Swertia graciliflora Gontsch.

Perennials 10-20 cm tall. Rhizomes blackish, short, with few slightly fleshy rootlets. Stems erect, simple, base sheathed by blackish remains of old petioles. Basal leaves 3 or 4 pairs; petiole flattened, 2-2.5 cm; leaf blade linear-elliptic to oblanceolate, 2.5-6 × 0.6-1.7 cm, base narrowed, apex obtuse to rounded, veins 3-5. Stem leaves 1 or 2 pairs, sessile or short petiolate; leaf blade bractlike, ovate-elliptic, 1-2 cm × 4-7 mm, both ends obtuse, veins 1-3. Inflorescences narrow, interrupted, many-flowered thyrses 4-10 cm. Flowers 5merous. Pedicel suberect, 0.8-2 cm. Calyx lobes lanceolate, 7-8 mm, margin narrowly membranous, apex acuminate, veins indistinct. Corolla blue or blue-purple, tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes narrowly oblong, 8-11 mm, margin erose, apex obtuse to rounded. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, cupular, with pilose fimbriae 2-2.5 mm. Filaments 7-9 mm, base fimbriate-barbate; anthers blue, narrowly ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes suborbicular. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, as long as persistent corolla. Seeds brown, ellipsoid, 1-1.3 mm, longitudinally rugose. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

Xin-jiang [Tajikistan].

Valleys, beside streams, alpine meadows; 2500-4500 m.