Swertia pauciflora Harry Smith; S. subspeciosa Burkill.

Perennials 8-35 cm tall. Rhizomes blackish, short, with few slightly fleshy rootlets. Stems erect, striate, simple, base sheathed by blackish remains of old petioles. Leaves mostly basal; petiole flattened, 3-7 cm, base connate; leaf blade linear-elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 3-10 cm × 5-13 mm, base narrowed, apex obtuse, veins 3-5. Stem leaves 2 or 3 pairs, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, 1.4-4.5 cm × 4-8 mm, base obtuse and subamplexicaul, apex acute to obtuse, veins 1-3. Inflorescences racemelike, 5-11(-15)-flowered. Flowers 5-merous. Pedicel erect, 1-4.5 cm. Calyx lobes lanceolate, 0.9-1.4 cm, apex acuminate, veins 3-5. Corolla yellow, 2-2.6 cm in diam., tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes lanceolate, 1.6-2 cm, base obtuse, apex caudate and sometimes erose. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, cupular, with pilose fimbriae 3-4 mm. Filaments 8-11 mm, base few barbate; anthers blue, narrowly ellipsoid, 2-3 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes broadly ellipsoid. Capsules ellipsoid, as long as persistent corolla. Seeds light brown, broadly ellipsoid to subglobose, 1.2-1.5 mm, longitudinally rugose, both ends winged. Fl. and fr. Aug.

* Alpine meadows; 3700-4400 m. W Sichuan.