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: CENTAURY
Habit: Annual, glabrous. Stem: erect, generally branched. Leaf: cauline, opposite (sometimes also basal). Inflorescence: cyme. Flower: parts in 4s or generally 5s; calyx lobes >> tube (discounting thin membrane between lobes in Zeltnera davyi), appressed to corolla tube, generally not keeled; corolla salverform, white or generally pink, lobes <= tube, +- entire, scales 0, nectaries pits 0 (nectaries elsewhere 0); stamens often initially curved to 1 side, dehisced anthers spirally twisted; ovary sessile, style generally thread-like, deciduous, entire or cleft < 1 mm, stigmas 1, 2-lobed, or 2, stigmas or lobes wedge- to fan-shaped.
Etymology: (L. Zeltner, N. Zeltner, Swiss botanists, b. 1938, 1934) Note: Variable, difficult; further study needed, especially of chromosome numbers, hybridization. Zeltnera calycosa (Buckley) G. Mans. [Centaurium calycosum (Buckley) Fernald] not in California.
Reference: Mansion 2004 Taxon 53:719--740
Unabridged Reference: Mansion & Zeltner 2004 Amer J Bot 91:2069--2086