Agathotes nervosa Wallich ex G. Don, Gen. Hist. 4: 177. 1837; Swertia cavaleriei H. Léveillé.

Annuals 30-100 cm tall. Roots yellow-brown, fibrous. Stems erect, 2-5 mm in diam., subquadrangular, narrowly winged on angles, branched. Leaves sessile or subsessile, lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, or elliptic, 1.6-7.5 × 0.4-2.3 cm, both ends attenuate, veins 1-3. Inflorescences panicles of cymes, spreading branched, many flowered. Flowers 4merous. Pedicel erect, 0.5-2 cm. Calyx tube 1-2 mm; lobes free, foliose, linear-lanceolate, 0.8-1.7 cm, apex acuminate, veins 3 and prominent. Corolla pale yellow-green, with purple veins, 1.5-1.8 cm in diam., tube 1-2 mm; lobes linear-lanceolate, 6-8 mm, apex obtuse and apiculate. Nectaries 1 per corolla lobe, pocket-shaped, with an orbicular scale, and many papillose, short fimbriae at apex of pocket. Filaments 4.5-6 mm; anthers yellow, ellipsoid, ca. 2 mm. Style short, distinct; stigma lobes capitate. Capsules ovoid, 6-8 mm. Seeds dark brown, ellipsoid, ca. 0.6 mm; seed coat spongy. Fl. and fr. Sep-Dec.

Beside streams, hillsides, scrub, scattered forests; 400-2600 m. SE Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, SW Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].