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  4. Gentianella filipes

Gentianella filipes

Gentianella filipes.<br>Photographer: Sandra Wotherspoon, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Gentianella filipes.<br>Photographer: David Glenny, Licence: All rights reserved.
At Mt Arthur.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Gentianella filipes.<br>Photographer: David Glenny, Licence: All rights reserved.
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Common names

gentian

Biostatus

Native – Endemic taxon

Category

Vascular

Structural class

Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites

Flower colours

Violet/Purple, White

Detailed description

Plants annual, monocarpic, height in flower 20–140 mm. Caudex unbranched, 25–35 mm long. Root 0.5–0.9 mm diam. at stem base. Flowering stems terminal and lateral, 2–8 per plant, central flowering stem 0.9–1.9 mm diameter at base; stem colour green, tinted crimson or purple-black, lateral flowering stems erect to decumbent, flowering stem leaves 1–5 pairs per stem, lowest pedicels from near base of flowering stem to near apex of flowering stem. Rosette of leaves absent from flowering plants, basal leaves narrowly elliptic or elliptic or ovate, 9–20 × 2.6–6.4 mm wide, green, flat, not recurved, apex acute or rounded; petiole distinct or indistinct, 3.5–8.8 mm long, 1.0–2.6 mm wide at leaf base. Flowering stem leaves elliptic to ovate, apices rounded or acute. Pedicels 1 per leaf axil, 4.5–32 mm long, 0.7–1.8 mm diameter, 0.5–0.7 mm diameter. Flowers 1–81 per plant, 8.2–13 mm long, sometimes female. Calyx 6.0–8.5 mm long, green tinted purple-black, at lower lobe margins, hairs at calyx–corolla fusion line absent or present; 4–5-lobed, lobes 2.6–5.0 mm long, 2.2–5.2 mm wide at base, strongly ridged between the lobes, plane or recurved, margins smooth, apices acute, sinus hairs abundant. Corolla 7.6–12 mm long, white, sometimes tinted purple at corolla tips; tube 2.6–4.6 mm long; lobes 4.5–8.3 × 3.3–5.9 mm wide, hairs below sinus absent or present; nectary 0.4–1.1 mm from corolla base. Filaments 4.3–7.8 mm long from corolla base, 0.6–0.9 mm wide. Anthers 0.8–1.4 mm long, anther wall blue-black, occasionally pale blue, mouth yellow, extrorse or horizontal at anthesis. Stigma colourless. Ovules 11–32 per ovary. Capsule 8–9 mm long.

Similar taxa

Recognised by its gregarious growth habit, annual life cycle, abundant flowers, absence of basal rosettes in flowering plants, and small tap root. The base of each calyx lobe is recurved and there is a prominent ridge on the calyx below each sinus. The calyx lobes are mostly short and wide, and very unequal. The flowers are small (12–13 mm long) as are the basal leaves (to 20 mm long).

Distribution

Endemic. New Zealand: South Island (north-west Nelson)

Habitat

Alpine grasslands dominated by Poa colensoi, marble scree and talus, rock crevices, peat bog, gravel riverbed. Mainly overlying marble, where it is usually found in skeletal soils.

Current conservation status

The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.

  • Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2023 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DPS, DPT, RR

Jump to previous conservation statuses

Threats

A Naturally Uncommon, range-restricted endemic which is sparsely to locally abundant. There are no known threats. All the known populations occur within Kahurangi National Park.

Detailed taxonomy

Family

Gentianaceae

Authority

Gentianella filipes (Cheeseman) T.N.Ho et S.W.Liu

Synonyms

Gentiana filipes Cheeseman, Chionogentias filipes (Cheeseman) L.G.Adams

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Ecology

Flowering

January – April

Fruiting

March - May

Life cycle and dispersal

Seeds dispersed by ballistic projection, wind and water (Thorsen et al., 2009)

Propagation technique

Difficult. Should not be removed from the wild

Other information

Where To Buy

Not Commercially Available

Etymology

gentianella: Little Gentiana (named after Gentius, 6th century king of Illyria, who found the roots of the yellow gentian to have a healing effect on his malaria-stricken troops)

filipes: Thread-like stalks

NVS code

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

GENFIL

Chromosome number

2n = 36

Previous conservation statuses

The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.

  • Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2017 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, RR

2012 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR

2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon

2004 | Range Restricted

Jump to current conservation status

Referencing and citations

References and further reading

Glenny, D. 2004: A revision of the genus Gentianella in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42: 361-530.

Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285-309

Attribution

Fact Sheet for NZPCN prepared by P.J. de Lange (1 November 2004). Description modified from Glenny (2004)

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