Gentiana macrophyllaPall.

Bigleaf Gentian

WFO wfo-0000697942 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Gentiana macrophylla, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. a Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-04 / obs. 194752855

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 16 botanical countries

Regions where Gentiana macrophylla is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Mongolia, Primorye, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskKazakhstanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMongoliaPrimoryeTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiya
Native distribution of Gentiana macrophylla, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,086 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -30.0 °C -24.6 °C -16.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.9 °C 23.1 °C 24.5 °C
Annual rainfall 321 mm 458 mm 967 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 10 mm 34 mm 121 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,086 research-grade observations of Gentiana macrophylla that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 15 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Dasystephana fetissowii (Regel & C.Winkl.) Revushk. & Borovik
  • Dasystephana macrophylla (Pall.) Zuev
  • Ericoila macrophylla (Pall.) Bercht. & J.Presl
  • Gentiana fetisowii Regel & C.Winkl.
  • Gentiana fetissowii Regel & Winkl.
  • Gentiana jakutensis Bunge ex Griseb.
  • Gentiana macrophylla var. fetisowii (Regel & C.Winkl.) Ma & C.K.Hsia
  • Gentiana macrophylla var. minor Ledeb.
  • Gentiana quinquenervia Turrill
  • Gentiana wutaiensis C.Marquand
  • Hippion macrophyllum F.W.Schmidt
  • Pneumonanthe fetisowi (Regel & C.Winkl.) Zuev
  • Pneumonanthe macrophylla (Pall.) Zuev
  • Tretorhiza fetissowii (Regel & C.Winkl.) Soják
  • Tretorhiza macrophylla (Pall.) Soják

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.