Author

G & P Jürgens

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis gracilis

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim 2006 485 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 484 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ruigi-Chu 1850m, May

Description

Codonopsis gracilis is a slender twining herb distributed across the eastern Himalaya and into mainland Southeast Asia and southern China. Its range extends from Nepal, Bhutan, and northeastern India (Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya) through Myanmar and Vietnam to southern China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou). GBIF records 72 occurrences across these countries. The species grows in margins of subtropical and warm temperate broadleaved forests, thickets, hedgerows, and along streams, at elevations of 1,200–2,800 m. The photograph from Ruigi-Chu in West Bengal at 1,850 m, taken in May, shows the species at a mid-elevation site in the Sikkim-Darjeeling region during the early monsoon flowering period.
The plant is a perennial twining herb arising from a slender, fusiform or cylindrical root. Stems are slender, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, extensively twining through surrounding vegetation, reaching 1–3 m. Leaves are alternate or opposite on lower stems, ovate to broadly ovate, 2–5 cm long, with crenate to serrate margins, sparsely hairy above, paler beneath. Flowers are solitary, axillary, pendulous on slender pedicels. The calyx lobes are five, lanceolate to ovate, spreading. The corolla is broadly campanulate, 15–25 mm long, pale blue to lilac with darker purple veins and markings inside, particularly prominent reticulate venation in the throat. Stamens five, free; the ovary is semi-inferior. The fruit is a broadly conical capsule, dehiscing by apical valves.
Codonopsis gracilis is distinguished from congeners by its relatively small, delicate habit and slender roots, lacking the thick, fleshy taproots prized in traditional medicine that characterize species such as C. pilosula and C. tangshen. The genus Codonopsis comprises approximately 40 species centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, and molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed its placement within Campanulaceae sensu lato. C. gracilis is not currently considered threatened and remains locally frequent in forest margins across its wide range.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Hong & Lammers: Campanulaceae in Flora of China Vol. 19, Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2

Cornaceae

Cornus capitata

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

BhutanPG2011 45 1
Bhutan Wangdi 2500m June
Bh09 284 P467
Bhutan Paro 2300m June

Description

Cornus capitata Wall. is an evergreen dogwood of the Cornaceae native to the Himalaya and SW China, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China, and now widely cultivated and naturalised in temperate regions worldwide (Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa), accounting for its very large tally of over 4,200 georeferenced records. In its native range it grows in montane evergreen and mixed broad-leaved forest, forest margins, ravines and open hillsides, generally between about 1,000 and 3,200 m. The photographed trees from Wangdi at about 2,500 m and Paro at about 2,300 m in Bhutan, flowering in June, are typical of its mid-montane habitat in the eastern Himalaya.

It is a small to medium evergreen tree or large shrub with leathery, opposite, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate leaves that are dark green above and pale or glaucous beneath, with arcuate lateral veins. The small four-merous flowers are densely aggregated into a globose head subtended by four (to six) large, showy, creamy-white to pale-yellow petaloid bracts that function as the display structure. After flowering the entire head develops into a fleshy, strawberry-like compound fruit, a syncarp of fused drupes, ripening crimson-red and edible.

Cornus capitata belongs to the bracteate, head-flowered group of dogwoods (subgenus Syncarpea / Dendrobenthamia), in which numerous flowers and their swollen receptacles coalesce into a single fleshy aggregate fruit. The conspicuous bracts attract pollinators, while the sweet syncarp is dispersed by birds and mammals. Widely grown as an ornamental for its bracts and fruit, the species is common and widespread and of no conservation concern, though it has become locally invasive in parts of its introduced range.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Xiang et al.: Phylogeny and classification of Cornus (2006)

Apiaceae

Cortia depressa

by G & P Jürgens

(D.Don) C.Norman

Nepal 99 273 ergebnis
West-Nepal Loccu 3800m, June

Description

Cortia depressa is a cushion-forming alpine umbellifer distributed from Nepal through Sikkim, Bhutan, and northeast India into upper Myanmar and southwestern China (Yunnan, Xizang). GBIF records 284 occurrences, indicating a moderately well-collected species. It is characteristic of high-altitude open habitats including alpine meadows, rocky screes, dry turf, and exposed ridgetops at elevations of 3,200–4,800 m. The species is well adapted to the extreme conditions of the alpine zone, where it tolerates intense solar radiation, frost, and wind exposure by maintaining an extremely compact growth form pressed close to the substrate.
Cortia depressa is a dwarf, depressed-caespitose, perennial herb arising from a stout, woody taproot. The entire plant is typically only 2–5 cm tall, forming dense rosettes or low mats. Leaves are pinnately or bipinnately dissected into small, crowded, linear segments, 1–3 cm long, with sheathing petiolar bases that are often purple-tinged and somewhat scarious. The inflorescence is a simple or compound umbel, sessile or on very short peduncles barely exceeding the foliage. Umbellules are compact, with minute, white to pinkish flowers, 1–2 mm across, each with five petals and five stamens. The involucral and involucellar bracts are conspicuous relative to the diminutive plant. The fruit is a compressed, ellipsoid cremocarp, 3–5 mm long, with prominent dorsal ridges and well-developed vittae.
The photographed specimen from Loccu in western Nepal at 3,800 m in June documents an early-monsoon flowering occurrence, consistent with the brief alpine growing season. Cortia is a small genus of five to eight species endemic to the Sino-Himalayan region, and C. depressa is the most widespread member. It is distinguished from the related C. lindleyi by its more strongly depressed habit and sessile to subsessile umbels. The species exemplifies morphological adaptations to alpine environments — dwarfism, dense pubescence, and compact rosette architecture — that minimize heat and water loss. It serves as an indicator species for well-preserved alpine turf communities across the Himalayas.

Author: (D.Don) C.Norman · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Nepal Checklist, Pimenov & Leonov: The Genera of Umbelliferae (1993)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis cashmeriana

by G & P Jürgens

Royle

Nepal 99 132 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June
Garh 07 117 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3400m, June

Description

Corydalis cashmeriana is a celebrated blue-flowered alpine herb of the western and central Himalaya. GBIF records place it in Nepal, India, Bhutan and China, with around 130 occurrences reflecting its distribution through the high mountains from Kashmir eastward. It grows on moist alpine meadows, turfy slopes, the margins of melting snowbeds and damp rocky ground, generally between roughly 3000 and 4500 m, where cool, well-watered summer conditions prevail. The photographed plants from south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3800 m and from Meggu Kichatti in Garhwal, India, at 3400 m, both flowering in June, illustrate its early-summer blooming in the subalpine to alpine belt as the snow retreats.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb arising from small, clustered tubers, producing a few erect, leafy stems. The leaves are mostly basal and long-petiolate, the blades much-divided and glaucous, the ultimate segments small and obovate. The inflorescence is a short terminal raceme of few flowers; each flower is strongly zygomorphic, with four petals of which the outer upper one is prolonged backwards into a slender, gently curved spur, the whole of an intense sky-blue to deep azure. The fruit is a narrow, elongate capsule dehiscing to release shining black seeds bearing an elaiosome.

Corydalis is a very large genus of the Fumarioideae, here treated within the Papaveraceae, with its greatest diversity in the Sino-Himalayan region. The intensely blue-flowered alpine species, of which C. cashmeriana is the type of much horticultural interest, are notoriously challenging in cultivation. The seed elaiosome promotes dispersal by ants, while the spurred flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bumblebees probing for nectar held in the spur.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China (Papaveraceae, Fumarioideae), The Genus Corydalis (Lidén & Zetterlund)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis casimiriana 

by G & P Jürgens

Duthie & Prain ex Prain

Garw 2005 174 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Shertoli 3100m, September

Description

Corydalis casimiriana is a Himalayan herb distributed across the western and central ranges, recorded from India, Nepal, Pakistan, southern China and Bhutan (gbif_countries: IN, NP, PK, CN, BT), with some 192 GBIF occurrences. It occupies moist temperate to subalpine habitats, including shaded forest floors, mossy banks, boulder slopes and the margins of streams, where cool, humid conditions persist through the growing season. The illustrated collection comes from Shertoli in Garhwal, India, at about 3100 m in September, capturing the species in late-season flower as the monsoon recedes from the western Himalayan hills.

The plant is a slender, often glaucous annual or short-lived herb arising from a fine root system, with erect to ascending, somewhat brittle stems. The leaves are alternate and two- to three-times pinnately or ternately divided into small, narrow to obovate segments, giving a delicate, ferny aspect. The flowers are borne in terminal racemes and are markedly zygomorphic, each with four petals of which the upper bears a backward-projecting spur; the corolla is typically blue to purplish, sometimes paler. The fruit is a slender, dehiscent capsule splitting to release small, shining seeds often bearing an elaiosome that promotes ant dispersal.

Corydalis is one of the largest genera in the fumitory alliance of Papaveraceae, exceptionally diverse in the Sino-Himalaya, and C. casimiriana belongs to its assemblage of slender, blue-flowered montane herbs. The genus is taxonomically complex, with many narrowly defined species, and accurate determination relies on flower and fruit detail. Widespread across the western and central Himalaya, the species is of no particular conservation concern.

Author: Duthie & Prain ex Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lidén & Zetterlund monograph of Corydalis

Papaveraceae

Corydalis cornuta

by G & P Jürgens

Royle

Nepal 2009 86 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Bolgoau 2000, May

Description

Corydalis cornuta is a Himalayan fumitory whose reliable distribution lies along the temperate ranges of Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and adjacent China; GBIF returns 273 occurrences, though several listed countries reflect database artefacts rather than genuine native populations. It grows in moist shaded sites, on damp banks, forest floors, ledges and cultivated terrace margins in the temperate belt, broadly between about 1800 and 3000 m. The illustrated plant was recorded in Nepal, in Helambu near Bolgoau, at around 2000 m in May, a typical mid-montane spring station where the slender annual completes its cycle before the monsoon.

The plant is a delicate, glabrous annual herb with brittle, often branched stems arising from a slender root. Leaves are alternate and two- to three-pinnately dissected into small obovate to cuneate ultimate segments, the foliage glaucous and somewhat fern-like. The flowers are borne in short, leaf-opposed or terminal racemes; each is strongly zygomorphic and yellow, with four petals in two whorls, the outer upper petal prolonged backwards into a slender nectar spur and the inner pair connate over the stigma. There are two stamens, each split into three (diadelphous), and a superior ovary that ripens into a narrow, linear, dehiscent capsule shedding shining black seeds.

Corydalis is treated here within an expanded Papaveraceae (incorporating the former Fumariaceae), consistent with the input family. POWO and GBIF accept the name. The genus is enormously diverse in the Himalaya and Tibet, and the spurred yellow-flowered annuals such as this form a distinctive ecological group of the moist temperate forest floor.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of China, The Genus Corydalis (Papaveraceae/Fumariaceae monograph)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis elegans 

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson

Nepal 99 483 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3700m, June

Description

Corydalis elegans is a slender alpine herb of the western Himalaya, known principally from India and Nepal, where its 22 documented occurrences reflect a restricted and rather local distribution. It is a plant of high-elevation habitats, growing on moist open slopes, among rocks, in damp shrubberies and along the margins of forest in the subalpine and alpine zones, where it flowers in the early summer after snowmelt. In west Nepal it ascends to considerable altitude, as shown by the collection along the Churta Khola at about 3700 m in June, a site typical of its cool, well-watered montane preference.

The plant is a glabrous, somewhat glaucous annual or short-lived herb with slender erect to ascending stems arising from a fine root system. The leaves are alternate, two- to three-pinnately dissected into small, narrow, oblong to obovate ultimate segments, giving a delicate, finely cut appearance. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme of few-to-several zygomorphic flowers; each flower is yellow, the outer of the four petals prolonged backward into a slender curved spur, the inner petals connivent over the stamens, which are united into two bundles of three. The fruit is a slender dehiscent capsule containing several small black seeds, typically bearing an elaiosome.

Corydalis, treated within Papaveraceae (sometimes segregated as Fumariaceae), is one of the largest genera of the Himalaya, with a great proliferation of species across the alpine belt. The spurred, nectariferous flowers are adapted to pollination by long-tongued bees, while the elaiosome-bearing seeds are dispersed by ants. As a narrowly distributed western Himalayan endemic known from few collections, C. elegans warrants attention as a potentially range-restricted species, its conservation tied to the stability of high-altitude habitats sensitive to grazing and climatic change.

Author: Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China Vol. 7, Lidén & Zetterlund monograph Corydalis (A Gardener's Guide)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis filicina

by G & P Jürgens

Prain

Nepal 99 889 ergebnis
Nepal Murwa 3360m, July

Description

Corydalis filicina is a Sino-Himalayan herb distributed across the central and eastern Himalaya, with verified occurrences in Nepal, Bhutan and south-western China (Xizang and adjacent provinces). Though comparatively few collections are catalogued (some 14 georeferenced occurrences), the species occupies a well-defined montane to subalpine belt. It favours cool, humid microhabitats — shaded ravines, mossy banks beneath shrubberies, conifer and Rhododendron forest margins, and damp rock crevices — typically between about 3,000 and 4,300 m. The plant photographed at Murwa, Nepal, at 3,360 m in July, illustrates its flowering during the monsoon season, when meltwater and rainfall sustain the moist soils it requires.

It is a slender, glabrous, often glaucous annual or short-lived perennial arising from a fibrous root system. The stems are erect to ascending, branched and rather weak. The leaves are notably finely dissected, two- to three-pinnate or pinnatisect into narrow, fern-like ultimate segments, a feature reflected in the epithet "filicina" (fern-like). The flowers are borne in lax terminal or leaf-opposed racemes; each zygomorphic flower is yellow, with the outer pair of the four petals forming a spur at the base and a galeate upper lip, in the characteristic Corydalis structure. The fruit is a slender dehiscent capsule containing small shining black seeds, generally bearing an elaiosome.

Corydalis (subfamily Fumarioideae) is among the largest Himalayan genera, with intense diversification on the Tibetan Plateau and its margins. The fern-leaved species form a taxonomically intricate group requiring careful comparison of leaf division, raceme arrangement and capsule shape. No targeted conservation assessment exists; like many narrow-ranging Himalayan herbs it is potentially vulnerable to habitat disturbance and climate-driven upward shifts of subalpine vegetation.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Lidén & Zetterlund: Corydalis – A Gardener's Guide (1997)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis govaniana

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 99 267 ergebnis
West-Nepal Loccu 3500m, June
Garw 2005 340 ergebnis
India Garhwal Baganathi 4150m, September

Description

Corydalis govaniana is a western and central Himalayan fumitory recorded from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan among its roughly 204 occurrences, a distribution centred on the moist temperate and subalpine zones of the inner Himalayan ranges. It grows on shaded forest floors, among rocks, along stream banks and in alpine meadows and scrub where soils are humus-rich and reliably moist. The cited stations span a useful altitudinal range, from Loccu in West Nepal at about 3500 m flowering in June to Baganathi in Garhwal, India, at around 4150 m flowering in September, illustrating its occupancy of the temperate-to-alpine belt and a flowering season that tracks the monsoon up the slope.

It is a perennial herb arising from a fleshy tuberous or stout fibrous rootstock, with erect to ascending, somewhat glaucous stems. The leaves are alternate and several times pinnately or ternately divided into small, often glaucous, ultimate segments, giving a delicate, ferny aspect. The flowers are borne in terminal racemes and are strongly zygomorphic, each with four petals in two dissimilar whorls; the outer upper petal is prolonged backward into a slender nectar spur, and the colour is yellow, the inner petals often tipped darker. The diandrous androecium has the stamens in two bundles typical of the genus, and the fruit is a slender, dehiscent capsule splitting to release seeds that commonly bear an oil-rich elaiosome.

Corydalis, now placed in Papaveraceae (subfamily Fumarioideae, the segregate Fumariaceae of older treatments), reaches great diversity in the Himalaya and western China, where yellow-flowered species like C. govaniana, an old Wallich name, form a recognisable group distinguished by spur length, bract dissection and tuber form. The elaiosome-bearing seeds are dispersed by ants, a syndrome widespread in the genus. Widely distributed through the western Himalaya and frequent in suitable montane habitat, the species is of no particular conservation concern, though several Himalayan Corydalis are gathered for traditional medicine.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flowers of the Himalaya, Lidén and Zetterlund's monograph of Corydalis

Papaveraceae

Corydalis hookeri

by G & P Jürgens

Prain

Nepal 99 291 ergebnis
Nepal Kalomura 4050m, June

Description

Corydalis hookeri is a high-alpine herb of the central and eastern Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan and the adjacent Chinese provinces of the Tibetan plateau and Yunnan. GBIF aggregates roughly 111 georeferenced occurrences, a modest figure reflecting both its restricted alpine niche and the difficulty of access to its terrain. It occupies open stony slopes, moist screes, moraine debris and the margins of melting snow-beds, typically between 3500 and 4800 m. The photographed plant from Kalomura in Nepal at about 4050 m in June illustrates its characteristic flowering season, coinciding with the brief window following snowmelt when the short alpine summer permits rapid growth and anthesis on freshly exposed gravels.

The species is a small, glabrous, somewhat glaucous perennial arising from a slender tuberous or fibrous rootstock. The stems are weak, often decumbent to ascending and few-branched. Leaves are mostly basal and long-petiolate, the blades two- to three-ternately or pinnately dissected into narrow oblong to linear ultimate segments, imparting a delicate, finely divided aspect. The inflorescence is a lax few-flowered raceme subtended by entire or lobed bracts. Each zygomorphic flower bears four petals, the upper one prolonged backwards into a slender curved spur; the corolla is blue to purplish-blue, frequently with darker tips, an adaptation favouring bumblebee pollination at altitude. The fruit is a slender dehiscent capsule containing several small black shining seeds, often bearing an elaiosome.

Taxonomically the genus Corydalis is exceptionally species-rich in the Sino-Himalayan region, the principal centre of its global diversity, and C. hookeri belongs to one of the alpine blue-flowered assemblages whose delimitation has long challenged monographers. Its seeds are typically myrmecochorous, dispersed by ants attracted to the oily appendage, while the alkaloid-rich tissues characteristic of the genus deter herbivory. No specific conservation threat is documented and the plant appears locally frequent within suitable habitat, though high-altitude endemics of this kind remain potentially sensitive to glacial retreat and warming-driven upward shifts of the alpine zone.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Lidén & Zetterlund Corydalis: A Gardener's Guide and a Monograph of the Tuberous Species