Swertia perennisL.

felwort

WFO wfo-0000498075 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Swertia perennis, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. a Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-20 / obs. 152847913
Swertia perennis, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. b Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152840524
Swertia perennis, photographed by Andrea Chemello
fig. c Andrea Chemello, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156868162
Swertia perennis, photographed by Gail A Baker
fig. d Gail A Baker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154224076
Swertia perennis, photographed by Matt Bowser
fig. e Matt Bowser, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179766777
Swertia perennis, photographed by Olivier Argagnon
fig. f Olivier Argagnon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148296088
Swertia perennis, photographed by John Powers
fig. g John Powers, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109159466
Swertia perennis, photographed by John Powers
fig. h John Powers, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109164388

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 35 botanical countries

Regions where Swertia perennis is native: Japan, Kuril Is., Manchuria, North Caucasus, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Germany, Italy, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Alaska, Aleutian Is., Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming JapanManchuriaNorth CaucasusAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBulgariaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGermanyItalyNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandAlaskaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoMontanaNevadaNew MexicoOregonUtahWashingtonWyoming
Native distribution of Swertia perennis, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Bulgaria BUL
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Aleutian Is. ALU
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
Oregon ORE
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Japan JAP ASIA-TEMPERATE
Kuril Is. KUR
Manchuria CHM
North Caucasus NCS

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is., Aleutian Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 320 in flower of 343 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Swertia perennis observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 320 of 343 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 23 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.

  • Blepharaden perennis (L.) Dulac
  • Gentiana palustris All.
  • Gentiana paniculata Lam.
  • Gentiana swertia E.H.L.Krause
  • Swertia alpestris Baumg.
  • Swertia congesta A.Nelson
  • Swertia covillei Greene
  • Swertia cuspidata (Maxim.) Kitag.
  • Swertia fritillaria Rydb.
  • Swertia intermedia Schur
  • Swertia manshurica (Kom.) Kitag.
  • Swertia obtusa f. leucantha H.Hara
  • Swertia obtusa var. cuspidata (Maxim.) H.Hara
  • Swertia occidentalis Greene
  • Swertia ovalifolia Greene
  • Swertia palustris A.Nelson
  • Swertia parallela Greene
  • Swertia perennis subsp. covillei (Greene) A.E.Murray
  • Swertia perennis subsp. cuspidata (Maxim.) H.Hara
  • Swertia perennis var. alpestris (Baumg.) Kožuharov & A.V.Petrova
  • Swertia perennis var. manshurica Kom.
  • Swertia scopulina Greene
  • Swertia turfosa Baumg. ex Steud.

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.