ho & S. W. Liu.