Common Name: GENTIAN FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb [to trees]. Stem: decumbent to erect, < 2 m, simple or branched. Leaf: simple, cauline, sometimes also basal, opposite or whorled, entire, sessile or basal +- petioled; stipules 0. Flower: bisexual, radial, parts in 4s or 5s except pistil 1; sepals fused, persistent; petals fused, +- persistent, sinus between lobes often unappendaged; stamens epipetalous, alternate corolla lobes; ovary superior, chamber 1, placentas parietal, often intruding, stigmas 1--2. Fruit: capsule, 2-valved. Seed: many.
Genera In Family: +- 90 genera, 1800 species: worldwide; some cultivated (Eustoma, Exacum, Gentiana). Note: Gentianella tenella moved to Comastoma. Key to genera revised by Bruce G. Baldwin.
eFlora Treatment Author: James S. Pringle, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: GENTIAN
Habit: Annual to perennial herb, generally glabrous. Stem: generally simple below inflorescence. Leaf: cauline, opposite (also basal or not). Inflorescence: compact cyme or flowers 1. Flower: parts generally in 5s (generally in 4s in Gentiana prostrata, 4s or 5s in Gentiana fremontii); calyx tube generally > lobes; corolla tube narrow-bell-shaped, lobes spreading, < tube, base of sinus between lobes truncate or generally with a variously shaped, sometimes fringed appendage, nectary pits 0 (nectaries on ovary stalk); ovary stalked, style +- 0 or short, entire, persistent, stigmas 2.
Etymology: (Gentius, king of Illyria, who used roots to treat malaria)