Swertia heterantha Ling.

Perennials 10-30 cm tall. Rhizomes blackish, short, with few slightly fleshy rootlets. Stems erect, simple, base sheathed by blackish remains of old petioles. Basal leaves 1 or 2 pairs; petiole flattened, 2.5-4 cm, base connate; leaf blade oblong to ovate-oblong, 1.5-6 × 0.7-3 cm, base narrowed, apex obtuse to rounded, veins 3-7. Stem leaves 2 or 3 pairs, sessile, bractlike, ovate to ovate-triangular, 0.7-1.8 cm × 4-6 mm, base obtuse, apex acute, veins 1-3. Inflorescences racemelike, 2-8(-13)-flowered. Flowers 5merous. Pedicel spreading to erect, 0.5-5.5 cm. Calyx lobes lanceolate to ovate, 8-11 mm, apex acuminate, veins 3-5. Corolla dark blue, tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes elliptic-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 1.5-2(-3) cm × 5-8 mm, margin entire or sometimes erose, apex obtuse. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, cupular, with pilose fimbriae 3.5-4 mm. Filaments 0.9-1.1 cm, base fimbriate-barbate; anthers blue, narrowly ellipsoid, 2.5-3 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes ellipsoid to suborbicular. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, as long as to slightly longer than persistent corolla. Seeds brown, ellipsoid, 1.2-1.5 mm, longitudinally rugose. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

* Scrub meadows, swamp meadows, alpine meadows, forests; 2800-4300 m. SE Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi (Taibei Shan), NW Sichuan, SE Xizang.