Fringed Gentian
by Susan L. Post

"It (Fringed Gentian) came very near not being an inhabitant of our latitude, perhaps our globe, at all." Henry David Thoreau

Fringed gentian’s striking color and beauty has had the attention, not only of naturalists, but artists and poets for many years, even though the plant is uncommon in most of its U.S. range. While not an endangered species in Illinois, fringed gentian, Gentianopsis crinita, is rarely encountered unless sought in an appropriate habitat— moist, alkaline swales along the Lake Michigan shoreline and the moist vegetation that surrounds many of the glacial lakes in Lake and McHenry counties. In the past the dunes and swales of the southern portion of Illinois Beach State Park have sparkled with hundreds of gentians.

While we usually associate wild flowers with spring and summer, fringed gentians are one of last flowers in bloom before frost—late August to November. To experience these gentians in their full glory, visit on a sunny day as the flowers open only in full sunlight. On cloudy days and at night each four-petaled, iridescent, blue flower is tightly closed into a narrow bell shape, ostensibly to protect its nectar and pollen from rain showers. The main pollinators of fringed gentians are the robust bumblebees. Should the flowers be only part way open, or even tightly closed, the large bees often force their way in, reminiscent of struggling to place one's hand into a twisted glove.

The elusive nature of the fringed gentian in Illinois results from two factors: the decline of its habitat and the fact that it is a taprooted annual or biennial and grows only from seed. Thus, the colony that was so abundant at a site one year may be absent the next. Fortunately, the wind-scattered seeds usually found new but often-distant colonies.

The name gentian comes from the Greek king Gentius who discovered the medicinal properties of the group. To the wildflower enthusiast, the word gentian says "blue" and perhaps brings to mind one of the stanzas of To the Fringed Gentian by William Cullen Bryant.