Swertia elata H. Smith

Perennials 40-100 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, 5-10 cm, base connate; leaf blade linear-elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 10-16 × 2-3 cm, base narrowed and decurrent into wings of petiole, apex obtuse, veins 5-7. Middle stem leaves petiole flattened, 2-4 cm, connate; leaf blade 7-12 × 1.2-2 cm, base narrowed, apex acute, veins 3-5; upper leaves sessile, bractlike, linear to lanceolate, 1-3 × 0.7-1.2 cm, base obtuse and subamplexicaul, apex acuminate, veins 1-3. Inflorescences narrow, interrupted, many-flowered thyrses 21-45 cm. Flowers 5merous. Pedicel nodding to erect, to 2 cm, terete, striate. Calyx lobes narrowly lanceolate, 6-8 mm, apex acuminate; veins 3-5, indistinct. Corolla dark purple, 1-1.3 cm in diam., tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes ovate-elliptic, 8-10 mm, base obtuse, apex obtuse and few dentate. Nectaries 2 at middle of each 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. and fr. Jun-Sep.

SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.

* Grasslands on hillsides, scrub, alpine meadows; 3200-4600 m.