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Fringed Gentian

Collecting

If you are holding one of our collection kits, this is the page the QR code points at.

Open the collection form →

The form asks exactly the same questions as the paper data sheet in your kit, in the same order. Use whichever you prefer. You do not need to do both.

The whole job, in six lines
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  1. Two leaves from each of about 25 plants. Fewer is fine if 25 are hard to find.
  2. Spread out across the whole patch, not 25 plants from one corner.
  3. Leaves go straight into a numbered small bag. The drying beads are already in it.
  4. Seal it tightly, right away, then into the gallon bag. One gallon bag per population.
  5. Fill in the form above or the paper data sheet, whichever you prefer.
  6. Mail the samples and data sheet back in the prepaid box. Keep the scissors and pencil.

Please minimise disturbance to the site and the plants as best you can.

Recording where you are
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Drop a pin at the middle of the patch on Google or Apple Maps and read the coordinates off it, or let your phone geotag a photo taken at the patch. Either is fine.

We do not publish these coordinates. They stay in the project’s private records. Nothing finer than a state or province appears anywhere on this site, and the same applies to anything we publish. Fringed gentian localities are treated as sensitive, and we treat them that way too.

Making sure it is the right plant
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The species most often confused with G. crinita is G. virgata (the narrow-leaved or lesser fringed gentian), and in a few places the two grow together and hybridise. The quickest tells are leaf width and how deeply the corolla lobes are fringed. Four leads in this project have already turned out to be virgata rather than crinita, so it is worth a second look.

If you are unsure, photograph a flower face-on and a whole plant and send them to us. That is how we confirm every site.

See the photo gallery for reference images.

Sending photos
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We would love photos of a flower, a whole plant, and the site, emailed to jbenning@cornell.edu with your site name. The flower photo is how we confirm the species, and the good ones may end up on this site with your name on them (we will ask you first).

Questions
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John Benning, jbenning@cornell.edu — call or text 252-915-8786.