gentian family

noun

1. the plant family Gentianaceae, typified by herbaceous plants having simple opposite leaves, usually blue flowers with five united petals, and fruit in the form of a capsule, and including the closed gentian, fringed gentian, centaury, exacum, and marsh pink.

Example Sentences

Sheldrake focussed on a genus of mycohets called Voyria, part of the gentian family, the flowers of which studded the jungle floor on Barro Colorado Island like pale purple stars.

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Sabbatia, sa-bā′ti-a, n. a genus of small North American herbaceous plants of the gentian family.

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Yell′ow-wort, an annual of the gentian family—also Yell′ow-cen′taury.—adj.

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