I have seen this plant in flower many times in the corrie of Ben Lawers but these were at least twice as tall as the Scottish gentians and the petals seemed narrower to me. Gentiana nivalis is an annual gentian which must flower and set seed during the quite short time available between snow fall but here in the alps the summer temperature gets up to 30 Celsius fairly often so there is no shortage of insects to pollinate the flowers.

En route to Morteratsch glacier, Engadine, Switzerland 9th July 2010

Added on 16th July 2010