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Perennial of the Gentianaceae family, this autumn gentian is native to southwest China and eastern Tibet, where it grows in wet alpine meadows, grassy slopes, and stream edges, usually between 3,000 and 4,500 meters in altitude, on acidic and constantly cool soils.
It forms low, carpeting clumps of 8 to 15 cm, with prostrate-stoloniferous stems bearing very narrowly linear, bright green, dense, and tight leaves, creating an almost grass-like carpet from which the flowers emerge at the end of the season.
The flower, solitary and terminal, is one of the most spectacular of the genus: large, tubular-campanulate, of an intense blue to royal blue, it displays on the outer tube longitudinal bands alternating dark blue, pale blue, and greenish-white, visible from the bud. Fully open, the corolla spreads out in a star with five wide lobes, of a bright azure blue, with a whitish center. This bud striping is one of the most immediately recognizable features of the species.
In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from September to October. In cultivation, it blooms from October to November depending on the climate.
It imperatively requires an acidic, humus-rich, cool to moist soil, in full sun. It tolerates neither limestone nor summer drought, and is very sensitive to pH; a mixture of heather soil and sand is generally recommended. It is one of the most cultivated autumn gentians and serves as a parent to many garden hybrids.