One of the most beautiful colors this time of year — a prelude to autumn leaves changing — is that of the bottle or closed gentian. Any day now, I’ll be out at several natural areas looking for the low-lying deep purple blue native plant that keeps its petals closed, making it appear like a small bottle.
The petals never open, but native bumblebees can slide into them to get at the nectar inside and gather pollen. Other bee species don’t have the strength needed to get inside the blooms. Some, however, cut a slit at the flower’s base hoping nectar will ooze out and into their hungry mouths.
At least seven species of gentians — five that are deep blue, another creamy white and another yellow — grow in Illinois, according to the Illinois Natural History Survey. Some are extremely rare.
Chicago Botanic Garden ecologist David Sollenberger calls gentians, “the stars of the autumn prairie.”
These stars are not in the sky, however. They are at your feet. You’ll need to tread lightly and look down while searching for gentians in various habitats.
Bottle gentian, one of the most common, is one of the first to bloom. It grows in the northern half of Illinois, mostly in moist black soil prairies, thickets, fens and swampy areas. In other words, it likes to be wet.
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Some great places to search for bottle gentian, beginning right now into end of September or early October, include Chiwaukee Prairie at the Wisconsin-Illinois line, Reed Turner Woodland in Long Grove, the Dixon Prairie at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook, Kent Fuller Air Station Prairie in Glenview and Powderhorn Marsh and Prairie in Chicago.
These places all hold fairly high-quality virgin or restored prairie that has just the right water regime habitat bottle gentians love. Once the blooms open, they may persist for up to a month.
To search for gentians, walk along the trails and look for purple blooms near your feet — and please be careful not to trample on them, and do not pick them. It’s illegal, and they won’t come back next year if you do so.
If you want to grow bottle gentian in your yard, several online native plant nurseries sell them by seed or a bare root plant. Just make sure to put them in the right habitat — full to medium sun, and wet to medium wet soil — or they won’t grow.
Another common gentian in the region that can be found at most of the places listed above is the cream gentian. It looks just like the bottle gentian, but is a creamy white color. This gentian often blooms before the bottle gentian does, and withers away rather quickly. One good spot to see cream gentian is at the Sauer Family Prairie Kame Forest Preserve in Spring Grove.
As for those other rarer gentians, including yellow, stiff, downy, fringed, and small fringed, these are more difficult to find. Downy gentian, for example, can only be found in remnant prairies, of which few exist today, while fringed gentians often favor sand prairies, another rare habitat in Illinois. They’re found at Illinois Beach State Park in Zion.
Stiff gentian is one of the last to bloom, and is mostly found in high-quality habitats with a limestone rock bed close to the surface. This gentian plant has many blooms, but they are much smaller and not as showy as some of the others. One place where you likely may see most of these gentian species is at Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook.
This link tells where some of these gentians have been found, but that doesn’t mean they are still there: https://www.inhs.illinois.edu/animals-plants/prairie/tallgrass/images/g/
The roots of some types of gentians have been used to create a type of liquor called bitters used in such alcoholic beverages as the old-fashioned. I never knew that until I did some research.
A fresh gentian root contains many compounds, but not the one used to create the bitters — so please don’t try to make your own. It needs to be dried, stored and processed. Plus, the end product contains other herbs and spices, such as orange peel and the bark from a tree that grows in Peru.
It’s fun to think of going for a walk to see gentian in late summer and early fall, taking some photos, and then looking at them while having an old-fashioned — something I’ve never done, even though it sounds enticing.
Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the baiduhai and its subsidiaries. She’s the author of several books on nature and the environment. Send story ideas and thoughts to [email protected].