Downy Gentian

Notes:

This is one of the most beautiful plants on the prairie during the fall, with exceptionally vivid blue-violet flowers. Bumblebees are attracted to the nectar of the flowers and cross-pollinate them. Some beetles may knaw on the flowers or eat the seeds, such as Epicauta pensylvanica (Black Blister Beetle). The seeds are too small to be of much interest to birds. Most mammalian herbivores usually don't bother this plant because the leaves are bitter, although White-Tailed Deer may chomp off the upper half of its leafy stems.