Prain ex Maxim.
Description
Pedicularis instar is a high-alpine lousewort endemic to the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, the Indian state of Sikkim, Bhutan and adjacent southern China (Xizang); its tally of around 19 GBIF occurrences reflects both genuine rarity and the difficulty of access to its habitat. It is confined to open alpine meadows, moist turf, streamsides and scree margins above the treeline, broadly from 3,800 to 4,800 m. The plant photographed at Dzongri in western Sikkim at 4,100 m in August represents the species in full flower during the late-summer monsoon, when the alpine sward is most active and the soils reliably moist.
It is a perennial hemiparasitic herb arising from a short rootstock, with one or several erect, often glabrescent stems. The leaves are alternate to subopposite, pinnatisect into closely set, oblong, crenate-serrate segments, the basal leaves long-petiolate. The flowers are borne in a terminal raceme subtended by leafy bracts; each has a tubular, toothed calyx and a strongly two-lipped corolla, the galea (upper lip) helmet-shaped and frequently produced into a slender beak, while the lower lip is three-lobed and spreading. The corolla colour ranges from pink to purplish-red. The fruit is a flattened, asymmetrical capsule enclosing several seeds and dehiscing loculicidally.
Pedicularis is exceptionally species-rich in the Sino-Himalayan alpine zone, and P. instar belongs to the assemblage of beaked-galea species whose floral architecture is closely tied to pollination by long-tongued bumblebees. As a root hemiparasite it draws water and nutrients from neighbouring alpine plants while partly photosynthesising itself, a strategy contributing to fine-scale community structure in alpine turf. Its narrow elevational band and restricted Himalayan range make it potentially vulnerable to climate-driven habitat compression and grazing pressure, though it has not yet received a formal IUCN assessment.
Author: Prain ex Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Pedicularis of the Himalaya (Prain), monograph of Sino-Himalayan Pedicularis