Inky Gentians
Late in summer, Inky Gentians emerge high in the alpine areas. The dark blue reminds me of the poem by DH Lawrence:
"Not every man has gentians in his house
in Soft September, at slow, Sad Michaelmas.
Bavarian gentians, big and dark, only dark
darkening the daytime torchlike with the smoking blueness of Pluto’s gloom,
ribbed and torchlike, with their blaze of darkness spread blue
down flattening into points, flattened under the sweep of white day
torch-flower of the blue-smoking darkness, Pluto’s dark-blue daze,
black lamps from the halls of Dis, burning dark blue,
giving off darkness, blue darkness, as Demeter’s pale lamps give off light,
lead me then, lead me the way."
Inky gentians are indeed a dark blue with bell-shaped, shiny flowers. The plants grow fro rhizomes, on erect stems, usually 5-15cm in height. The ecology is high altitudes, usually in heathlands, next to the heathers. The plant has medicinal properties and the root is used to flavor liqueurs. We enjoy the "torchlike.. blaze spread blue" on the barren upper slopes each year.