Swertia kouitchensis Franch.

Annuals 30-60 cm tall. Roots yellow, stout. Stems erect, subquadrangular, narrowly winged on angles, branched. Leaves sessile or subsessile, lanceolate, ca. 5 × 1.5 cm, both ends attenuate, veins 1-3. Inflorescences panicles of cymes, many flowered, spreading. Flowers 4- (or 5)-merous. Pedicel erect, 4-15 mm, elongated to 6.5 cm in fruit. Calyx tube 1-1.5 mm; lobes unequal, narrowly elliptic, 0.7-2 cm, apex acute and apiculate, midvein distinct. Corolla pale yellow to pale yellow-green, 1-1.2 cm in diam., tube 1-1.5 mm; lobes elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 6-12 mm, apex acuminate and apiculate. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, radially elongated, with a narrow scale and raised margin with many long fimbriae. Filaments 6-8 mm; anthers ellipsoid, ca. 0.8 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes capitate. Capsules ovoid, 1-1.3 cm. Seeds light brown, subglobose, 0.7-0.9 mm; seed coat smooth. Fl. and fr. Aug-Nov.

S Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, S Shaanxi, E Sichuan, NE Yunnan.

* Beside streams, grassland slopes, forests; 700-2000 m.

Swertia elongata T. N. Ho & S. W. Liu.