Glaucous or blue-green or inky gentian

Gentiana glauca var. paulensis Kellogg

Herbs perennial, 0.2–1.6 dm, glabrous. Stems erect, arising singly at intervals from slender, elongating, horizontal rhizomes, forming patches. Leaves basal and cauline; cauline ± abruptly more widely spaced; blade ellip­tic to spatulate-obovate, apex obtuse; basal and rosette leaf blades 0.8–2(–2.7) cm × 4–12 mm; cauline blades 0.5–1.7 cm × 3–8(–12) mm. Inflorescences reduced, ± dense cymes, 2–5(–7)-flowered, also often a pair at most of the distal node, rarely solitary flowers. Flowers: calyx 5–7 mm, lobes ascending, lanceolate-triangular, 2–4 mm, margins not ciliate; corolla greenish blue or greenish yellow, rarely white, tubular, opening narrowly, (8–)12–20 mm, lobes ascending, triangular, 1.8–4 mm, free portions of plicae rounded, minutely erose; anthers distinct. Seeds winged. 2n = 24.

Flowering summer. Arctic and alpine tundra slopes and meadows; 0–2500 m; Alta., B.C., N.W.T., Yukon; Alaska, Mont., Wash., restricted to high elevations southward; Asia (n Japan, Kamchatka, coastal Siberia).

The description by Kellogg of var. paulensis does not indicate clearly how this variety was believed to differ from Gentiana glauca elsewhere in its range. Speci­mens from the Pribilof Islands examined in studies for this flora, including an isotype and other plants from Saint Paul Island, do not appear to be taxonomically separable.