Author

GP Jürgens

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga subsessiliflora

by GP Jürgens

Engl. & Irmsch.

BhutanPG2011 641
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4500m June
Nepal 99 629 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4900m, July

Description

Saxifraga subsessiliflora is a high-alpine cushion saxifrage distributed across the Himalaya and the mountains of south-western China, with records from Bhutan, Nepal, northern India and China; herbarium material is also held in European collections such as Germany. The roughly 29 georeferenced gatherings place it firmly in the upper alpine to subnival zone. The collections cited in the image caption, from the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at Warrtlang-La in Bhutan at 4500 m in June and from Kagmara-La in West Nepal at 4900 m in July, are characteristic, the species favouring rock crevices, stony moraine, scree and gritty alpine turf at roughly 4000-5300 m.

It forms low compact tufts or loose mats of densely leafy shoots. The leaves are small, oblong to spathulate, often somewhat fleshy and frequently lime-encrusted through hydathodes at the margins, the older leaves persisting as marcescent remains around the stem base. The flowering stems are short and few-flowered, so that the flowers appear almost sessile among the leaves, as the epithet subsessiliflora indicates. Each flower has five free, ovate, usually pale yellow to cream petals, ten stamens and a semi-inferior ovary of two carpels, the fruit a small bilocular capsule opening between the divergent styles to shed numerous minute seeds.

The species belongs to the large and taxonomically intricate genus Saxifraga, which is exceptionally diversified in the Sino-Himalayan alpine flora, and falls among the encrusted, lime-secreting alpine sections allied to section Porphyrion. Its cushion habit, reduced inflorescence and lime-encrusted leaves are convergent adaptations to cold, wind-exposed, high-radiation subnival environments. Pollination is by generalist alpine flies and small bees during the brief monsoon window. No formal conservation assessment exists, but its narrow high-elevation niche makes it sensitive to alpine warming and habitat loss at the upper limits of plant life.

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

Theaceae

Schima wallichii

by GP Jürgens

()DC.) Choisy

Bhutan2014 769
Bhutan Wangdi Punaka 1400m, May
Bhutan2014 769
Bhutan Wangdi Punaka 1400m, May
Nepal 1994 322 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Chainpur 1300m May 

Description

Schima wallichii is a large evergreen tree distributed across the eastern Himalaya and Southeast Asia, with GBIF records from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Bhutan, the Philippines, Cambodia and Bangladesh among others, totalling around 3706 occurrences. It is a dominant or co-dominant canopy element of subtropical and lower montane broadleaved forest, frequently a pioneer that colonises forest gaps, secondary woodland and abandoned cultivation on humid hill slopes. The trees photographed at Wangdi-Punakha in Bhutan at about 1400 m and at Chainpur in eastern Nepal at about 1300 m, both in May, illustrate its prevalence in the warm subtropical mid-hill forests of the southern Himalayan front, where it often forms extensive stands with oaks and laurels.

It is an evergreen tree with grey, longitudinally fissured bark and reddish young shoots. The leaves are alternate, coriaceous, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, entire or obscurely serrate, glabrous and glossy above and somewhat paler beneath. The flowers are solitary or few in the upper leaf axils, large and showy, with five white petals surrounding a dense central mass of numerous yellow stamens, the whole subtended by silky sepals and bracteoles and emitting a sweet fragrance. The fruit is a woody, globose, loculicidal capsule that splits into valves to release flattened, broadly winged seeds adapted to wind dispersal.

A member of the tea family (Theaceae), Schima wallichii is an ecologically important successional and timber species, its hard wood widely used in construction, while the bark and other tissues contain irritant saponins. Its winged seeds and gap-colonising habit make it an effective coloniser of disturbed montane forest, contributing to forest regeneration and watershed protection. Broadly distributed and often abundant, the species is not of conservation concern; rather it is silviculturally valued and frequently retained or planted in mixed broadleaved forestry across its range.

Author: ()DC.) Choisy · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 12, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Bloembergen A Critical Study in the Complex-Polymorphous Genus Schima (Theaceae)

Schisandraceae

Schisandra grandiflora

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2011 189
Sikkim Lachung 2800m, June
Bh09 249 G417
Bhutan Pele-La, 3100m June
Sikkim 2006 7 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Maneybhajang 2000m, May

Description

Schisandra grandiflora (Wall.) Hook.f. & Thomson is a deciduous, woody climber of the eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. It is a plant of cool, humid temperate forest, growing in mixed broad-leaved and conifer woodland, along forest margins and ravines, where it scrambles over shrubs and into the canopy, generally between about 2,000 and 3,500 m. The cited collections span Lachung in Sikkim at 2,800 m and Pele-La in Bhutan at 3,100 m in June, and Maneybhajang in West Bengal at 2,000 m in May, illustrating its broad occurrence across the moist temperate forest belt of the eastern Himalayan arc.

The plant is a glabrous, twining liana with slender woody stems and alternate, simple leaves that are elliptic to obovate, with serrulate margins and an acuminate apex, borne on reddish petioles. As in all Schisandraceae the flowers are unisexual, the species being dioecious or monoecious; they are solitary and pendulous on slender pedicels, comparatively large for the genus (hence grandiflora), with several white to creamy or pink-tinged perianth segments not differentiated into sepals and petals. The numerous free carpels of the female flower, borne on an elongating receptacle, ripen into a pendent, spike-like aggregate of red, fleshy berries.

Schisandraceae, together with the related Illiciaceae, occupy a basal position among the angiosperms in the order Austrobaileyales, making the family of major significance in studies of early flowering-plant evolution. Several Schisandra species, notably S. chinensis, are renowned medicinal plants, and the aromatic fruits of S. grandiflora are likewise used locally. Its disjunct Sino-Himalayan distribution reflects the ancient, relictual biogeography characteristic of this lineage.

Author: (Wall.) Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Saunders: Monograph of Schisandra (Systematic Botany Monographs)

Schoepfiaceae

Schoepfia fragrans

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2015 296
Bhutan Zhemgang 910, October

Description

Schoepfia fragrans is a small tree or shrub of subtropical and tropical Asia, distributed across SW China, NE India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and continental Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea), with GBIF recording some 464 occurrences. It grows in evergreen and semi-evergreen broadleaved forest and forest margins at low to moderate elevations. The photographed plant from Zhemgang in south-central Bhutan at 910 m (October) typifies its occurrence in the warm subtropical hill forest of the southern Himalayan foothills.

It is an evergreen shrub or small tree with alternate, simple, entire, leathery ovate to lanceolate leaves that are acuminate and glabrous, with the lateral veins faint or obscure. The flowers are small, fragrant as the epithet records, and borne in short axillary spikes or racemes; the perianth is a tubular, funnel-shaped corolla with short recurved lobes, the stamens adnate to the corolla tube, and the ovary partly inferior, sunk in a fleshy disc. The fruit is a small ellipsoid drupe crowned by the persistent perianth remains and partly enclosed by the accrescent calyx.

Schoepfia was long placed in Olacaceae but is now segregated, with its relatives, into the family Schoepfiaceae (as given here) within the sandalwood order Santalales, a placement supported by molecular phylogenetics. Members of the order are characteristically hemiparasitic, and Schoepfia is understood to be a root hemiparasite drawing on neighbouring woody hosts while remaining photosynthetic. As a widespread forest species it is not of conservation concern, though it depends on the persistence of intact subtropical broadleaved forest.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Nickrent: Santalales (Schoepfiaceae) phylogeny and classification

Schoepfiaceae

Schoepfia griffithii

by GP Jürgens

Tiegh. ex Steenis

Bh2008 527 P803
Bhutan Limbukha 1400m, May
Bh2008 528 P804
Bhutan Limbukha 1400m, May

Description

Schoepfia griffithii is a small tree or shrub of the family Schoepfiaceae, a hemiparasitic member of the sandalwood order Santalales. Its GBIF records are confined to Bhutan, India, China and Myanmar, indicating a restricted eastern Himalayan to northern Indochinese distribution. It occurs in subtropical and warm-temperate broad-leaved forest, on hill slopes, ridges and forest margins, typically between about 1,000 and 1,800 m. The collection illustrated from Limbukha in western Bhutan at around 1,400 m in May is representative of this mid-elevation evergreen forest, where the plant flowers in spring.

The species is a slender, much-branched shrub or small tree with smooth bark and glabrous twigs. The leaves are alternate, simple and entire, ovate to elliptic, leathery and shortly petiolate, with a somewhat acuminate apex. The flowers are small and borne in short axillary racemes or fascicles; the corolla is tubular to campanulate, usually creamy to greenish-yellow, with a small number of lobes and stamens inserted opposite the lobes, set on a partly inferior ovary surrounded by a small disk. The fruit is a small ovoid drupe-like structure enclosed by the persistent, accrescent perianth and receptacle, ripening to a coloured fleshy body attractive to birds.

As a root hemiparasite Schoepfia attaches to the roots of neighbouring trees through haustoria while remaining photosynthetic, a habit shared across the Santalales. The segregation of Schoepfiaceae from the older broadly circumscribed Olacaceae follows molecular phylogenetic studies that resolved the order into more natural families. With a narrow range and a habitat under pressure from forest clearance, S. griffithii is of biogeographic interest as a relatively poorly known component of the eastern Himalayan parasitic flora.

Author: Tiegh. ex Steenis · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Nickrent: Phylogeny of Santalales, Flora of Bhutan supplementary checklist

Loranthaceae

Scurrula elata

by GP Jürgens

Danser

Bhutan2012 994
Bhutan Trithangebe 1000m, October
Bhutan2012 995
Bhutan Trithangebe 1000m, October
Nepal 97 307 P610
Nepal Honggaon 2360m May
Nepal 97 308 P611
Nepal Honggaon 2360m May

Description

Scurrula elata is a hemiparasitic mistletoe of the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, China, Bhutan and India, with around 200 occurrences in GBIF. As an obligate stem parasite it occurs wherever suitable woody host trees grow in subtropical to warm temperate broad-leaved forest, hill forest and forest edges, drawing water and minerals from its host through a haustorial connection while photosynthesising in its own leaves. Its altitudinal spread is shown by the cited material from Trithangebe in Bhutan at 1000 m, in flower in October, and from Honggaon in Nepal at 2360 m in May, indicating a range across the lower and mid montane forest belt where host diversity is high.

The plant forms a pendent to spreading parasitic shrublet attached to host branches by a swollen haustorial union. The young stems and foliage are clothed in a brownish to rusty stellate or dendritic tomentum. The leaves are opposite or subopposite, ovate to elliptic, entire and shortly petiolate. The flowers are arranged in short axillary racemes and are characteristically zygomorphic, with a slender, curved, tubular corolla that splits along one side as it opens, ranging from greenish to reddish in colour; the calyx is borne on an elongate, club-shaped receptacle. The fruit is a small, club-shaped (turbinate) berry, narrowed below, containing a single viscin-coated seed adapted for bird dispersal and adhesion to new host branches.

Scurrula is a genus of the showy mistletoe family Loranthaceae, distinguished within the family by its pear- or club-shaped fruit and curved, one-sided corolla, and centred on tropical and subtropical Asia. As with other loranths, its flowers are typically pollinated by birds, and its seeds are spread by frugivorous birds such as flowerpeckers that wipe the sticky seeds onto branches. Heavy infestation can damage host trees, but the species is a natural component of Himalayan forest canopies, is widespread within its range and is not considered threatened.

Author: Danser · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, The Loranthaceae of the Indomalayan Region (Danser)

Loranthaceae

Scurrula pulverulenta

by GP Jürgens

G. Don

Bhutan2012 1241
Bhutan Tashigang 1900m, October
Bhutan2012 1242
Bhutan Trashigang 1900m, October

Description

Scurrula pulverulenta G.Don is a hemiparasitic mistletoe of the Loranthaceae distributed through the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burmese region. GBIF (about 126 occurrences) records it from India, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Thailand and Bangladesh, where it grows as a branch parasite on a range of woody hosts in broad-leaved and subtropical hill forest. It occurs chiefly in warm-temperate to subtropical montane zones; the collections from Tashigang (Trashigang) in eastern Bhutan at 1,900 m, flowering in October, illustrate its autumn anthesis in mid-elevation forest where it depends on suitable phorophytes for establishment.

The plant is a much-branched aerial shrublet attached to its host by a haustorial union, drawing water and minerals while photosynthesising in its own leaves. Young branches, leaves and inflorescences are densely covered with a rusty or greyish stellate-mealy indumentum, the source of the epithet "pulverulenta" (powdery). Leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, leathery and short-petiolate. The flowers are borne in short axillary racemes; the corolla is tubular and curved, four-lobed and typically reddish to orange, characteristic of bird-pollinated Loranthaceae. The fruit is the distinctive Scurrula "club-shaped" (pyriform, narrowed to the base) berry, with viscid pulp.

The genus Scurrula is defined within the Loranthaceae by its club-shaped fruit and the curved, often tetramerous corolla, and is closely allied to Taxillus and Dendrophthoe. Its sticky, viscin-coated seeds are dispersed by frugivorous birds (notably flowerpeckers), which wipe them onto host branches, completing an obligate host-parasite-disperser interaction. As a branch parasite, Scurrula pulverulenta is ecologically significant in Himalayan forest dynamics and is of interest in studies of mistletoe host specificity and pollination.

Author: G. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of China Vol. 5, GBIF, Barlow: Loranthaceae of Asia and Malesia

Crassulaceae

Sedum amabile

by GP Jürgens

H. Ohba

BhutanPG2011 470
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4450m June

Description

Sedum amabile is a high-alpine succulent of the Eastern Himalaya, recorded principally from Bhutan and the adjacent mountains of Sikkim and southern Tibet (China). GBIF currently holds no georeferenced occurrences and no associated country list for this name, reflecting both its rarity and the unsettled status discussed below. It is a plant of the high alpine zone above about 4000 m, growing among rocks, on stony slopes, moraine and in crevices, as documented along the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at Warrtlang-La in Bhutan at 4450 m. Like other high-elevation stonecrops it is adapted to a short, cool growing season, flowering in early summer (June) shortly after snowmelt.

It is a small, glabrous, succulent perennial herb forming low tufts from a short rootstock, with fleshy stems bearing crowded, fleshy leaves that are entire, sessile and oblong to obovate. The flowers are borne in a compact, terminal, cymose to corymbose inflorescence; they are typically 5-merous, with free or nearly free petals that in this species are an attractive bright reddish-pink (the epithet "amabile" meaning lovely or pleasing), and twice as many stamens as petals. The carpels are erect and free, maturing into a star-like cluster of small follicles that split along the ventral suture to release numerous minute seeds.

Though catalogued under the genus Sedum, GBIF treats this name as a synonym, with the accepted name given as Sedum amabile; the basionym by H. Ohba and the WordPress link (referencing Rhodiola amabilis) indicate the long-standing taxonomic movement of high-Himalayan succulents between Sedum and the segregate genus Rhodiola, distinguished chiefly by the latter's perennial scaly caudex and frequently dioecious flowers. Such nomenclatural instability is typical of the Sino-Himalayan Crassulaceae. Given its very restricted, high-altitude range and the paucity of records, the species is potentially of conservation concern, although it has not been formally assessed.

Author: H. Ohba · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Ohba's monograph of Himalayan Crassulaceae (Sedum and Rhodiola)

Crassulaceae

Sedum multicaule

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Lindl.

Sikkim2003 385 P543 ergebnis
Sikkim Talim (Zemu-valley) 3280m, August

Description

Sedum multicaule is a widespread Himalayan stonecrop ranging from Pakistan eastwards through India, Nepal, Bhutan and into China and Myanmar, and is well collected with around 618 GBIF records. A succulent of rocky habitats, it colonises moist cliffs, boulders, mossy banks, walls and stony slopes, often growing as a lithophyte in the spray of streams across the temperate to subalpine belt, broadly between about 2000 and 4000 m. The documented gathering from Talim in the Zemu valley of Sikkim at 3280 m in August reflects its preference for damp rock faces during the summer growing season.

It is a perennial, somewhat tufted herb with numerous slender, often reddish stems, as the epithet "multicaule" implies, that are decumbent at the base then ascending. The fleshy leaves are alternate, linear to oblong and terete or semi-terete, frequently spurred at the base and crowded along the stems. The inflorescence is a terminal cyme of several branches bearing many small, sessile, star-shaped flowers; these are typically five-merous with narrow, acute yellow petals, ten stamens and free or shortly united carpels. The fruit comprises spreading, many-seeded follicles.

Sedum in the broad sense belongs to the Crassulaceae and exhibits the CAM photosynthesis and water-storing succulence that suit it to seasonally dry, exposed rock surfaces. The Himalayan members form a taxonomically complex assemblage, several segregated by modern authors into related genera. Of no conservation concern given its abundance and broad altitudinal and geographic range, S. multicaule is a characteristic and resilient element of montane rock-crevice vegetation.

Author: Wall. ex Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Crassulaceae monograph (Ohba / 't Hart)

Crassulaceae

Sedum oreades

by GP Jürgens

(Decne.) Raym.-Hamet

Bhutan2012 46
Bhutan Shele-La, 3900m September
Bhutan2012 48
Bhutan Shele-La, 3900m September

Description

Sedum oreades is a small succulent perennial of the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, recorded by GBIF in some 368 occurrences from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan. It is a plant of high alpine habitats, colonising rock crevices, stony slopes, screes, moraine and gravelly turf, broadly between 3500 and 5000 m. The illustrated plant was photographed in Bhutan at the Shele-La at 3900 m in September, persisting and fruiting late in the season, its drought- and cold-tolerant succulence well suited to the thin, freely draining, sun-exposed substrates of the upper alpine zone.

The plant forms low tufts or cushions from a branched, often woody rootstock bearing crowded leafy shoots. The leaves are small, fleshy and succulent, linear-oblong to terete and densely imbricate along the stems, frequently flushed red in exposed sites. The flowers are borne in a compact terminal cyme; they are typically five-merous with lanceolate, free or basally connate petals that are yellow, sometimes tinged red, surrounding the stamens and the cluster of carpels. The fruit consists of erect to slightly spreading follicles that split along the inner suture to release numerous minute seeds.

Sedum (Crassulaceae) is a large, taxonomically complex genus, and many Himalayan-Tibetan species formerly placed here have been transferred to segregate genera such as Rhodiola and Phedimus on the basis of habit and floral structure; S. oreades is a member of the high-altitude alpine assemblage. GBIF treats the name as accepted. Employing crassulacean acid metabolism and a cushion habit, it is a hardy pioneer of harsh, exposed ground and is locally common, with no recognised conservation concern.

Author: (Decne.) Raym.-Hamet · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Ohba studies of Himalayan Crassulaceae