Author

GP Jürgens

Ranunculaceae

Clematis gouriana

by GP Jürgens

Roxb. ex DC.

Bhutan2012 1218
Bhutan Gom Kora 1850m, October
Bhutan2012 1216
Bhutan Gom Kora 1850m, October

Description

Clematis gouriana is a vigorous climbing vine with a broad tropical-Asian and Himalayan distribution, recorded from China, India, Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and many other countries, with a large dataset of around 2207 occurrences. It scrambles over shrubs, hedgerows, forest margins, thickets and roadside vegetation, predominantly in subtropical to warm-temperate hill country. The photographed plant from Gom Kora in eastern Bhutan at 1850 m, flowering in October, exemplifies its autumn blooming in low to mid-elevation forest borders.

It is a woody to semi-woody liana climbing by means of twining, clasping petioles. The leaves are opposite and pinnately compound, usually with three to five ovate, acuminate, entire or toothed leaflets borne on slender stalks. The inflorescences are large, much-branched axillary and terminal panicles of numerous small, fragrant flowers; lacking petals, each flower has four spreading, creamy-white, narrowly oblong sepals and a central tuft of many stamens and carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of compressed, pubescent achenes, each bearing a long, persistent, plumose feathery style that forms silvery seed-heads dispersed by wind.

Clematis gouriana, described by Roxburgh and DC., belongs to a complex of white-flowered, panicle-bearing climbers in section Clematis and is morphologically close to species such as C. grata. Its massed autumn flowering provides abundant late-season nectar for bees and other insects. Widespread, fast-growing and tolerant of disturbance, it can behave almost weedily along forest edges and is of no conservation concern.

Author: Roxb. ex DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Ranunculaceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan, Johnson's monograph Clematis: The Genus

Ranunculaceae

Clematis graveolens 

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

Nepal 99 978 ergebnis
West-Nepal Dunai 2150m, July

Description

Clematis graveolens Lindl. is a Sino-Himalayan climber of the western and central Himalaya and adjacent Central Asia, with records from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and China; the GBIF dataset of 236 occurrences also reflects scattered cultivated material in Europe and North America. It occupies dry, open hillsides, rocky slopes, scrub margins and stony riverbanks in the temperate and subalpine belt, broadly between 1500 and 3500 m. The photographed plant near Dunai in West Nepal at about 2150 m, flowering in July, typifies its preference for warm, well-drained, sun-baked terrain in the monsoon-sheltered inner valleys.

The species is a woody-based, scrambling perennial climbing by means of twining, sensitive petioles. The leaves are opposite and pinnately to bipinnately compound, the segments narrowly lanceolate to linear, often pinnatifid, glaucous and somewhat fleshy, emitting a strong foetid odour when bruised that gives the plant its epithet. Flowers are solitary or in few-flowered cymes, nodding and broadly campanulate; the four spreading to recurved tepals are yellow to greenish-yellow, thinly tomentose without and glabrescent within. Numerous stamens surround the pubescent carpels. The fruit is a head of compressed achenes, each bearing a long, persistent, plumose style forming the characteristic feathery awn.

Within Clematis the species belongs to section Meclatis (the yellow-flowered, Atragene-allied group typified by C. orientalis and C. tibetana), distinguished by its campanulate yellow flowers and divided, malodorous foliage. It is a hardy xerophyte adapted to the continental, low-rainfall pockets of the western Himalaya, and is used locally in folk medicine as a counter-irritant. Widespread and frequent in disturbed scrub, it is of no conservation concern and has occasionally entered horticulture as a drought-tolerant ornamental.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Magnus Johnson — The Genus Clematis

Ranunculaceae

Clematis montana

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex DC.

Bhutan2014 36
Bhutan Sandrup 1000m, May
Bhutan2014 971
Bhutan Chele-La 3400m, May
Nepal 1994 66 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Jaljale Himal 2400m, April

Description

Clematis montana is a widespread Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan climber ranging from Pakistan and Kashmir eastward through Nepal, Bhutan and northern India into central and southwestern China and Myanmar. Reflecting its long history in horticulture, GBIF records exceed 6300 and include numerous cultivated and naturalised occurrences in Britain, continental Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia alongside its native Asian range. In the wild it grows over an exceptionally broad elevational span, scrambling through forest margins, scrub, hedgerows and over rock from warm temperate valleys to high subalpine slopes. The Bhutanese material imaged at Sandrup (1000 m) and Chele La (3400 m) and the East Nepal population on the Jaljale Himal (2400 m), all flowering April to May, illustrate its vernal, pre-monsoon blooming across this range.

It is a vigorous woody climber with slender, ridged, eventually brown stems and clambering by twining petioles. The leaves are opposite and ternate, the three leaflets ovate to lanceolate, irregularly toothed or lobed and often softly hairy. Flowers are borne singly or in fascicles from the axils of the previous year's growth, each large and showy with four (occasionally more) spreading, petaloid sepals that are white to pink and frequently fragrant; true petals are absent. The numerous stamens have yellow anthers. The fruit is an aggregate of achenes, each tipped by a long, persistent, plumose silky style aiding wind dispersal.

Within Clematis the species belongs to sect. Montanae of spring-flowering, ternate-leaved climbers, and is morphologically variable, with several named varieties and many garden cultivars selected for flower colour and size. It is an early-season nectar source and a robust coloniser of disturbed and edge habitats. It is common and not of conservation concern; its naturalisation beyond Asia underscores its competitive vigour and broad climatic tolerance.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson's Clematis the Genus (monograph)

Ranunculaceae

Clematis napaulensis

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 680
Bhutan Galephu 950m, September
Bhutan2012 681
Bhutan Galephu 950m, September

Description

Clematis napaulensis is a vigorous woody climber of the Himalaya and southwestern China, recorded by GBIF in some 197 occurrences from Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with scattered cultivated or naturalised records in Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, South Africa and New Zealand. It scrambles through forest margins, thickets, hedgerows and riverine scrub in the warm-temperate and subtropical belt, broadly between 900 and 2500 m. The photographed plant is from Bhutan at Galephu at 950 m in September, at the low, warm end of its range, where it begins its unusual winter flowering season as growth resumes after the monsoon.

The plant is a deciduous to semi-evergreen liana climbing by twining petioles. The leaves are opposite and pinnate, with ovate to lanceolate, entire or toothed leaflets. Distinctively, the species flowers in autumn and winter, bearing pendulous, axillary clusters of bell-shaped flowers; the four creamy to greenish-white sepals form a narrow campanulate bloom and curve back at the tips, while the numerous stamens have conspicuous reddish-purple filaments that protrude from the mouth. The fruit is a head of achenes each tipped with a long, silky, plumose style that aids wind dispersal.

Clematis (Ranunculaceae, tribe Anemoneae) lacks petals, its showy perianth being sepaline; C. napaulensis belongs to a group of winter-flowering Asian species valued in horticulture for blooming when little else is in flower. GBIF treats the name as accepted, the orthography napaulensis referring to Nepal. Widespread and adaptable across the southern Himalaya, it is of least concern and is cultivated internationally as an ornamental climber.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson monograph of Clematis

Lamiaceae

Clerodendrum infortunatum

by GP Jürgens

L.

Nepal 97 545 P1067
Nepal Sabha-Khola 520m,May
Nepal 97 543 P1063

Nepal Sabha-Khola 520m, May

Description

Clerodendrum infortunatum is a common shrub of the lowland and foothill regions of tropical southern and southeastern Asia. GBIF records document a wide range across India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, China, Bhutan and Myanmar, with naturalised or cultivated occurrences in Brazil, Mexico, Singapore and elsewhere, amounting to over 2200 records. It is a plant of forest margins, clearings, wastelands, roadsides and disturbed secondary scrub, often forming dense thickets in the warm humid lowlands. The photographed material from the Sabha-Khola valley in Nepal at 520 m, flowering in May, is typical of its occurrence in the subtropical foothill belt, where it blooms in the pre-monsoon period.

It is an erect, soft-wooded shrub usually under 2 m, with quadrangular young stems and large, broadly ovate to cordate leaves that are opposite, softly pubescent and emit a characteristic unpleasant smell when crushed. The flowers are borne in large, lax, terminal panicled cymes; each has an inflated, often reddish calyx and a white to pinkish-tinged, salverform corolla with a slender tube and five spreading lobes, the four stamens and style long-exserted. The fruit is a fleshy drupe seated on the persistent, accrescent calyx, splitting at maturity into four nutlet-like pyrenes.

Formerly placed in the Verbenaceae, Clerodendrum is now treated within the Lamiaceae following molecular phylogenetic reclassification. C. infortunatum is well known in traditional medicine across South Asia, where its leaves and roots are used against fevers and skin and digestive ailments. Ecologically it is a pioneer of disturbed ground, its exserted flowers attracting butterflies and other long-tongued pollinators, and its drupes dispersed by birds.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China (Lamiaceae), Revision of Clerodendrum (Steane & Mabberley)

Liliaceae

Clintonia udensis var. alpina

by GP Jürgens

(Kunth ex Baker) H.Hara

Bhutan2014 578
Bhutan Phobjika 3100m, May
Bhutan2014 827
Bhutan Thimphu 2450m, May

Description

Clintonia udensis var. alpina is a rhizomatous woodland herb of the temperate Himalaya and the mountains of East Asia. GBIF records (around 230 occurrences) span China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Korea and Japan, the species as a whole forming a classic Sino-Himalayan to East Asian arc. It is a plant of moist, shaded forest floors, growing among mosses beneath fir, hemlock and rhododendron, and along cool stream banks in the upper temperate and subalpine zones. The photographed plants came from Bhutan at Phobjika near 3100 m and above Thimphu at about 2450 m, both flowering in May, consistent with its habit of blooming as the snowmelt recedes.

The plant arises from a slender creeping rhizome and produces a basal rosette of two to five leaves. These are oblong-elliptic to obovate, entire, glabrous and somewhat fleshy, narrowed to a sheathing base. From the centre rises a leafless scape bearing a small umbel-like cluster of nodding, white, campanulate flowers; each has six free, oblong tepals, six stamens with versatile anthers, and a superior ovary topped by a short style. The fruit is a globose berry that ripens from green to a striking blue-black, borne erect on the lengthening pedicels, the contrast of dark fruit and green foliage being characteristic of the genus.

Clintonia is a small Northern Hemisphere genus of the Liliaceae traditionally placed near Medeola, with a disjunct distribution between eastern Asia and North America that makes it a textbook example of the boreal-temperate floristic link. The alpine variety represents the higher-elevation, smaller Himalayan expression of the wide-ranging C. udensis. The species is frequent in suitable forest and is of no conservation concern, its blue berries dispersed by birds.

Author: (Kunth ex Baker) H.Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Utech's taxonomic studies of Clintonia (Liliaceae)

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis foetens

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 425 G591
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4250m August

Description

Codonopsis foetens is an alpine herb of the eastern Himalaya, distributed across China, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal, with about 712 georeferenced records in GBIF. It occupies high-elevation meadows, alpine scrub, screes and rocky slopes, typically between roughly 3500 and 4800 m. The plant illustrated was photographed in Sikkim's Chopta Valley at 4250 m in August, during the monsoon flowering season, where it grows among dwarf rhododendron scrub and damp alpine turf in the upper subalpine to alpine zone.

The species is an erect to ascending perennial herb arising from a thickened root, with simple or sparingly branched stems bearing small, scattered, ovate to lanceolate leaves. The flowers are solitary and terminal, nodding, with a broadly campanulate corolla that is pale blue to greyish-blue or violet and conspicuously marked internally with darker veins or blotches. The five corolla lobes are short and the throat often bears coloured patterning; the fruit is a capsule subtended by the persistent calyx lobes and releasing numerous minute seeds at maturity.

Codonopsis (Campanulaceae) is well diversified in the Sino-Himalayan alpine flora, and as the epithet foetens indicates, this species emits a strong, unpleasant odour when the foliage is bruised, a trait shared with several relatives and thought to deter herbivores while attracting particular insect visitors. The pendent bell-shaped flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees. Restricted to high alpine habitats, C. foetens is not formally assessed as threatened but is dependent on intact alpine vegetation and is potentially sensitive to grazing pressure and climate-driven shifts in the alpine belt.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hong Monograph of the Genus Codonopsis

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis inflata

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

Bhutan2012 672
Bhutan Tserang 1000m, September
Bhutan2012 675
Bhutan Tserang 1000m, September

Description

Codonopsis inflata is a herbaceous twining perennial of the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar. It grows in forest margins, thickets, scrub and among tall herbs on shaded slopes and stream banks in the subtropical to lower temperate belt, generally between about 1000 and 2500 m, scrambling over surrounding vegetation. The photographed plant comes from Tserang in Bhutan at around 1000 m, flowering in September. With around 107 georeferenced records it is a moderately documented Himalayan bellflower relative, characteristic of the humid, vegetated lower montane zone where its slender climbing stems are supported by neighbouring shrubs and herbs.

It arises from a fleshy, often swollen rootstock and produces slender, twining, glabrous stems that exude latex when cut and emit the characteristic foetid odour of the genus. The leaves are alternate or subopposite, ovate to lanceolate, with entire to shallowly toothed margins and slender petioles. The flowers are solitary and nodding on long pedicels; the calyx has five lobes adnate to the lower part of the ovary, and the corolla is broadly campanulate to somewhat inflated, pale greenish, yellowish or bluish and usually marked within by darker veins or blotches. There are five stamens, and the inferior to half-inferior ovary ripens into a capsule that dehisces to release numerous small seeds.

Codonopsis is a large Sino-Himalayan genus, several species of which are valued in traditional Chinese and Himalayan medicine, the fleshy roots (dang shen) used as tonics; C. inflata shares this ethnobotanical use. Its taxonomy is complicated by variation in corolla form and by close affinity to allied Himalayan species. As a fairly widespread plant of vegetated montane habitats it is of least conservation concern.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Lammers monograph of Campanulaceae (Codonopsis)

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis subsimplex

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 439 P610 2
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4000m August
Sikkim2003 424 P590
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4250m August

Description

Codonopsis subsimplex is an alpine herb of the eastern Himalaya, distributed across Nepal, India (Sikkim), Bhutan and adjacent China, with about 101 georeferenced records in GBIF. It grows in high-elevation meadows, scrub margins, rock crevices and stony alpine slopes, typically within the belt between about 3500 and 4500 m. The plants illustrated were photographed in Sikkim's Chopta Valley at 4000 and 4250 m in August, at the height of the monsoon flowering season, where it occurs among dwarf shrubs and damp turf in the upper alpine zone.

The species is a slender perennial herb arising from a thickened, fleshy rootstock, with stems that are erect to weakly ascending and, as the epithet suggests, little branched. The leaves are small, alternate or scattered, ovate to lanceolate, and shortly petiolate to nearly sessile. The flowers are solitary and terminal, nodding on slender pedicels, with a broadly campanulate corolla typically pale bluish, greenish or purple-tinged and often marked internally with darker veining or coloured spots. The five corolla lobes are shallow; the fruit is a capsule crowned by the persistent calyx, dehiscing to release numerous small seeds.

Codonopsis (Campanulaceae) is a genus of the temperate and alpine Asian flora well represented in the Himalaya, several members of which are characterised by a distinctive foetid odour when bruised. Pollination is largely by bumblebees attracted to the pendent bell-shaped flowers. The fleshy roots of various Codonopsis species are valued in regional herbal medicine. C. subsimplex is restricted to high alpine habitats and, while not formally assessed as threatened, depends on intact alpine pasture and is sensitive to overgrazing and climatic warming.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hong Monograph of the Genus Codonopsis

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis thalictrifolia

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Sikkim2003 122 P163
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August
Sikkim2003 265 P364
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August
Sikkim2003 266 P367
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August

Description

Codonopsis thalictrifolia is a Sino-Himalayan alpine herb of the bellflower family, GBIF recording about 217 occurrences from Nepal, China, India and Bhutan. It is a plant of the upper subalpine and alpine zones, growing in open turf, among dwarf rhododendron scrub, on stony slopes, moraine and moist rock ledges generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The population photographed at Dzongri in western Sikkim at 3950 m, flowering in August during the late monsoon, is characteristic of its occurrence in cool, humid, high-elevation meadow and shrub habitats where it blooms toward the end of the short alpine summer.

It is a slender, glabrous, somewhat glaucous perennial herb arising from a fleshy rootstock, the stems erect to ascending and often weakly clambering through surrounding vegetation. The leaves are small and finely divided or pinnately lobed, recalling the foliage of a meadow-rue (Thalictrum), from which the epithet derives. The flowers are solitary and nodding on slender pedicels; the corolla is broadly campanulate, pale blue to greenish or violet-tinged and frequently marked within by darker veining, with five short lobes, five stamens and an inferior to half-inferior ovary. The fruit is a capsule dehiscing to release numerous small seeds.

Described by Wallich, C. thalictrifolia belongs to the genus Codonopsis (Campanulaceae), the bonnet-bellflowers, several of which emit the group's characteristic foetid odour when bruised. It is locally frequent and not regarded as threatened, though tied to intact alpine turf and scrub. Ecologically its nodding, bell-shaped flowers are adapted to pollination by bumblebees and other robust alpine insects, and it is valued horticulturally as a delicate plant of the high mountains.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Codonopsis (Lammers/Hong monograph)