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Crested Gentian — photo by Наталья Пикалова

iNaturalist — CC, credited & licensed per image

Gentianaceae family

Crested Gentian Gentiana septemfida

Crested Gentian is an introduced perennial herb, found in the lower 48 states.

More about this plant

Gentiana septemfida, the crested gentian or summer gentian, is a species of flowering plant in the family Gentianaceae, native to the Caucasus and Turkey. It is a low-growing herbaceous perennial growing to 15–20 cm (6–8 in) tall by 30 cm (12 in) wide, bearing up to eight bright blue trumpet-shaped blooms in summer, with striped interiors. It requires a rich, moist soil and full sun. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY

Conditions

Sources · Conditions

Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness

Hardiness: ≥ zone 6 derived from its U.S. range

Size & form

Sources · Size & form

USDA PLANTS — Lifespan

TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Foliage

Lifespan: Perennial
Foliage: Broadleaf

In the garden

Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →

Chop-and-drop biomass — Soft, low-density wood is quick-growing and easy to cut back — coppice it and drop the trimmings in place as mulch.Open guide →

derived roles

Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →

❧ Caterpillar hosts ~1 caterpillar species

Gentiana supports ~1 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Gentiana in North America, including:

Colias behrii · Sierra Sulphur

Endothenia hebesana · Verbena Bud Moth Oncocnemis kelloggii · owlet moth

Syngrapha hochenwarthi · owlet moth

Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).

Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.

How we know this (2) Methods & honest limits

Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.

Growth strategy Derived

We place each species on Grime’s competitor–stress-tolerator–ruderal (C–S–R) triangle using the globally-calibrated “StrateFy” method: leaf size drives the competitor score, dense low-area leaves the stress-tolerator score, and thin high-area leaves the ruderal score. The result is a C/S/R percentage mix and one of 19 strategy classes; we show it in plain words and keep the percentages for the curious.

Honest limits: A species-mean strategy from pooled global leaf measurements — a broad ecological signal, not a precise per-plant or per-site value. Derived, never a measured fact.

Pierce, S. et al. (2017) A global method for calculating plant CSR ecological strategies applied across biomes world-wide. Functional Ecology 31:444–457.

Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →

Sources for this entry (17) Open & cited

[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)

[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)

[06] Photos — iNaturalist — CC, credited per image

[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts

[09] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[10] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[11] Plant strategy — Derived — Grime’s C–S–R strategy via StrateFy (Pierce et al. 2017) from Díaz 2022 / TRY-81 leaf traits

[12] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones

[13] Mycorrhiza — FungalRoot v2.0 · Meng et al. 2024 (Dryad, CC0)

[14] Chromosomes — ChromoDB — IAPT/IOPB chromosome data series (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0)

[15] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts

[16] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)

[17] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county

Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.

Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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Ecological value open data

1 / 5 Keystone

Keystone (host) value — caterpillar, specialist-bee & monarch hosting. A low number means “not a keystone host,” not “low value”: generalist flower-visitor value is shown separately below.

Caterpillar host 1

⚠ non-native — reduced keystone value

Deep dive

Caterpillar host · 1/5 — native butterfly & moth caterpillars that feed on this genus — the base of the food web (more caterpillars → more songbirds). Genus-level keystone count from Warren II 2026 (CC0; Tallamy host-use records), gap-filled by our GloBI derivation.

Counts are genus-level and banded 0–5. Full rubric →

Host / keystone value from open interaction data. How this is scored →

📍 In your area live

Introduced to the U.S.

Recorded in 2 states.

Open occurrence records place it in 3 counties across 2 states · GBIF (CC0/CC-BY)

Introduced — Conterminous United States

Recorded in 2 states/territories

Conservation

Invasive? Introduced

Toxicity & pet safety

Check the ASPCA pet database →

Educational, not veterinary advice. If you suspect your pet ate this plant, contact a vet or pet poison-control line.

Functional traits TRY · Dryad

Wood density very low

0.20 g/cm³

light, fast wood — quick biomass for chop-and-drop mulch

Seed mass tiny

0.12 mg

dust-fine seed — surface-sow; needs careful propagation

Leaf nitrogen above avg

31.1 mg/g

leaf nitrogen — a rough guide to compost/mulch value

Leaf build thin & fast

Thin & fast

thin, low-cost leaves — a fast, light-hungry build built for quick growth (measured leaf area per weight 24.3 mm²/mg)

Leaf size small

Small

small, fine-textured leaves (measured leaf area ~1.9 cm²)

Growth strategy pioneer

Fast pioneer

quick to colonise bare or disturbed ground — short-lived and seeds prolifically

Mycorrhiza obligate

Arbuscular (AM)

partners with arbuscular fungi — the commonest symbiosis; helps reach phosphorus & water, aiding drought resilience

Chromosomes recorded

2n = 26

somatic chromosome number

Deep dive — what these mean

Wood density 0.20 g/cm³ — how heavy the wood is for its size. Denser wood = hotter, longer-burning firewood and tougher poles; lighter wood rots fast (quick mulch).

Seed mass 0 mg — average weight of one seed. Bigger seeds are easier to hand-collect & direct-sow; dust-fine seeds need surface-sowing.

Leaf nitrogen 31.1 mg/g — measured leaf N. Higher = richer prunings for compost/mulch (a measured stand-in for "dynamic accumulator" claims).

Leaf build — how thick & tough the leaves are. Thin, lightweight leaves grow fast and crave light; thick, tough leaves last longer and shrug off shade, drought & grazing. (measured leaf area per dry weight, 24.3 mm²/mg)

Leaf sturdiness — how dense & firm the leaf tissue is. Sturdier leaves hold up better to drought and browsing. (19% dry matter)

Growth strategy — where this plant sits on the three-way trade-off between out-competing neighbours, enduring hardship, and colonising disturbed ground. Competitor 14% · Stress-tolerator 21% · Pioneer 65% (Grime’s CSR, class R/SR; derived via the StrateFy method, Pierce et al. 2017)

Mycorrhiza AM — the root–fungus partnership it forms (AM = most plants; ECM = most forest trees; ERM = heaths; NM = none). Trades sugars for water & nutrients via shared soil networks.

Measured traits from TRY + Werner et al. (N-fix), Fan et al. (roots) & FungalRoot — general guidance, not species-specific prescriptions.

More modules coming

Crested Gentian Gentiana septemfida

Growing & care

Wildlife & pollinators

Gentiana supports ~1 caterpillar species.

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