October 19th, 2012. We
drove up Sarah’s Creek Road in Warwoman Wildlife Management Area; a map can be
downloaded here. The road becomes Wilson Gap Road; we followed the road to its end which is a parking area just below the Bartram Trail.
It was getting late and the sun had moved off the embankment but we spotted several flowring gentian plants in the grass on the side and top of an embankment by the road.
The embankment above the road where
we found these plants
A closer view. The clusters of flowers are
visible in the upper left and lower right
One
flower stem
Close
up of a cluster of flowers. Previously, in the previous month, we’d seen
clusters of buds with one or two open flowers. Now, most had opened.
Close
up of an individual flower
A
little further along the road, we found a single plant whose flower appeared to
be pure white. This proved to be another Gentiana decora plant which had
stripes that were barely visible on the outside of the flower
The
plant
A
closer view of the flower cluster
A
close up view of the flowers. The purple stripes are just visible on these
plants
Gentian decora (Showy Gentian, Appalachian
Gentian, Striped Gentian) is native to the United States where it had been
documented in southeastern states: Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee, North and South Carolina and Georgia. In Georgia, it’s been
documented only in a few counties in North Georgia including Union County.
Click on an image to view a larger image
Identification
resources:
- Southeastern Flora: Gentiana decora (ShowyGentian)
- Native and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas
and Georgia: Gentiana decora (Appalachian Gentian, Striped Gentian)
- Alan Cressler: Gentiana decora
Distribution:
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