Gentiana lutea Seeds | Yellow Gentian

Flat, pale brown Yellow Gentian seeds with a thin membranous wing, on a plain background — Yellow Gentian (*Gentiana lutea*): Gentianaceae, native to the mountain meadows of central and southern Europe.

LATIN NAME: Gentiana lutea

COMMON NAME: Yellow Gentian

Plant Profile

Yellow Gentian is the giant of its genus, a herbaceous perennial that sends up stout, hollow stems one to two metres tall from a thick, fleshy root. The leaves are large, ribbed and blue-green, arranged in opposite pairs up the stem, and in midsummer the top of each stem carries whorls of star-shaped, bright yellow flowers that open in sequence from the bottom upward.

It grows in mountain meadows and pasture from the Pyrenees and the Massif Central through the Alps to the Balkans and Turkey, usually between 800 and 2,500 metres. In many of those countries it is now protected, and wild collection is controlled, because the root is slow to grow and heavily dug.

Science & Biotechnology

The bitterness of the root comes from secoiridoid glycosides, chiefly gentiopicroside and amarogentin; amarogentin is one of the most bitter substances known and can be detected at a dilution of one in fifty thousand. Those compounds stimulate the bitter receptors at the back of the tongue, which triggers saliva and gastric secretion before any food arrives.

Yellow Gentian is the reference bitter of European pharmacopoeias and appears in the pharmacopoeias of Britain, Germany, France and Switzerland, where it is used in appetiser preparations and in the liqueurs of the Alps. A root takes five to ten years to reach harvestable size, which is why cultivated supply has never fully replaced wild collection.

Uses & Benefits

The root is the part used: dried and sliced for decoctions and tinctures, or macerated in alcohol for aperitif bitters such as Suze and Averna. In the mountains of France and Switzerland the fresh root is also infused in white wine or eau-de-vie as a household digestive.

In the garden it is a bold architectural plant for a meadow or a wild border, where its height and its whorls of yellow flowers are unlike anything else in late summer. It needs space and patience, and it should be planted where it can stay, since the taproot resents disturbance.

Growing from Seed

Gentian seed needs cold and light. Sow it on the surface of a lime-rich, gritty compost in autumn, cover it with a pinch of fine grit, and leave the tray outside through winter; germination often does not begin until the second spring, and a proportion of the seed will wait longer.

Pot the seedlings on carefully, since the root is brittle, and grow them in a deep pot for two years before planting out. Choose a site in full sun with deep, moist but drained, lime-rich soil, and keep the plants free of grass competition. Expect flowers in the fourth or fifth summer, and do not lift the root for at least six years.

Our Take

The great bitter of the Alps, and a plant that rewards patience more than skill. It is slow from seed and slow to size up, but a stand will outlive the gardener who planted it.

Herb Seeds