Author

GP Jürgens

Asteraceae

Saussurea simpsoniana

by GP Jürgens

(Fielding & Gardner) Lipsch.

Garw 2005 337 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bagubas 4150m, October
Garw 2005 336 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bagubas 4150m, October

Description

Saussurea simpsoniana is a high-alpine cushion thistle of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges. GBIF documents it from Nepal, India, China, Pakistan and Bhutan, with around 260 occurrences concentrated along the main Himalayan axis. It inhabits open stony slopes, screes, glacial moraines and alpine turf, typically between 4000 and 5500 m, often in the uppermost zone where vascular plant life thins out. The collection figured here was made at Bagubas in Garhwal, northern India, at 4150 m in October, late in the alpine season when the plant persists as a dense persistent rosette.

It forms a compact, stemless or short-stemmed perennial with a thick taproot and a rosette of oblanceolate, white-woolly leaves. The capitula are aggregated into a dense terminal cluster nestled among the leaves and enveloped by long, dense, silky-white lanate hairs that form a protective woolly mass. Individual florets are tubular and purple, with bristly pappus; the involucral bracts are concealed within the wool. This dense indumentum, characteristic of the snowball saussureas, traps heat and shelters the developing achenes from intense ultraviolet radiation, desiccation and frost.

The species belongs to Saussurea subgenus Amphilaena, the woolly snowball group whose adaptations to extreme altitude have made them classic subjects of alpine ecophysiology. The woolly bracts elevate floral temperatures and attract the few high-altitude pollinators active in this environment. Widely collected for Tibetan and Ayurvedic medicine, several relatives in this group face harvesting pressure; although S. simpsoniana is not formally assessed as threatened, its restricted high-elevation habitat warrants monitoring under warming alpine climates.

Author: (Fielding & Gardner) Lipsch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, A revision of the genus Saussurea (Asteraceae: Cardueae)

Asteraceae

Saussurea stella

by GP Jürgens

Maxim.

Sikkim2003 511 G712
Sikkim Yume Samdong 4600m August

Description

Saussurea stella is a high-alpine herb distributed across the eastern Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, recorded from China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu), Bhutan and India, with some 821 georeferenced occurrences documented in GBIF. It occupies open alpine meadows, marshy turf, gravelly flushes and the margins of glacial streams, typically between 3000 and 5400 m. The plant photographed at Yume Samdong in northern Sikkim at about 4600 m in August is characteristic of the wet, peaty seepage slopes the species favours during the monsoon, where it forms part of a low cushion-and-rosette sward exposed to intense radiation, nightly frost and a brief growing season.

The species is a stemless, near-acaulescent perennial forming a flat, star-shaped rosette pressed against the substrate from a stout taproot. The numerous lanceolate to linear leaves are glabrous, entire and often suffused with purplish-red, radiating symmetrically and giving the plant its epithet stella. The capitula are sessile and densely clustered at the rosette centre, each involucre with imbricate, purple-tinged phyllaries enclosing tubular purple florets; the corollas are deeply lobed and the anthers tailed at the base. Fruit is a glabrous cylindrical achene with a double pappus of short outer and longer plumose inner bristles.

A member of the large genus Saussurea (subtribe Saussureinae, tribe Cardueae), S. stella belongs to the rosette-forming, ground-hugging guild that recurs in Tibetan alpine floras as an adaptation to cold, windy, high-irradiance environments, the flattened habit and dark pigmentation enhancing heat capture and protecting against ultraviolet stress. Pollination is by alpine flies and bees, and the plumose pappus enables wind dispersal. Though not formally assessed as threatened and locally abundant, it is sensitive to grazing and the warming-driven contraction of alpine seepage habitats.

Author: Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Lipschitz Monograph of Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea taraxacifolia

by GP Jürgens

(Lindl. ex Royle) Wall. ex DC.
Sikkim2003 431 G598
Sikkim below Dzongri 3800m, August
Sikkim2003 101 G138
Sikkim below Dzongri 3800m, August

Description

Saussurea taraxacifolia is a high-elevation composite of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, distributed through Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and southern China, with roughly 209 GBIF records. It is a plant of the alpine zone, growing on open stony slopes, screes, gravelly flats and rocky alpine turf, generally well above the treeline. The Sikkim population photographed below Dzongri at 3800 m in August documents the species in its characteristic high-mountain habitat, flowering during the brief monsoon-fed alpine summer when these rosette perennials complete their reproductive cycle.

The plant is a low, often acaulescent or short-stemmed perennial herb arising from a stout rootstock, typically with a basal rosette of leaves. As the epithet indicates, the leaves are taraxacum-like (dandelion-like): oblanceolate in outline and runcinate-pinnatifid, with backward-pointing lobes, often somewhat woolly. The capitula are discoid, solitary or aggregated into a dense terminal cluster, each enclosed by an involucre of imbricate phyllaries and containing tubular purple to purplish florets; ray florets are absent, as throughout the genus. The fruit is a cypsela crowned by a pappus of plumose inner bristles and shorter, often barbellate outer bristles, an arrangement diagnostic of Saussurea and adapted to wind dispersal.

Saussurea is a large Sino-Himalayan and central Asian genus that has radiated extensively in the high mountains, with many narrowly endemic alpine specialists. S. taraxacifolia, with its dandelion-like rosette leaves, belongs to the low cushion- and rosette-forming alpine element rather than the woolly "snowball" snow-lotus group. Its dependence on open high-elevation habitats makes it a characteristic member of the Himalayan alpine flora; it is moderately widespread and not formally assessed as threatened, though high-mountain endemics of this kind are increasingly vulnerable to warming and habitat contraction.

Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lipschitz's monograph of Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea tridactyla

by GP Jürgens

Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 363
Bhutan Jule-Tso 4250m, June
Sikkim2003 296 P415
Sikkim above Saniti-Lake 4400m August
Sikkim2003 294 P408
Sikkim above Saniti-Lake 4400m August

Description

Saussurea tridactyla Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f. is a high-alpine composite of the eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF from Nepal, China, India and Bhutan across some 234 occurrences. It belongs to the celebrated group of woolly snowball saussureas of the uppermost mountain zone, growing on open screes, moraine, rocky alpine turf and stony slopes near the snowline, generally between about 4000 and 5000 m. The plants documented at Jule-Tso in Bhutan around 4250 m in June and above Saniti-Lake in Sikkim at about 4400 m in August illustrate its occurrence at the extreme upper limit of vascular plant life, in a harsh environment of strong insolation, wind and cold.

The species forms a low, compact perennial in which the stem and crowded upper leaves and capitula are enveloped in dense, long, white or greyish woolly hairs, producing the characteristic cottony cushion that insulates the developing flowers from cold and ultraviolet radiation. The basal and lower leaves are narrow and toothed to lobed, and the heads are aggregated into a congested terminal cluster. Each capitulum is discoid, with purplish tubular florets enclosed by woolly-margined involucral bracts; the achenes are topped by a pappus of feathery and shorter outer bristles aiding wind dispersal.

Saussurea (tribe Cardueae) is a large Asian genus, and the woolly high-alpine species such as S. tridactyla represent a striking convergent adaptation to extreme altitude, the dense indumentum functioning as a glasshouse-like protection for the inflorescence. With a restricted high-elevation range, the species is naturally localised; such alpine snowball saussureas are increasingly of conservation concern owing to harvesting of related species for medicine and to climate-driven contraction of their cold habitats, making them important sentinels of Himalayan alpine change.

Author: Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Lipschitz monograph of the genus Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea uniflora

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Wall. ex Sch.Bip.

Sikkim2003 435 P605
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4000m August
Sikkim2003 436 P606
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4000m August

Description

Saussurea uniflora is a high-alpine thistle-relative of the eastern Himalaya, recorded in GBIF from Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and Japan across 156 occurrences. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, occupying moist meadows, rocky slopes, screes and seepage flushes generally between 3800 and 4800 m. The photographed individual was found in Sikkim's Chopta Valley at about 4000 m in August, when the brief post-monsoon flowering peak coincides with maximum snow-melt moisture in these exposed habitats.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb arising from a stout, often woody caudex topping a thick taproot, the stem very short or almost absent so that the plant appears acaulescent. The leaves are crowded in a basal rosette, oblanceolate to elliptic, narrowed to a winged petiole, with entire or denticulate margins and a thin floccose-arachnoid indumentum. As the epithet uniflora implies, the plant typically bears a single (or few) large terminal capitulum, the involucre of imbricate, often purple-tinged phyllaries enclosing numerous purple, tubular disc florets; there are no ray florets. The fruit is a glabrous cypsela crowned by a double pappus of outer short bristles and inner plumose hairs.

Saussurea (Asteraceae, tribe Cardueae) is a vast genus centred on the mountains of Asia, many species being cushion- or rosette-forming cold-zone specialists. The reduced stem and condensed solitary head are adaptations to the short alpine growing season and high insolation, with pollination chiefly by bumblebees and flies. Although not formally evaluated for conservation, its restricted high-elevation niche makes it potentially sensitive to upward shifts in vegetation belts driven by warming.

Author: (DC.) Wall. ex Sch.Bip. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Lipschitz Monograph of the Genus Saussurea

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga aristulata

by GP Jürgens

Hook. f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 282 P388
Sikkim Saint-Lake August

Description

Saxifraga aristulata Hook.f. & Thomson is a cushion-forming alpine saxifrage of the high Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan; the GBIF dataset of 391 occurrences reflects its frequent presence in the alpine zone of the central and eastern ranges. It grows on damp rock ledges, gravelly slopes, moist alpine turf and stream banks at high elevation, broadly between 3500 and 5000 m. The photographed plant from a high lake basin in Sikkim, flowering in August, exemplifies its late-monsoon anthesis in cool, well-drained alpine habitats among rocks and short turf, forming low mats studded with yellow flowers near the snow line.

The species is a small, mat- or cushion-forming perennial herb with slender, prostrate to ascending, leafy stems forming dense low tufts. The leaves are small, alternate to crowded, linear to oblong or narrowly oblanceolate, often ciliate-margined and tipped with a fine bristle or awn — the aristate apex giving the epithet aristulata. The flowers are solitary or few at the stem tips, with five free, spreading, obovate petals that are yellow, sometimes orange- or red-dotted toward the base; the calyx is five-lobed and the ten stamens surround a bicarpellate, partly inferior ovary with two divergent styles. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the persistent styles to release numerous small seeds.

Saxifraga aristulata belongs to the large, predominantly yellow-flowered Himalayan section Ciliatae (the Hirculus alliance), centred on the Sino-Himalaya and characterised by cushion or mat habits and ciliate, awn-tipped leaves. The complex is taxonomically intricate, with numerous closely allied high-alpine microspecies. As a widespread, tolerant alpine cushion plant it is of no conservation concern, though as a high-elevation specialist it is potentially sensitive to warming and upslope range contraction; it has occasional appeal among alpine-plant enthusiasts.

Author: Hook. f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Pan & Gornall — Saxifraga of the Sino-Himalaya

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga bergenioides

by GP Jürgens

C. Marquand

BhutanPG2011 553 1
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Dem-Tso, 4650m July

Description

Saxifraga bergenioides is a high-alpine cushion-forming herb of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from China, Bhutan and India, with 102 occurrences in GBIF reflecting its narrow range and restricted habitat. It is a plant of cold, exposed alpine terrain: rock crevices, ledges, moraine and stony turf at very high elevations, typically between 4000 and 4800 m. The collection illustrated, from the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail near Dem-Tso at 4650 m in Bhutan in July, exemplifies its occupancy of the upper alpine zone, where it flowers in midsummer on cold, well-drained rocky substrates near the limit of vascular plant growth.

The plant forms low, compact tufts or cushions arising from a branched, woody-based rootstock. The leaves are mostly basal in dense rosettes, thick and somewhat leathery, obovate to spathulate with entire or obscurely toothed margins, the firm Bergenia-like texture giving rise to the epithet. The flowering stems are short, erect and glandular-hairy, bearing few-flowered cymes; each flower has five spreading sepals and five obovate to oblong petals, white to pale yellow, around two whorls of stamens with a bicarpellate, partly inferior ovary. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the divergent styles to release numerous small seeds.

Saxifraga (Saxifragaceae) is a large genus of cold-temperate and arctic-alpine regions, with the Sino-Himalaya a major centre of diversity; S. bergenioides is placed among the leathery-leaved Himalayan saxifrages. Its compact cushion habit is a classic adaptation to wind exposure, cold and physiological drought at extreme altitude. With its limited distribution and specialised high-alpine niche, it is potentially sensitive to climate warming, although its remote habitat currently buffers it from direct human pressures.

Author: C. Marquand · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Saxifrages of the World (Monograph of the Genus Saxifraga)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga brachypoda

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Bhutan2012 70
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 246
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 497
Bhutan Pele-La, 3100m September
Bhutan2012 897
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3850m September
Bhutan2012 70
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 496
Bhutan Pele-La, 3100m September
Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga brunonis

by GP Jürgens

Ser.

Sikkim2003 222 P308
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m 08.2003
Sikkim2003 269 P371
Sikkim Dzongri 4200m August
Sikkim2003 271 P373
Sikkim Dzongri 4200m August

Description

Saxifraga brunonis is a high-alpine cushion-forming herb of the Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan ranges. GBIF records confirm its distribution through Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, with around 332 occurrences concentrated in the eastern Himalayan high mountains. It is a plant of moist rock ledges, cliff crevices, mossy banks and stable scree at the upper limits of the alpine zone, often where seepage keeps the substrate cool and damp through the growing season. The photographed material from Dzongri in Sikkim at 3900–4200 m, collected in August, is characteristic of its preferred habitat in the summer-monsoon-watered alpine belt, where it flowers at the height of the brief growing season.

It forms low, spreading mats by means of slender, reddish, filiform stolons that root at the nodes to give rise to new rosettes. The leaves are small, oblong to spathulate, entire, fleshy and ciliate-margined, crowded into dense basal rosettes. The flowering stems are short and few-flowered, bearing bright yellow flowers with five free, spreading petals, ten stamens and a half-inferior to nearly superior bicarpellate ovary. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule dehiscing to release numerous minute seeds.

Within the large and taxonomically complex genus Saxifraga, S. brunonis is placed in section Ciliatae, a predominantly Sino-Himalayan group of stoloniferous and rosette-forming alpines. Its runner-mediated clonal spread is an effective strategy for colonising unstable rock surfaces, while seed reproduction allows dispersal to fresh sites. As a strictly high-altitude endemic of the central and eastern Himalaya, the species is potentially sensitive to the upward shift of alpine vegetation belts driven by climate warming.

Author: Ser. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China (Saxifragaceae), Saxifrages of the World (Webb & Gornall)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga cordigera

by GP Jürgens

Hook. f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 287 P396 ergebnis
Sikkim Samiti-Lake 2800m, August

Description

Saxifraga cordigera is an alpine perennial endemic to the eastern Himalaya, with GBIF documenting around 89 occurrences spanning Nepal, India, Bhutan and adjacent China. It is a plant of cool, humid high-elevation environments, growing on moist rocky slopes, ledges, banks and the margins of subalpine to alpine meadows where it benefits from constant atmospheric moisture and snowmelt seepage. The plant illustrated near Samiti Lake in Sikkim at about 2800 m in August was recorded during the monsoon flowering period, when these eastern Himalayan slopes are saturated and the saxifrages reach their peak.

It is a tufted to shortly stoloniferous herb forming loose rosettes of leaves that are characteristically cordate to reniform at the base, as the epithet implies, with crenate or dentate margins, somewhat fleshy texture and slender petioles. The flowering stems are erect and glandular-hairy, bearing few-flowered cymose inflorescences. The flowers are pentamerous with five spreading petals that are yellow, frequently spotted or flushed with orange or red, ten stamens, and a bicarpellate, semi-inferior ovary. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the persistent styles to release numerous minute seeds.

The species belongs to the large and taxonomically complex genus Saxifraga, here placed in the yellow-flowered alliance traditionally referred to section Hirculus, a predominantly Sino-Himalayan radiation of moisture-loving alpine herbs. Such species are valuable indicators of intact high-altitude wetland and seepage habitats. While not formally evaluated for conservation status and locally frequent within its range, its dependence on cool, perennially moist niches makes it potentially vulnerable to warming and the desiccation of alpine seeps.

Author: Hook. f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hooker Flora of British India, Webb & Gornall A Manual of Saxifrages