Author

GP Jürgens

Rosaceae

Rubus biflorus

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex Sm.

Bh2008 334 P515
Bhutan Chendebji, 2100m April
Bh2008 335 P516
Bhutan Chendebji, 2100m April

Description

Rubus biflorus Buch.-Ham. ex Sm. is a Himalayan bramble distributed from Pakistan and Afghanistan eastward through Nepal, India, Bhutan and into southern China and Myanmar, with around 651 GBIF records anchored in the temperate Himalaya. It is characteristic of forest margins, scrub, clearings and roadside thickets in the moist temperate zone, generally between about 1800 and 3500 m. The photographed material from Chendebji in central Bhutan at roughly 2100 m, flowering in April, typifies its occurrence in cool, humid mid-montane habitats where it forms dense tangled stands on disturbed and successional ground.

The species is a robust, arching to scrambling shrub whose biennial canes are conspicuously coated with a white, waxy bloom and armed with stout, hooked prickles. The leaves are imparipinnate with three to five ovate, doubly serrate leaflets that are green above and white-tomentose beneath. The flowers, often borne in twos or few-flowered clusters as the epithet suggests, have white petals subtended by a tomentose calyx. The aggregate fruit is a globose, yellow to orange edible drupelet cluster maturing in summer.

Rubus biflorus belongs to the taxonomically complex genus Rubus (Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae), where extensive hybridisation and apomixis complicate species delimitation; it is placed in the white-stemmed Himalayan brambles allied to R. niveus. Widespread, common and ecologically pioneering, it is of least conservation concern, and its fruit is gathered locally while the canes contribute to soil stabilisation on eroded slopes.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, H. Hara Enumeration of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Focke monograph Species Ruborum

Rosaceae

Rubus calycinus

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex D.Don

Bh2008 328 P506
Bhutan Chendebji, 2100m April
Sikkim2004 88 P155
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2600m April
Sikkim 2006 163 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Molley 3000m, May

Description

Rubus calycinus is a creeping Himalayan bramble distributed across China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and into Southeast Asia, with some 255 GBIF occurrences. It is a plant of the floor of moist temperate and subalpine forest, growing on humus-rich banks, mossy slopes and shaded forest margins, generally between about 1800 and 3300 m. The documented populations span Chendebji in Bhutan at 2100 m, Bersay in Sikkim/West Bengal at 2600 m, and Molley at 3000 m, all flowering in April and May, illustrating its early-season anthesis as the forest understorey greens.

Unlike the familiar scrambling brambles, R. calycinus is a small, prostrate, herbaceous to weakly woody perennial with slender, creeping and rooting stems that form low mats, the stems sparsely armed or nearly unarmed and bearing scattered bristles. The leaves are simple, broadly cordate-orbicular and shallowly three- to five-lobed, crenate-serrate at the margin and pilose on both surfaces. The flowers are solitary, white, with a conspicuously enlarged, leafy, lobed calyx that exceeds the petals and gives the species its name. The aggregate fruit is a small reddish drupelet cluster of few segments.

The species belongs to Rubus subgenus Chamaebatus (the herbaceous, simple-leaved creeping brambles), a distinctive group within the genus. It is widespread and not of conservation concern, valued ecologically as ground cover that stabilises forest-floor soils and provides minor forage and fruit for wildlife.

Author: Wall. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Focke monograph Species Ruborum

Rosaceae

Rubus ellipticus

by GP Jürgens

Kupcsok

Nepal 1994 53 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Bhalukhob 
1800m April

Description

Rubus ellipticus, the yellow Himalayan raspberry, is native to South and East Asia and has become one of the most notoriously invasive of all brambles, with 3973 GBIF occurrences spanning its native range in China (CN), Taiwan (TW), India (IN), Nepal (NP), Bhutan (BT), Sri Lanka (LK), Thailand (TH), Vietnam (VN), Myanmar (MM), the Philippines (PH), Pakistan (PK) and Afghanistan (AF), together with extensive introduced populations in the United States (US, notably Hawaii), Australia (AU), New Zealand (NZ), Malawi (MW), Tanzania (TZ), Ecuador (EC), Costa Rica (CR) and Jamaica (JM). It forms dense thickets in forest margins, clearings, scrub, roadsides and disturbed ground from the lowlands to the lower montane zone. The figured plant was recorded at Bhalukhob in East-Nepal at about 1800 m in April.

It is a robust, scrambling, perennial shrub with biennial canes armed with stout recurved prickles and clothed in dense reddish bristly hairs. The leaves are pinnately trifoliolate, the leaflets elliptic to obovate, finely serrate, dark green and rugose above and densely greyish-tomentose beneath. The flowers are borne in dense terminal and axillary clusters, white, with five sepals and petals and numerous stamens. The aggregate fruit is a juicy, golden-yellow edible raspberry composed of numerous drupelets separating from the receptacle.

Rubus ellipticus belongs to the taxonomically complex subgenus Idaeobatus. Its palatable fruit and prolific seed production, aided by bird dispersal and vigorous vegetative spread, underpin its status as a serious invasive listed among the world's worst invasive species, displacing native vegetation in tropical island and montane ecosystems.

Author: Kupcsok · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Flora of British India, IUCN Global Invasive Species Database, Monograph of the genus Rubus

Rosaceae

Rubus fragarioides

by GP Jürgens

Bertol.

Sikkim2011 234
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June
Bh09 281 P463
Bhutan Pele-La 2900m, June

Description

Rubus fragarioides is a dwarf, strawberry-like bramble of the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 166 occurrence records mapping a range centred on the eastern Himalaya and adjacent western China. It grows in open coniferous and rhododendron forest, forest clearings, alpine meadow margins and mossy banks at upper-temperate to subalpine elevations. The photographed populations—at Yumthang in Sikkim at 3700 m and at Pele-La in Bhutan at 2900 m, both flowering in June—reflect its typical occurrence in cool, humid montane habitats.

Unlike the familiar cane-forming raspberries, this is a diminutive, almost herbaceous perennial spreading by slender creeping rhizomes and bearing only a low, scarcely woody aerial system. The leaves are usually simple to shallowly three-lobed or ternate, with a cordate base, doubly serrate margins and a wrinkled, sparsely hairy surface, recalling those of a strawberry, whence the epithet fragarioides. The flowers are solitary or few, with five spreading white petals, a leafy calyx and numerous stamens and carpels on a domed receptacle. The aggregate fruit is a small red drupelet-cluster, edible and dispersed by birds and small mammals.

Rubus is an enormous and taxonomically difficult genus complicated by hybridisation, polyploidy and apomixis; R. fragarioides, described by Bertoloni, belongs among the low-growing creeping species sometimes segregated in subgenus Chamaebatus. Its mat-forming habit aids soil stabilisation in fragile alpine clearings. Widespread within its montane belt, it is not considered threatened, though it depends on the persistence of intact subalpine forest.

Author: Bertol. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Rosaceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan, Focke's monograph Species Ruborum

Rosaceae

Rubus macilentus

by GP Jürgens

P.J.Müll. & Timb.-Lagr.

Bh2008 39 G69
Bhutan Dochu-La, 3000m April
Bh2008 40 G68
Bhutan Dochu-La, 3000m April

Description

Rubus macilentus is a Himalayan bramble distributed across China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan, with about 341 GBIF occurrences (a few extralimital records reflecting cultivation or misattribution). It occupies forest margins, scrub, clearings and thickets along the temperate Himalaya, generally between roughly 2000 and 3500 m. The plant photographed at Dochu-La in western Bhutan at about 3000 m in April represents its typical setting in moist montane forest and shrubbery, flowering in spring when the white blossoms appear among the arching, prickly canes.

The species is a scrambling deciduous shrub with slender, often slightly glaucous biennial canes bearing scattered recurved prickles. The leaves are pinnately or ternately compound with three to five ovate, doubly serrate leaflets that are green above and paler, often thinly tomentose, beneath, the petioles and rachis armed with small prickles. The flowers are borne singly or in few-flowered cymes, with five spreading white petals, a tomentose calyx of reflexed sepals, and numerous stamens surrounding many carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of drupelets, ripening red to dark purple-black and detaching from the dry receptacle.

Rubus is a taxonomically complex, near-cosmopolitan genus in which apomixis, polyploidy and hybridisation generate many microspecies; the Himalayan brambles, including R. macilentus, are correspondingly difficult to delimit. The fleshy aggregate fruits are dispersed by birds and mammals, and the species contributes to successional scrub on disturbed and forest-edge ground. With a wide Himalayan distribution and ready colonisation of cleared habitats it is of least concern, and like other brambles it can play a pioneering role in regenerating montane vegetation.

Author: P.J.Müll. & Timb.-Lagr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Kalkman's treatment of Rosaceae

Rosaceae

Rubus rosifolius

by GP Jürgens

Sm.

Nepal 97 334 G661
Nepal Arun-Valley 1800m May
Nepal 97 333 G660
Nepal Arun-Valley 1800m May

Description

Rubus rosifolius is a widespread, semi-scandent bramble native to Asia and now pantropically naturalised, the very large GBIF dataset of nearly fifteen thousand records spanning Australia, Brazil, Taiwan, the United States, Réunion, China, Indonesia, Madagascar, South Africa and many other territories. Within its native Himalayan range it occupies forest margins, clearings, streamsides, hedgerows and disturbed slopes in the subtropical to warm-temperate belt. The illustrated plant from the Arun valley of eastern Nepal at about 1800 m, flowering in May, reflects its mid-elevation habitat preference; elsewhere its colonising vigour has made it an aggressive invader of disturbed and montane ground.

The species is a perennial shrub with erect to arching, slender stems armed with fine, often recurved prickles and bearing a sparse glandular-pubescent indumentum. The leaves are imparipinnate, the leaflets ovate-lanceolate, sharply doubly serrate and rugose, recalling those of a rose, whence the epithet rosifolius. The flowers are usually solitary or few, comparatively large, with five spreading white petals, numerous stamens and an enlarged conical receptacle. The fruit is an ellipsoid to ovoid aggregate of numerous small drupelets, ripening bright red, edible but rather insipid.

Rubus rosifolius is an accepted species within the vast genus Rubus (Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae), a complex group renowned for apomixis, polyploidy and hybridisation. Its prickly arching canes and prolific seed make it a notable transformer weed in many tropical highlands, and a double-flowered cultivar ('Coronarius') is grown ornamentally. In its native Himalaya it is common and of least concern, valued locally as a wild edible.

Author: Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Focke Species Ruborum monograph

Sabiaceae

Sabia campanulata

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 97 268 P552
Nepal Bagong-Khola 2700m April

Description

Sabia campanulata is a climbing shrub of the Himalaya and southwestern China, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Pakistan and Japan, with around 1019 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows in temperate broad-leaved and mixed forests, thicket margins, forest edges and along ravines, scrambling over shrubs and small trees on humid montane slopes. The photographed plant from the Bagong Khola in Nepal at 2700 m in April is typical of these cool mid-montane forest habitats, where the species flowers in spring as new growth emerges along streamside woodland.

It is a deciduous woody climber or scandent shrub with slender, somewhat flexuous branches. The leaves are alternate, simple, ovate to elliptic-oblong, entire-margined, acuminate at the apex and with a thin to slightly leathery texture, the venation pinnate and prominent beneath. The flowers are small and borne solitary or in few-flowered axillary clusters; the corolla is campanulate, as the epithet indicates, with five greenish to dull purple or yellowish petals, five sepals, and five stamens opposite the petals, set on a small fleshy disc. The fruit is a flattened, reniform to obovoid drupe, paired or solitary, ripening blue to bluish-black, with a single curved seed and a reticulate endocarp.

The genus Sabia gives its name to the small family Sabiaceae, an isolated lineage of the basal eudicots (Proteales sensu lato in some treatments) with no close affinities among other Himalayan woody climbers. Sabia campanulata is distinguished within the genus by its relatively large bell-shaped flowers. Its drupaceous, bird-dispersed fruits aid seed dispersal through forest. Locally distributed but not rare across its montane range, it is not regarded as threatened, though dependent on intact temperate forest.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, A Revision of the Genus Sabia (Sabiaceae)

Salicaceae

Salix daltoniana

by GP Jürgens

Andersson

BhutanPG2011 377
Bhutan Dur Tsa-Cho 3100m, June

Description

Salix daltoniana Andersson is a Himalayan willow ranging through China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 399 GBIF occurrences. It is a riparian and montane species growing along streams, riverbanks, moist gullies and forest margins in the temperate and subalpine belts, generally between 2500 and 3800 m. It was recorded in central Bhutan at Dur Tsa-Cho near 3100 m in June, a typical streamside setting where willows form thickets along glacier-fed watercourses and contribute to bank stabilisation in the high valleys.

It is a shrub or small tree with slender, glabrous, often reddish-brown twigs. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrulate at the margin, green and glabrescent above and paler, somewhat glaucous beneath, with stipules variably developed on vigorous shoots. As in all willows the species is dioecious, the flowers arranged in erect catkins appearing with or slightly before the leaves; each tiny flower is subtended by a hairy bract and reduced to stamens or a single ovary with a nectary gland. The fruit is a small conical capsule splitting to release numerous minute seeds bearing long silky hairs for wind dispersal.

Salix is a vast, taxonomically difficult genus prone to hybridisation, and the Himalayan species including S. daltoniana have been the subject of repeated revision. Wind- and insect-pollinated and pioneering on unstable alluvium, the species plays an ecological role in colonising disturbed riverine ground and providing browse. It is not regarded as threatened, being widespread along Himalayan watercourses, though it is sensitive to changes in river hydrology and montane land use.

Author: Andersson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Salicaceae monograph (Skvortsov, Willows of the USSR and adjacent regions)

Salicaceae

Salix salwinensis

by GP Jürgens

Hand.-Mazz. ex Enander

Bhutan2014 451
Bhutan Phobjika 2810m, May

Description

Salix salwinensis is a Sino-Himalayan willow distributed from SW China (the Salween, Mekong and upper Yangtze drainages, whence the epithet) through NE India, Nepal and Bhutan, GBIF recording some 92 occurrences across the eastern Himalaya and southwestern China. It is a shrub or small tree of high-montane and subalpine habitats, growing along streamsides, in damp thickets, at forest margins and on open slopes. The photographed plant from Phobjika in Bhutan at 2,810 m (May) reflects its occurrence in the cool temperate to subalpine belt, where willows form a conspicuous component of riparian and meadow-edge vegetation.

It is a deciduous, dioecious shrub or small tree with reddish-brown to purplish, glabrous young twigs. The leaves are oblong to oblanceolate or elliptic, acute, often glaucous beneath, with finely serrate or entire margins and a short petiole, the young foliage sometimes silky. As in all willows the flowers are reduced and borne in erect catkins appearing with or before the leaves; each flower is subtended by a hairy bract and lacks a perianth, the male with two stamens and the female with a single pistil bearing a basal nectary. The fruit is a small, two-valved capsule releasing numerous comose, wind-dispersed seeds.

Salix is a large and taxonomically intricate genus in which hybridisation and clinal variation blur species boundaries; the Himalayan willows in particular require careful study of catkin and leaf characters for identification. The dioecious, catkin-bearing, anemophilous and partly entomophilous flowers, the comose seeds and the capacity for vegetative regeneration are classic adaptations of the genus to dynamic, disturbed riparian habitats. The species is not considered threatened across its montane range.

Author: Hand.-Mazz. ex Enander · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Skvortsov: Willows of Russia and Adjacent Countries

Salicaceae

Salix stomatophora

by GP Jürgens

Flod.

Bhutan2014 442
Bhutan Yatong-La 3200m, May
Bhutan2014 443
Bhutan Yatong-La 3200m, May

Description

Salix stomatophora is a Himalayan willow distributed across the high mountains of southwestern China (Xizang), Bhutan, Nepal and northern India, with GBIF recording roughly eighty occurrences from this region (records from the United States and Mexico reflect herbarium and cultivated material). It is a plant of the upper-montane to subalpine zone, occupying streamsides, moist forest margins, thickets and open slopes, generally between about 2800 and 3800 m. The individual photographed at Yatong-La in Bhutan at 3200 m, catkins emerging in May, is typical of these cool, humid Bhutan Himalayan habitats, where willows flush early in spring as snowmelt swells the mountain streams along which the species characteristically grows.

The plant is a shrub or small tree with slender, often reddish-brown to purplish young twigs that are glabrous or nearly so. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate to elliptic, acuminate, finely glandular-serrate at the margin, green above and conspicuously glaucous beneath, with prominent stomatal banding on the lower surface that gives the species its epithet (stomatophora, "bearing stomata"). As in all willows the plant is dioecious, the flowers borne in erect catkins appearing with or slightly before the leaves; each tiny flower subtended by a hairy bract, the staminate flowers with two stamens, the pistillate with a single ovary bearing a short style and notched stigmas. The fruit is a small, glabrous, two-valved capsule releasing minute, silky-tufted, wind-dispersed seeds.

Salix is a large, taxonomically difficult genus, and the Sino-Himalayan region harbours a rich assemblage of montane and alpine species whose delimitation rests heavily on leaf indumentum, stipule form and catkin and capsule characters. The pronounced glaucous, stomatiferous lower leaf surface of S. stomatophora is a key diagnostic trait. Note that this Himalayaflora page links the synonym S. bhutanensis, underscoring the nomenclatural fluidity common in the genus. Ecologically the species contributes to streambank stabilisation and provides early-season forage and pollen for emerging insects in high-altitude communities. With a wide if scattered Himalayan range it is not regarded as threatened, though localised populations depend on the integrity of subalpine riparian corridors.

Author: Flod. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1 Part 1, Flora of Nepal, Salix (Salicaceae) of the Sino-Himalaya (K.S. Hao; A.K. Skvortsov, Willows of the World)