Common name: Mueller's Snow-gentian
Gentianella muelleriana (L.G.Adams) Glenny APNI* Synonyms: Chionogentias muelleriana L.G.Adams APNI*
Description: Plant sometimes bearing the remains of last years flower-stems; caudex becoming robust, taproot variable. Internodes 3–6. Flowering stems erect, usually sparcely branched, 15–40 cm high.
Basal leaves sub-linear to more or less spathulate, obtuse to sub-acute, petiolate, 20–100 mm long, 7–10 mm wide. Stem leaves linear to oblanceolate, obtuse to acute, 10–40 mm long, 4–8 mm wide, becoming sessile upwards.
Inflorescence terminal, lax to densely subcorymbose, mostly 2–15-flowered; pedicels 1–8 cm. Flowers 5-merous, 2.5–3.5 cm diam.; calyx lobes narrow to broad lanceolate, acute, 5–10 mm long, margins smooth to more or less papillose-serrulate; corolla white to cream with blush-green to grey-violet veins; corolla tube 2.5–4 mm long; corolla lobes 10–15 mm long, glabrous to minutely bearded at sinuses; stamens 5; anthers blue-black, 2–3 mm long; ovary 6–10 mm long with 35–80 ovules; stigmas ovate, 0.5–1 mm long.
Capsule to 20 mm long; seeds spherical to ovoid, 0.7–1.3 mm, ochre yellow through cinnamon and reddish-brown to chocolate-brown.
Flowering: Flowers in spring.
Distribution and occurrence: In alpine areas of Southern Tablelands of NSW and East Gippsland, Victoria.
NSW subdivisions: ST
Other Australian states: Vic.
Named in honour of Ferdinand Von Mueller (1825-1896), Victoria's Government Botanist 1857-1896.
Text by Louisa Murray. Key added by K.L. Gibbons, 27 June 2023, from Adams (1996).
Taxon concept: L.G. Adams, Fl. Australia vol. 28. (1996); David Glenny (2004): A revision of the genus Gentianella in New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Botany, 42:3, 361-530
| | Key to the subspecies | |
| 1 | Caudex usually dichotomously multiple-branched from crown, the branches elongated up to 10 cm, bearing leaf-scars from earlier years; terminal inflorescence lax to loosely corymbose, usually 2–5-flowered (Snowy Mtns, N.S.W.) | subsp. alpestris |
| Caudex not multiple-branched, or only very shortly so; terminal inflorescence rather densely corymbose, usually 8–15-flowered (Brindabella & Bimberi Ranges, A.C.T.–N.S.W.) | subsp. jingerensis |
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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