BY LESLIE REGO
August brings gentian season. Gentians might be easy to pass by during your hikes, but they are lovely flowers and, upon closer inspection, have much to offer.
Gentian favors stream banks or very wet meadows.
Perhaps the most noticeable in the gentian family is the star gentian, also known as swertia. Star gentian grows with several blooms to a stem. They are opposite one another, the pairs spiraling around the delicate stem. I have found star gentian around 6 inches tall in high mountain meadows where the conditions are more harsh, and over a foot tall at lower elevations. The flower comprises five petals forming a star, as its name would imply. The color ranges from a soft lavender to a deep, almost black, purple. Many of the flowers have strong, very noticeable vertical lines which travel up the petals.
Another flower in the gentian family is the explorer’s gentian. Explorer’s gentian, also known as mountain or bog gentian, lies low to the ground and springs from a bed of round leaves which travel up the stem in opposite formation. The flowers have five petals which form into a tube-like shape. The petals are a deep purple on the outside and a light lavender on the inside. Bees love explorer’s gentian and will dip way down into the throat of the flower to gather pollen. They surface “drunk” from the experience!
The third flower is the fringed gentian. This is a tiny flower with a bloom only a quarter of an inch in size. The vivid blue/purple color makes it stand out, although the plant is buried deep within the grasses of a moist meadow. These flowers are also tubular with four petals. The stem grows from a rosette of ovate-shaped leaves. Pairs of opposite-placed leaves continue up the stalk. On the top is perched the tiny but intensely colored flower. In our high alpine meadows, the fringed gentian only grows 3 to 5 inches tall.
Gentian can bloom well into August and even into September. The low-lying flowers can even survive freezing temperatures because they are able to partake of the residual heat still held within the earth from the sun. I have found gentian in the meadows at Galena and also in the meadows alongside Fourth of July Lake. When I am hiking, I like to poke around and see what I can find hidden in the tall grasses of August. One can always find tiny but beautiful late-summer treasures.
Leslie Rego is an Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist, artist and Blaine County resident. To view more of Rego’s art, visit www.leslierego.com.