Swertia atroviolacea Harry Smith.

Perennials 12-25 cm tall. Rhizomes blackish, short, with few slightly fleshy rootlets. Stems erect, striate, simple, base sheathed by blackish remains of old petioles. Basal leaves petioles flattened, 2-2.5 cm, base connate; leaf blade ± spatulate, 3.5-6 × 1.5-3.3 cm, base narrowed, apex obtuse to rounded, veins 5-7, arcuate. Middle stem leaves sessile, oblong to ovate, 4-8 × 1.5-3.5 cm, base obtuse, apex acute to obtuse, veins 3-5; upper leaves sessile, bractlike, ovate, 1.5-2.5 cm × 4-12 mm, base rounded and subamplexicaul, apex obtuse, veins 1-3. Inflorescences many-flowered panicles. Flowers 5merous. Pedicel bent near apex, 1.8-5 cm. Calyx lobes narrowly lanceolate, 6-8 mm, apex acuminate; veins 3-5, indistinct. Corolla dark purple, 1.4-1.8 cm in diam., tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes ovate-elliptic, 8-10 mm, base obtuse, apex obtuse and few dentate. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, orbicular, widely spaced to crowded, with inflexed fimbriae 1-2 mm. Filaments ca. 7 mm, base few barbate; anthers ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes suborbicular. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, 0.8-1.2 cm. Seeds brown, longitudinally rugose. Fl. Aug-Sep.

* Grasslands, gravel slopes; 3400-4600 m. NW Yunnan.