These large showy flowers on long peduncles give us a better chance
to watch the family characters than the tiny flowers of screwstems (Bartonia).
The corolla lobes in most gentians are convolute (rolled longitudinally) in the
bud. Typically gentian flowers are either four or five-merous; fringed
gentian flower is four-merous: there are four lobes both in calyx and corolla.
Photo taken in western Massachusetts.