Stems 3–10 dm, glabrous, usually simple; lvs lanceolate or lance-ovate, to 15 × 4 cm, scabro-ciliolate; fls in terminal clusters and often sessile in the upper axils or on short branches; cal-tube glabrous, the lobes mostly lanceolate, sometimes broader, 4–10(–15) mm, finely scabro-ciliolate; cor whitish below, generally blue upwards, 3–4.5 cm, closed, the thin lobes adnate to the plaits nearly to the narrow, truncate and usually apiculate summit, the free tip scarcely 1 mm, the plaits dilated above, fimbriate, evidently exceeding the cor-lobes and forming most of the summit of the cor; anthers connate; 2n=26. Moist prairies, open woods, and swamps. July–Oct. The var. andrewsii, as principally described above, occurs from N.H. and s. Que. to Md., and W.Va., w. to s. Man., Minn., and Mo., and sporadically to Wyo. W. of the Mississippi R. it passes into the var. dakotica A. Nelson, found mainly from Minn. to Sask., s. to Mo. and Kans. Var. dakotica, which may reflect introgression from no. 2 [Gentiana puberulenta J. S. Pringle], has better developed cor-lobes than var. andrewsii, these triangular to rounded, often mucronate, to 3 mm, and it occasionally has papillate-puberulent stems.
Can be grown by cuttings, divisions or seedlings. Seeds needs stratification.
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