Author

GP Jürgens

Gentianaceae

Gentiana simulatrix

by GP Jürgens

C.Marquand

Sikkim2004 286 G499 ergebnis
Sikkim/India Dzongri 3900m May

Description

Gentiana simulatrix is an alpine gentian of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China, with GBIF records concentrated in south-central China (Xizang, Yunnan) and Bhutan, and extending into Sikkim in the Indian Himalaya; the roughly forty-three documented occurrences indicate a localised but reasonably collected high-altitude range. It inhabits open alpine turf, moist pastures, stony slopes and seepage margins above the treeline. The illustrated plant from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3900 m, flowering in May, exemplifies its spring-to-early-summer phenology in the upper alpine zone, where it emerges as snowmelt exposes the short-cropped sward.

The species is a small tufted perennial with a slender rootstock giving rise to numerous decumbent to ascending leafy shoots. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to oblong and somewhat fleshy, forming dense basal and cauline pairs. The flowers are solitary and terminal or few in the upper axils; the calyx is tubular with narrow lobes, and the corolla is campanulate to narrowly funnelform, blue to deep azure with darker stripes and conspicuous plicae (folds) between the lobes. The capsule is stipitate within the persistent corolla and releases numerous small seeds.

Gentiana simulatrix belongs to the genus Gentiana (Gentianaceae) and is an accepted species, placed among the small-flowered alpine gentians of section Chondrophyllae, a critical complex where it has been confused with allied taxa such as G. prolata. Its cushion-forming habit, fused corolla plicae and protective floral folds are adaptations to the cold, windy, high-radiation alpine environment. No formal IUCN status has been published, but its dependence on intact alpine grassland makes it sensitive to overgrazing and climate-driven upslope shifts.

Author: C.Marquand · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Ho & Liu monograph of the genus Gentiana

Geraniaceae

Geranium lambertii

by GP Jürgens

Sweet

Bhutan2012 218
Bhutan Shele-La, 3800m September
BhutanPG2011 679 01 01
Bhutan Luksur, 3700m July
Nepal 95 389P688 ergebnis
Nepal Bahanjyang 3700m October

Description

Geranium lambertii is a perennial herb of the high Himalaya, distributed through China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan, with about 304 georeferenced records (additional codes from Canada, Japan and Europe reflect its presence in cultivation). It inhabits subalpine and alpine meadows, forest clearings, shrubberies and moist rocky slopes, often among dwarf rhododendron and on the margins of birch forest. The collections cited from Bhutan at Shele-La (3800 m, September) and Luksur (3700 m, July) and from Bahanjyang in Nepal (3700 m, October) place it firmly in the 3500-4000 m belt, flowering through the late monsoon and into autumn.

It forms a clump of trailing to ascending stems from a stout rootstock. The leaves are long-petiolate and palmately divided into five to seven deeply lobed and toothed segments, sparsely hairy. The flowers are among the most distinctive in the genus, nodding and saucer- to bell-shaped, with five broad, satiny white petals usually flushed pink and contrasting with a dark crimson-purple centre; the ten stamens and the style cluster are conspicuous, and the pedicels recurve in fruit. The fruit is the typical geranium schizocarp, with a long beak that splits elastically to fling the seeds.

Geranium lambertii, named by Sweet, is a well-marked species of the Himalayan endemic assemblage and a long-cultivated ornamental prized for its pendent, dark-eyed blooms. Its mid- to late-season flowering supports bumblebees and other high-altitude pollinators, and the spring-loaded mericarps achieve effective ballistic seed dispersal. It is widespread and not considered threatened, though localised meadow populations are sensitive to heavy grazing.

Author: Sweet · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Yeo Hardy Geraniums

Geraniaceae

Geranium nakaoanum

by GP Jürgens

H.Hara

BhutanPG2011 372
Bhutan Dur-Tso, 3800m June
Also included: Pedicularis siphonantha D.Don
Sikkim2003 176 P240
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m, August

Description

Geranium nakaoanum is a Himalayan cranesbill known from Nepal, the Indian Himalaya, Bhutan and adjacent China, with around 61 GBIF occurrences reflecting its montane to alpine distribution. It occupies open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, streamsides and the herbaceous margins of dwarf rhododendron and juniper scrub on moist, humus-rich soils. The locality figured, Dur Tsachu in Bhutan at about 3800 m in June, sits within its typical band of roughly 3300-4500 m; the accompanying note of Pedicularis siphonantha at Dzongri in Sikkim at 4100 m in August underscores the high-elevation meadow community in which it grows, flowering through the monsoon summer.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb with a thickened rootstock, producing slender, often decumbent or ascending stems clothed in spreading or retrorse hairs. The leaves are long-petioled and palmately divided into five to seven deeply incised, lobed segments forming a rounded outline, the laminae sparsely hairy on both surfaces. The flowers are borne in few-flowered cymes on glandular-hairy pedicels; the five free petals are pink to rose-purple, frequently darker-veined and shallowly notched. Ten stamens surround the five-carpellate ovary, which matures into the characteristic beaked schizocarp whose mericarps spring apart elastically to disperse the seeds.

The species commemorates the Japanese botanist Sasuke Nakao, a participant in mid-twentieth-century Himalayan expeditions. It belongs to the large temperate genus Geranium, well represented in the Himalaya by several allied alpine taxa distinguished by indumentum, petal colour and leaf dissection. As a meadow perennial it contributes to the diverse alpine herb flora and is pollinated chiefly by bees and flies; no specific threat is recorded, though alpine grazing pressure can affect such populations.

Author: H.Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Aedo monograph of Geranium, Yeo Hardy Geraniums

Geraniaceae

Geranium polyanthes

by GP Jürgens

Edgew. & Hook.f.

Sikkim2003 204 P284
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m 08.2003

Description

Geranium polyanthes is a perennial cranesbill of the high Himalaya and the mountains of southwestern China, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar (with scattered cultivated or vouchered records elsewhere) across about 331 georeferenced occurrences. It is a plant of subalpine and alpine meadows, open hillsides, grassy slopes and forest clearings near and above the treeline, characteristically flowering in the monsoon months of July and August. Its elevational range extends from roughly 3,000 m to over 4,000 m, well represented by the photographed plant from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3,900 m in August, where it grows among dwarf rhododendron and herbaceous alpine turf.

The species forms a clump from a stout rootstock, the stems erect to ascending and clothed, like the rest of the plant, in spreading hairs. The leaves are orbicular-reniform in outline and palmately lobed into shallow, broad, crenate-toothed segments, the basal leaves long-petioled. As the epithet polyanthes ("many-flowered") indicates, the inflorescence is comparatively dense and many-flowered, an umbel-like cluster of pink to rose-pink flowers with five obovate, slightly notched petals veined with darker lines, ten stamens and a beaked pistil. The fruit is the characteristic geraniaceous schizocarp with an elongate rostrum that splits explosively into one-seeded mericarps, ejecting the seeds.

Geranium polyanthes belongs to the large genus Geranium (subgenus Geranium) and is one of a suite of pink-flowered Himalayan perennial cranesbills that includes G. donianum and G. nakaoanum, from which it is separated by its denser, many-flowered inflorescence and leaf division. As a nectar-rich alpine herb it is visited by bees and other insects and contributes to the floral diversity of Himalayan summer pastures. It is locally common and not considered threatened, though the alpine meadow habitats it occupies are sensitive to overgrazing and to the upslope shifts in vegetation associated with a warming climate.

Author: Edgew. & Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Yeo: Hardy Geraniums and the systematic monograph of the genus Geranium

Geraniaceae

Geranium procurrens

by GP Jürgens

Yeo

Bhutan2012 336
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
Bhutan2012 165
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
Nepal 95 117 P205 ergebnis
Nepal south of Rupien La 3400m October

Description

Geranium procurrens is a trailing perennial of the central and eastern Himalaya, native to Nepal, Bhutan, India and adjacent China, with around 192 recorded occurrences and a scatter of cultivated or naturalised records farther afield reflecting its garden popularity. It grows in subalpine and upper temperate habitats, among forest margins, shrubberies, banks and open slopes where it scrambles over surrounding vegetation, flowering late into the autumn. The species is well represented in the high Himalaya, as shown by collections from the Haa (Haar) Valley in Bhutan at about 3200 m in September and from south of the Rupien La in Nepal at around 3400 m in October.

The plant is distinctive for its long, prostrate, procumbent stems that root at the nodes and form sprawling mats, giving the epithet procurrens. The leaves are long-petiolate with an orbicular blade deeply palmately five- to seven-lobed, the lobes themselves toothed or further divided, and marked above with a darker zone. The flowers are borne on slender pedicels and have five spreading obovate petals of deep magenta to purplish-crimson with darker veining and a near-black centre, surrounding ten stamens and a beaked ovary. The fruit is the characteristic geranium schizocarp, the long rostrate beak splitting elastically into five mericarps that catapult the seeds.

Geranium procurrens was described by Yeo, the monographer of the genus, and is closely allied to the magenta-flowered Himalayan species of section Polyantha. Its nodal rooting and stoloniferous habit, unusual among hardy geraniums, enable extensive vegetative spread and have made it a vigorous ground-cover plant in cultivation, where it has given rise to garden hybrids. In the wild it remains a locally common montane species of no particular conservation concern, valued ecologically as a late-flowering nectar source for high-altitude pollinators.

Author: Yeo · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China Vol. 11, Yeo monograph Hardy Geraniums

Geraniaceae

Geranium refractum

by GP Jürgens

Edgew. & Hook.

BhutanPG2011 491
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Managed-Chu, 3550m June

Description

Geranium refractum is a perennial herb of the eastern and central Himalaya and adjacent China, distributed through China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 645 georeferenced records concentrated in the subalpine and alpine zones. It grows in alpine meadows, forest clearings, shrubberies and moist, rocky slopes, often among dwarf rhododendron and on streamside banks. The plant photographed along the Ludlow-Sherriff trail near the Managed-Chu in Bhutan at 3550 m, flowering in June, is typical of its high-elevation habitat, where it appears with the early summer thaw.

It forms ascending to spreading stems from a perennial rootstock, the foliage palmately divided into five to seven deeply incised and toothed lobes. The flowers, as the epithet indicates, are nodding and become strongly reflexed, with five reflexed to spreading white or pale pinkish petals; the ten stamens and the long style column are exserted and conspicuous against the recurved corolla, recalling a small cyclamen or shooting-star in posture. The fruit is the characteristic geranium schizocarp with an elongate beak, the mericarps releasing seeds by elastic ejection.

Geranium refractum, described by Edgeworth and Hooker f., belongs to the same Himalayan group of nodding-flowered species as G. lambertii, from which it differs in its reflexed white flowers and exserted reproductive parts. Its early-summer blooms are visited by bumblebees and other montane insects, and the spring-loaded mericarps disperse seed ballistically. It is reasonably widespread across the eastern Himalaya and is not regarded as threatened, although alpine meadow populations are subject to grazing pressure.

Author: Edgew. & Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Yeo Hardy Geraniums

Asteraceae

Gerbera piloselloides

by GP Jürgens

Cass.

Bh2008 487 P756
Bhutan Samtengang 2100, May
Bh09 355 G572
Bhutan Samtengang 2100, May

Description

Gerbera piloselloides is a remarkably wide-ranging species spanning the palaeotropics, with GBIF recording over 2780 occurrences from South Africa, Madagascar and tropical East and Central Africa eastward through the Himalaya and southern China to Myanmar and Thailand. Across this disjunct Afro-Asian range it occupies open grassland, sunny hill slopes, sparse pine forest, roadsides and disturbed pasture, generally on well-drained, often acidic soils. In the Eastern Himalaya it occurs in the subtropical to lower temperate zone, the figured plant from Samtengang in central Bhutan at about 2100 m flowering in May, a season coinciding with the onset of the warm months when the basal rosettes throw up their solitary scapes.

The species is a stemless perennial herb forming a flat rosette from a short rhizome. The leaves are entire, oblanceolate to obovate-spathulate, narrowed to the base, green and thinly hairy above but conspicuously white-tomentose beneath. From the rosette centre arise one or more slender, leafless, woolly scapes each terminating in a single heterogamous capitulum. The involucre is campanulate with imbricate phyllaries; the outer female florets are bilabiate, white to pinkish above and reddish beneath, encircling tubular bisexual disc florets. The fruit is a narrowly fusiform, beaked, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of numerous barbellate bristles.

Referable to Cassini, the binomial Gerbera piloselloides is accepted by GBIF; it has at times been segregated into the genus Piloselloides, and the name is treated here as accepted following current consensus. Within the tribe Mutisieae, Gerbera is noted for its bilabiate marginal florets, and the broad Old World distribution of this taxon reflects both ancient biogeographic connections and tolerance of disturbed, fire-maintained grassland. Its colonising ability in open habitats makes it secure across its range, and it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Cass. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora Zambesiaca, Hansen's revision of Gerbera (Mutisieae)

Rosaceae

Geum macrosepalum

by GP Jürgens

Ludlow

BhutanPG2011 231
Bhutan Tsochenchen 3800m, July

Description

Geum macrosepalum Ludlow is a high-alpine rosaceous herb of the Eastern Himalaya and adjacent China, recorded from China, India and Bhutan (gbif_countries: CN, IN, BT) with only 20 occurrences in GBIF, marking it as a narrowly distributed mountain endemic. It grows in open alpine meadows, moist turf, rocky slopes and seepage ground, typically above about 3500 m. The illustrated plant from Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3800 m, in July, captures it flowering at the height of the summer growing season in the cool, humid alpine belt of the eastern ranges.

It is a perennial herb arising from a stout rhizome, forming a basal rosette of pinnately compound, lyrate leaves with a large terminal leaflet and smaller lateral pairs, the margins toothed and the surfaces softly hairy. The flowering stems bear few reduced cauline leaves. The flowers, often solitary or few, are notable for their enlarged sepals, recorded in the epithet macrosepalum, which subtend yellow petals; an epicalyx is present outside the calyx. Numerous stamens and carpels occupy the receptacle, and the achenes mature with persistent styles that may be hooked or plumose, aiding dispersal, a feature linking the species to the segregate Acomastylis under which it has been treated.

The taxon has been placed in Acomastylis (Geum macrosepalum being the basis of Acomastylis macrosepala), reflecting the disputed generic limits within the Geum–Sieversia–Acomastylis complex; molecular work supports a broadly circumscribed Geum. Given its limited range across the eastern alpine zone, the species is of biogeographic interest as a regional endemic, and its small number of records suggests it warrants conservation attention.

Author: Ludlow · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Rosaceae), Flora of Bhutan, Smedmark & Eriksson phylogenetic study of Geum and allies

Rosaceae

Geum sikkimense

by GP Jürgens

Prain

BhutanPG2011 676 01
Bhutan Luksur, 4700m July

Description

Geum sikkimense is a high-alpine avens of the eastern Himalaya, recorded in GBIF (a modest 47 occurrences) from Nepal, Bhutan and India. It is a plant of cold, open, high-elevation habitats, growing on alpine meadows, moist turf, screes and rocky slopes generally between about 4000 and 4800 m, flowering during the short summer monsoon window. The photographed plant from Luksur in Bhutan at 4700 m in July exemplifies its occurrence near the upper limit of vascular plant growth, where it persists in stony, snowmelt-watered ground.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb arising from a stout, woody rhizome clothed in old leaf bases. The leaves are mostly basal and lyrate-pinnate, with a large rounded, crenate-toothed terminal lobe and progressively smaller lateral leaflets, the surfaces hairy and the petiole long. The flowering stems are erect and bear one to few flowers; each flower has five green sepals (often with alternating epicalyx segments) and five spreading, obovate, yellow petals surrounding numerous stamens and carpels. The fruit is a head of dry achenes, each tipped with a persistent style that elongates into a hooked or feathery awn aiding epizoochorous dispersal.

Geum belongs to tribe Colurieae of the Rosaceae, allied to Sieversia and Acomastylis, genera with which several Himalayan high-alpine species have at times been associated. G. sikkimense is a narrow-range eastern Himalayan endemic adapted to the harsh, short growing season of the upper alpine zone. Given its limited known distribution and small number of records, it is poorly assessed, but its restriction to fragile high-altitude habitats makes it potentially vulnerable to climate-driven habitat contraction.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Gajurel et al. studies on Himalayan Rosaceae, Smedmark revision of Colurieae

Lamiaceae

Gmelina arborea

by GP Jürgens

Roxb.

Nepal 97 56 P78
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1160m April
Nepal 97 54 P84
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1160m April

Description

Gmelina arborea, known as gamhar or white teak, is a fast-growing tropical tree native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, ranging through Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina, China, Indonesia and the Philippines; it is now extensively planted in tropical Africa and the Americas, and its 12,900 GBIF occurrences across countries from Colombia and Brazil to Nigeria, Tanzania and Mexico largely reflect this pantropical forestry use. In its native range it grows in moist and dry deciduous forest and along watercourses from the lowlands to about 1,500 m. The plant photographed along the Mewa Khola in eastern Nepal at 1,160 m in April shows it flowering in the leafless or newly leafing state typical of the dry pre-monsoon season in the Himalayan foothills.

It is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree reaching 15-30 m, with a straight bole, greyish bark and a spreading crown. The leaves are opposite, broadly ovate to cordate, 10-25 cm long, acuminate and entire, glabrescent above and finely fulvous-tomentose beneath, with gland-dotted petioles. The flowers are showy and brownish-yellow to orange-yellow, borne in terminal panicles that appear when the tree is largely leafless; the corolla is bilabiate and funnelform with a swollen tube, and the four didynamous stamens are included. The fruit is a fleshy, ovoid to obovoid drupe, yellow when ripe, with a hard stone enclosing one to several seeds.

Gmelina, traditionally placed in Verbenaceae but now referred to Lamiaceae, comprises some thirty-five Old World tropical species, of which G. arborea is by far the most economically important. Its rapid growth, pale lightweight timber and suitability for pulp and plantation forestry have made it one of the most widely cultivated hardwoods in the tropics, while its nectar-rich flowers attract bees and its drupes are taken by mammals and birds. Long valued in traditional medicine and listed among the classical Ayurvedic drugs, the species is abundant and of least concern, though its plantations occasionally naturalise beyond cultivation.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, World Agroforestry database, revision of Gmelina (Lamiaceae)