Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicots

Order: Gentianales

Family: Gentianaceae -- gentian

Common Name: shining frasera, shiny frasera, whitestem frasera

Species Code: FRAL2

Origin: Native to dry grassland and open pine forests east of the Cascade Mountains from British Columbia south to California and east to Nevada and Montana.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial, from a caudex, 25-50 cm tall, erect, puberulent throughout, flowering stems unbranched.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie, shrub thickets

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: white margined, prominently 3 veined; basal leaves whorled, 5-30 cm long linear-oblanceolate to narrowly spatulate; cauline leaves 1-3 pairs, opposite, reduced upward, mostly sessile.

Mature height: 10-20 inches

Flowers: borne in a narrow, interrupted thyrse; parts in 4’s except the pistil; calyx lobes ovate to linear-lanceolate, tapering to a point, 4-9 mm long, white margined; corolla rotate, pale to dark blue or purple, sometimes mottled or occasionally white, lobes 5-11 mm long, ovate to oblong, acute to acuminate.

Flower color: blue, purple

Bloom: June

Fruit: capsule, 6-12 mm long, elliptic and flattened; seeds compressed, 3.5-4.5 mm long, wing-margined, dark brown.

Characteristics:
Swertia albicaulis in St. John (1963), and sometimes placed there in other treatments as well.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Perennating organ is a caudex.
n=13.
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a capsule.

Comments: St. John (1963) mentions a white flowered form found on "dry bluff above highway, Pullman to Moscow."

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: cold moist

Seed yield: no information available

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: no information available

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: no information available

Seed insect problem: no information available

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: no information available

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native upland forb

Propagation:
Seeds possess morphological dormancy and require 10 weeks of cold moist stratification. Germination occurs during stratification (Florance 1997).

Notes: Frasera albicaulis has great flowers, but the seed heads after flowering are nothing to write home about. Flowers in early June. No information on seed germination. Common name is shining frasera (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Florance, Edwin R. 1997. Structure, Dormancy, and Germination of Seeds from Frasera albicaulis and F. umpquaensis (Gentianaceae). In: T.N. Kaye, A. Liston, R.M. Love, R.J. Meinke, and M.V. Wilson (eds). Conservation and Management of Native Plants and Fungi. Native Plant Society of Oregon, Corvallis, Oregon. pp. 62-65.

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium