Gentiana andrewsii - Bottle Gentian - 3" Pot

Bottle gentian is a unique species named for its cylindrical flowers that never open. This is a slow-growing but long-lived species. It requires consistently moist soil but can tolerate a range of sun conditions from full sun to part shade, and is quite hardy once established. It has purplish, unbranched stems and glossy leaves that are arranged in opposite pairs increasing in size up the stem until they terminate in a whorl of four directly beneath the tight cluster of closed bottle flowers at the top of the plant. These wonderful flowers are usually a striking blue-purple, but occasionally come as pink or white. They are nearly exclusively pollinated by large bees that possess the strength to pry open their petals such as bumblebees and a species of diggerbee. Rarely, the eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) will chew a hole in the flower to steal its nectar without distributing its pollen in a behavior called “nectar robbing.” This behavior allows other smaller insects to access the nectar and pollen inside. The genus Gentiana is named after Gentius, an ancient king of Illyria who purportedly discovered the medicinal effects of these plants.