COSEWIC Status Reports

COSEWIC Update Status Report on the White Prairie Gentian (Gentiana alba) in Canada

The white prairie gentian can grow to a height of 90 cm but generally flops onto adjacent vegetation. Plants produce up to a dozen or more stems with fleshy, yellowish-green, opposite leaves surmounted by a cluster of greenish-white to yellowish-white erect flowers. It is our only native gentian with the above characters. Besides flower and leaf colour, white prairie gentian can be distinguished from white forms of the closely related bottle gentian, G. andrewsii, by its keeled sepals. The sepals of the bottle gentian have no keels. The scientific name of the species is the subject of taxonomic dispute; some authorities support Gentiana alba and others G. flavida. Common names are white prairie gentian, white gentian, pale gentian, yellowish gentian and yellow gentian.

File(s)

• HTML version of "COSEWIC Update Status Report on the White Prairie Gentian Gentiana alba in Canada - 2010"
• "COSEWIC Update Status Report on the White Prairie Gentian Gentiana alba in Canada - 2010" (2011-09-09) (PDF format, 1,496.77 KB)

• HTML version of "COSEWIC Update Status Report on the White Prairie Gentian (Gentiana alba) in Canada - 2001"
• "COSEWIC Update Status Report on the White Prairie Gentian (Gentiana alba) in Canada - 2001" (2001-05-31) (PDF format, 378.23 KB)

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Contact Person(s)

COSEWIC Secretariat
c/o Canadian Wildlife Service
Environment Canada
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0H3
Tel: 819-938-4125
Fax: 819-938-3984
Send e-mail

Related Species

• White Prairie Gentian

Links

• No links available.