Parry’s frasera

Swertia parryi (Torrey) Kuntze

Herbs perennial, 5–16 dm, glabrous. Stems 1 or 2. Leaf blades white-margined; basal strap-shaped to elliptic-oblanceolate, 5–25 × 0.8–4 cm; cauline leaves opposite, blades ovate to lanceolate-oblong. Inflorescences diffuse, 5–30 cm wide, primary branches ± elongate and sometimes racemoid. Flowers: calyx 8–17 mm; corolla pale green, dark purple-dotted, 9–20 mm, lobes oblong-obovate, apex short-acuminate; androecial corona a low fringe; style slender, distinct; nectaries and foveae 1 per corolla lobe, foveae opening distal to nectary, into a U-shaped differentiated area on the corolla surface, rim ± evenly fringed all around.

Flowering spring–summer. Dry, open woods, chap­arral; 100–1900 m; Calif.; Mexico (disjunct in Baja California Sur).

Inclusion of Arizona in the range of Frasera parryi appears to have been derived from speculation. The ver­nacular name Coahuila elkweed, sometimes applied to F. parryi, is inappropriate as this species is not known from Coahuila.