巴塘龙胆Gentiana susanneae

  • Scientific Name: Gentiana susanneae Adr. Favre
  • Ref: Systematic Botany 47 (2):506-513. 2022
  • English Common Name: Susanne’s Gentian
  • Chinese Common Name: 巴塘龙胆 Ba tang long dan
  • Family: Gentianaceae
  • Genus: Gentiana
  • Distribution: Sichuan
  • Type:: CHINA, Sichuan Province, Batang County, surroundings of Cuopu Lakes (Cuoniba), near the road between Batang and Litang, 4490 m, flowering, 21 September 2018 (holotype: Adrien Favre AFCN18_201d,FR)
  • Etymology—The specific epithet was chosen in honour of Prof. Susanne Fritz, who is a zoologist at the Senckenberg Research Institute Frankfurt and Goethe University Frankfurt, as well as an enthusiastic assistant in field botany. By extension, the new species is named in honour of all individuals named “Susanne” in academia. Susanne was the most common first name for female professors in Germany in 2019
 Perennials 30–60(–80) cm tall. Stems 1 or 2,erect, simple, glabrous. Basal leaves in 1(–2) erect rosettes (usually 6 to 8 leaves concurrently persistent); petiole 1–4 cm; leaf blade not folded, linear-elliptic to lanceolate, 5–13 cm X 5–13 mm, base narrowed, apex obtuse, veins 1 or 3. Stem leaves 1 to 4 pairs, the distal leaves sometimes slightly folded; petiole 3–15(–20) mm; leaf blade narrowly linear-elliptic to lanceolate, 3.5–6 cm X 4–15 mm, apex obtuse, veins 1 or 3.Inflorescences terminal clusters of 3 to 5 flowers, usually with axillary sessile flowers and/or few-flowered clusters on peduncle-like branches. Flowers sessile, rarely lower flowers pedicellate (1–20 mm). Calyx obconic to campanulate, often suffused with red, 7–16 mm in length, tube usually entire,rarely split on the side for 3–5 mm; lobes erect, oblong-triangular, 1–6 mm in length, apex acute to obtuse. Corolla white to pale yellow, with dark blue-purple stripes along the primary veins of the corolla, in short streaks bordering the insertion of the filaments, and in and below the lobes in the distal third of the corolla, and with dark blue-purple spots on lobes, tubular-campanulate to funnelform, length 4.5–6.5cm; lobes ovate to triangular, 4–7 mm long, apex obtuse; plicae obliquely truncate, margin entire to shallowly erose. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube; length of filaments 1.3–1.6 cm; anthers narrowly ellipsoid, whitish or pale yellow, ca. 3.5 mm. Stigma lobes linear. Capsules ovoidellipsoid, 2–2.5 cm in length; gynophore ca. 2–2.5 cm long at maturity. Seeds light brown, broadly ellipsoid to subglobose,
1.4–2 mm. Flowers and fruits August to September.

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