Gentiana setigera

Mendocino gentian

Family: Gentianaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Mendocino gentian is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native perennial found in the northern Coast Ranges of Mendocino County in wet mountain meadows at elevations around 1,065 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces striking blue flowers with delicate 10 to 16 millimeter lobes and distinctive thread-like appendages divided into two to three segments. Growing with decumbent stems 20 to 45 centimeters tall, it emerges laterally below a basal rosette with multiple stems. Its leaves are spoon-shaped to elliptic, with basal leaves 25 to 85 millimeters long and 5 to 15 millimeters wide, and cauline leaves progressively narrower toward the stem tip. The flowers, typically two to four per plant, feature a calyx 14 to 23 millimeters long with ovate-oblong lobes and a corolla reaching 35 to 50 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Wet mountain meadows

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: +- 1065 m.

Bioregions: NCoRO (Red Mtn, Mendocino Co.)

California counties: Mendocino, Siskiyou, Del Norte

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.