Nearly Native - European Garden Plants – Gentian

Description – Gentian is a very large family of about 300 species, most of which are perennial plants with tufted growth, growing in hilly or mountainous districts, chiefly in the northern hemisphere. The majority of gentians are remarkable for the deep (almost navy) or extremely bright blue colour of their blossoms, with comparatively few having yellow, white, or more rarely red flowers.

Origin – On Swiss mountains these beautiful little plants are very abundant, actually much more so than the Edelweiss which has come to typify alpine meadows. For ornamental purposes several species are cultivated but they are not easy plants! In fact the various difficulties of growing them successfully make them a plant that many people shy away from. On the plus side, gentians are very hardy once established – but on the minus side, they hate being moved and rarely flower well the third year after transplanting. Perhaps the handsomest and most easily grown is the one which is actually marketed under the trade name Gentianella, which produces its large intensely blue flowers early in the spring.

By far the most important of the species used in medicine is G. lutea, a large handsome plant growing up to four feet high, found in open grassy places on the Alps, Apennines and Pyrenees. It has large oval strongly-ribbed leaves and dense whorls of those rarer and very noticeable yellow flowers. The root, which is the part used in medicine, is tough and flexible with a pure bitter taste and faint distinctive odour. If you think you’ve never come across gentian in your food or medicine, think again! It’s the essential ingredient in aperitifs like Pernod! The lutea, which is commonly known as the great yellow gentian, takes a decade to reach its first bloom and can live for as long as fifty years. It is the lutea’s root that gives the aperitif its characteristic bitterness. European gentian photograph by beesparkle, used under a creative commons attribution

 

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