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Gentianaceae
Spring Gentian
Gentiana verna
Alpine sky, intense beauty, mountain truth.
- Family
- Gentianaceae
- Genus
- Gentiana
- Native to
- European and Asian mountains
- Bloom season
- Spring
- Type
- Alpine perennial
- Height
- 5–10 cm (2–4 in)
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Soil
- Gritty, moist, alkaline
- Water
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- 4–7
- Lifespan
- Long-lived perennial
Did you know
- Spring gentian flowers are the most intensely blue color in the plant kingdom—almost electric, with no other gentian or any temperate flower coming close.
- Each star-shaped flower is barely an inch across, but the saturation is so extreme that a single bloom is visible from 20 feet away in alpine meadows.
- Spring gentian appears in countless Alpine folk songs and is the floral symbol of dozens of Bavarian, Austrian, Swiss, and Slovenian villages.
- It's the source of the famous bitter Gentian liqueurs of Europe—traditional drinks like Suze, Avèze, and Salers are made from gentian roots, used as digestive aperitifs.
- Gentian's intense blue comes from a unique combination of anthocyanins and copigments that no other temperate plant has been able to evolve—chemists are still studying it.
Color meanings
0
alpine sky
1
intense beauty
2
mountain truth