BOTANY WITH BASICS OF HYDROBOTANY (AQUATIC PLANTS OF UKRAINE) - B.Ye. Yakubenko - 2011

X. SEED PLANTS

Family Gentianaceae (Gentians)

Most commonly perennial herbaceous plants with opposite, less frequently ternate leaves without stipules. Flowers are solitary or gathered in cymose inflorescences, typically large. Corolla is tubular, rotate, or campanulate. Anthers of the stamens are often spirally twisted. Flower formula: *K_(4-5)C_(4-5)A_4-5G_(2). The fruit is mostly a capsule dehiscing by two Valves. Most species contain bitter Glycosides; some species are used in medicine as valuable medicinal plants.

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Fig. 153. Lesser centaury (Centaurium pulchellum)

The family comprises 83 genera and over 1,000 species distributed across almost all latitudes (cosmopolitan), with their greatest diversity occurring in temperate and subtropical regions, especially in mountainous areas. In Ukraine, there are six genera and 24 species.

Branching centaury (Centaurium pulchellum (Sw.)). An annual plant, 0.5-15 cm tall (Fig. 153). Stem is erect, acutely quadrangular, divergently branched from the very base with spreading branches. Phyllotaxy is opposite; leaves are sessile, oblong or lanceolate, less commonly lanceolate-linear, acute. Inflorescence consists of loose, spreading dichasia located in the stem forks and at the tips of branchlets at various heights. Bracts are spaced 2-3 mm away from the flowers. Calyx is 5-parted, with sepals equaling the corolla tube. Petals are pink, corolla lobes 3-5 mm long. Anthers are spirally twisted. Style is filiform with a bilobed stigma. Blooms in July-August. The fruit is a two-valved, multi-seeded capsule, nearly bilocular. A medicinal plant.

Grows in damp meadows, along the banks of water bodies, and on slopes. Distributed throughout almost all of Ukraine (except for mountainous regions and the Wormwood Steppe).

Marsh swertia (Swertia perennis L.). A perennial herbaceous plant, 30-50 cm tall; helophyte, entomophilous, autochorous. Rhizome is shortened. Stem is erect, with 5-8 internodes, cylindrical, glabrous. Phyllotaxy is opposite. Basal leaves are broad-elliptic, tapering into a long petiole; stem leaves are sessile, decreasing in size toward the apex of the SHOOT.

The inflorescence is a pyramidal panicle. Flowers are bisexual, actinomorphic. Perianth is double, 5-merous; calyx lobes and corolla are lanceolate, acute, with dull purple petals. The fruit is a capsule. Blooms in July-August. Propagates by seeds and rhizomes.

Grows in peat bogs and wet meadows. Occasionally distributed in Transcarpathia, Roztochchia-Opillia, and on the border of the Right-Bank Forest-Steppe and Polissia Minor.