Plymouth gentian or rose-gentian, large sabatia

Sabatia dodecandra (Linnaeus) Britton, Sterns & Poggenburg var. kennedyana (Fernald) H. E. Ahles

Herbs monocarpic but generally requiring 3+ years to flower or occasionally short-lived peren­nials, stoloniferous. Stems 1–several, scattered or occasionally in small clusters, terete, 1.5–6.5(–8) dm, branching mostly opposite, distally (or on small plants all) sometimes alternate. Leaves basal and cauline or only cauline present at flowering time; basal blades linear-oblong to narrowly oblanceolate, 1.5–10 cm × 2–10(–16) mm; cauline blades lanceolate to linear, 1.5–6 cm × 2–7 mm. Inflorescences open cymes; pedicels (5–)10–50(–70) mm. Flowers 7–12-merous; calyx tube shallowly campanulate, 2–4.5 mm, mid- and commissural veins about equally prominent, obscurely or not ridged, lobes linear-filiform, 5–18 mm; corolla pink to pinkish violet or rarely white or patterned pink and white, eye yellow, 3-lobed, with or without red border, tube 5–8 mm, lobes spatulate to narrowly spatulate-obovate, (9–)12–27 × 4–14 mm, apex rounded or occasionally nearly truncate or emarginate; anthers coiling circinately. 2n = 40.

Flowering summer–fall. Nonsaline pond shores, wet woods, often in shallow water at least early in the season; of conservation concern; 0–10 m; N.S.; Mass., N.C., R.I., S.C., Va.

Sabatia kennedyana is endemic to a few disjunct localities all near the Atlantic coast, although the habitats are nonsaline. Occurrences in Virginia may be derived from introductions.

Prior to its recognition in 1916, this taxon was included in Sabatia dodecandra (usually as S. chloroides). According to R. L. Wilbur (1955), S. kennedyana is best distinguished from S. dodecandra and S. foliosa by the combination of stems almost completely devoid of ridges; leaves thin, smooth, and brittle when dried; primary branching generally opposite in well-developed specimens; terminal flowers generally much overtopped by the first internode of the lateral branches; calyx tube wide, thin, not ribbed; calyx lobes linear-subulate, less than 0.8 mm wide (0.8+ mm wide in S. dodecandra and S. foliosa), hyaline-margined, thin and flat in cross section; and corolla lobes spatulate-obovate, that is, widest near the apex. Sabatia kennedyana further differs from S. dodecandra in the much greater frequency and size of its stolon-borne rosettes.

Although habitat destruction, including drainage, eutrophication, and other disturbances of the coastal-plain ponds constitute much of the basis for conservation concern, the picking of Sabatia kennedyana for bouquets is also significant. Because of the similarity of the generic name to Sabbath, this species has traditionally been used for decorating churches in some localities. In picking, the crowns and stolons are readily even if unintentionally ripped out of their oozy substrate. The life history of this species as related to conservation concerns was discussed by L. C. Orrell Ellison (2006).

There is a record of a hybrid of Sabatia kennedyana with S. campanulata.

Sabatia kennedyana is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.