Shining frasera

Frasera nitida Bentham, Pl. Hartw., 322. 1849; F. albicaulis var. columbiana (H. St. John) C. L. Hitchcock; F. nitida var. albida Suksdorf; Swertia albicaulis (Grisebach) D. Douglas ex Kuntze var. nitida (Bentham) Jepson; S. nitida (Bentham) Jepson

Stems glabrous. Leaf blades generally glabrous, except sometimes for puberulent sheathing bases of proximal leaves in Oregon and Washington plants. Flowers: calyx glabrous; corolla greenish white or pale to medium blue, generally with dark blue to purple spots; corona scales oblong-lanceolate, 1–4 mm, margins deeply 2–several-lobed, rim of differentiated area on corolla surface fringed all around, fringes shorter near distal end.

Flowering late spring–early summer. Dry, open woods, rocky slopes, chaparral, prairies; 50–1900 m; Calif., Oreg., Wash.

Variety modocensis and var. nitida intergrade in northern California.

Plants from southeastern Washington and north­eastern Oregon, treated as Frasera albicaulis var. columbiana by C. L. Hitchcock (1959), were said to be well isolated from var. nitida but scarcely separable. As variations overlap both in leaf-sheath puberulence and in the length of the corona scales, the characters by which these varieties were distinguished, these taxa are treated here as a single variety. If the plants in north­eastern Oregon and southeastern Washington are dis­tin­guished taxonomically from var. nitida, the correct varietal epithet would be albida, based on its use in the combination F. nitida var. albida, which has priority at that rank over columbiana. As of this writing, the epi­thet albida has not been published at varietal rank under either Frasera or Swertia albicaulis.