Bottle Gentian

Description:

Non-blooming stage of a plant I believe is called Bottle Gentian

Habitat:

Between a wooded area and Lake Blanche in Glendalough State Park; native prairie grasslands that stay damp or moist for most of the summer and get a fairly good amount of direct sunlight

Notes:

This is the non-blooming stage. I have more images of this flower while its in bloom that I'll try to post up later this week. The flowers are purple in color and are shaped light chandelier (light) bulbs. The petals appear fused together and never open, unless its at night when I'm not there...I have seen bees enter through the top of the apparently closed bloom and come back out again so I believe they (honey bees and bumble bees both) are the pollinators of this particular flower as butterflies seem to leave it alone, perhaps because of the narrow opening on the top of the bud?