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Gentianaceae FAMILY

Swertia chirayita

Swertia chirayita

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
3/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual/Biennial
Growth—

Swertia chirayita is a fairly cold-hardy plant, tolerating winter temperatures down to at least -15°c[1]. It grows best in areas with cool summers[2]. Succeeds in a moist humus-rich soil in damp light woodlands, streamsides or the bog garden[2]. The plant thrives in fertile sandy-loam soils of acidic nature[3] Succeeds in full sun or partial shade[1]. In its first year or more of growth the plant remains vegetative, producing only a rosette of leaves above ground. Only after two to three years does the plant produce a flowering stem and usually dies after it has produced seed. Occasionally the plant will not die after flowering but will live for at least another flowering season[3].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in temperatures not exceeding 10°c in a humus-rich medium[2]. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in early summer. The seed has a viability of 3+ years[3]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Swertia+chirayita>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]Encyclopaedia of Herbs and their Uses. — Bown. D. · Dorling Kindersley, London. · 1995 · ISBN 0-7513-020-31 ↩︎A very well presented and informative book on herbs from around the globe. Plenty in it for both the casual reader and the serious student. Just one main quibble is the silly way of having two separate entries for each plant.
  2. [2]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  3. [3]Non-Timber Forest Products of Nepal Himalaya - database of some important species found in the mountain protected ar — Ghimire S.K. et al · WWF Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal · 2008 · ISBN 978-99946-837-9-6 ↩︎
  4. [4]Trade in Indian Medicinal Plants — D.K.Ved, S.Noorunnisa Begum, & K.Ravi Kumar · Apple Academic Press; Oakville, Canada · 2018 · ISBN 978-1-77188-600-0 ↩︎
  5. [5]Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). — Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. · Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. · 1986 · ISBN - ↩︎Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.
  6. [6]The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants — Chevallier. A. · Dorling Kindersley. London · 1996 · ISBN 9-780751-303148 ↩︎An excellent guide to over 500 of the more well known medicinal herbs from around the world.
  7. [7]The Dictionary of Modern Herbalism. — Mills. S. Y. ↩︎An excellent small herbal.
  8. [8]A Modern Herbal. — Grieve. · Penguin · 1984 · ISBN 0-14-046-440-9 ↩︎Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.
  9. [9]CosIng — http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/ ↩︎CosIng is the European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients.