Author

G & P Jürgens

Amaryllidaceae

Allium humile

by G & P Jürgens

Kunth

Garh 07 131 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3450m, June
Garh 07 428 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3450m, June

Description

Allium humile is a small alpine bulbous perennial of the Amaryllidaceae (subfamily Allioideae), distributed through the Himalaya and adjoining Central Asian ranges. GBIF records (over 200 occurrences) indicate a native range across India, Pakistan and China, with further cultivated or vouchered material elsewhere. It is a plant of open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, screes and moist pastures, frequently in areas flushed by snowmelt, typically between about 3,000 and 4,500 m. The collection from Kinkhola in Garhwal at 3,450 m in June captures its flowering in early summer following the retreat of snow on high-altitude grassland.

The plant grows from a small ovoid bulb clothed in membranous tunics. The leaves are basal, few, narrowly linear and flat to channelled, shorter than or about equalling the short scape. The scape is leafless and bears a compact, more or less hemispherical to globose umbel of relatively few flowers, subtended in bud by a membranous spathe. The flowers are stellate to campanulate, white to pale pinkish, the six tepals with a darker midvein; the six stamens are shorter than or about equalling the perianth. The fruit is a small, three-valved loculicidal capsule containing black seeds.

Allium, the largest genus of the Amaryllidaceae, is characterised by its onion-scented herbage, umbellate inflorescence enclosed in a spathe and trimerous flowers. The dwarf, low-growing habit indicated by the epithet humile is an adaptation to the wind-exposed, short-season alpine environment. As a component of high-altitude grassland and snow-flush communities, the species is sensitive to overgrazing and trampling, though its broad montane distribution affords it overall security.

Author: Kunth · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China Vol. 24, GBIF, Stearn: The Genus Allium in the Himalaya

Vitaceae

Ampelocissus rugosa 

by G & P Jürgens

Planch.

Garw 2005 268 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kunol 2400m, September

Description

Ampelocissus rugosa is a tendril-climbing vine of the Himalaya and adjacent south-east Asia, recorded from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Vietnam. Its roughly 95 georeferenced collections, the fewest in this group, indicate a relatively restricted and under-collected distribution along the subtropical-to-warm-temperate forest belt of the Himalayan foothills. It grows in forest margins, thickets, ravines and along streams, scrambling over shrubs and trees. The photographed plant from Garhwal at Kunol at 2400 m in September represents the upper part of its altitudinal range and its late-monsoon fruiting period, when the vine bears its grape-like infructescences.

It is a robust herbaceous to woody climber with leaf-opposed tendrils characteristic of the grape family. The simple leaves are broadly ovate to cordate in outline, sometimes shallowly lobed, with a toothed margin and a rugose (wrinkled) upper surface that gives the species its epithet; the lower surface is often tomentose. The inflorescence is a leaf-opposed, compound cyme or panicle, typically with a basal tendril, bearing many small, greenish flowers with a four- to five-merous calyx and corolla and a fleshy disc around the ovary. The fruit is a small, globose, fleshy berry, ripening dark purple to black and containing one or few hard seeds, the cluster superficially resembling a wild grape.

Ampelocissus is a pantropical genus of the Vitaceae closely allied to Vitis, distinguished by its tendril-bearing inflorescences and frequently tuberous rootstock. Several Asian species are gathered locally for their edible, acidic fruits and have potential as wild relatives of the cultivated grape. A. rugosa is a sparsely documented Himalayan vine; while not formally assessed, its limited collection record warrants attention to forest-margin habitats under pressure from clearance.

Author: Planch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 12, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Latiff's Revision of Asian Ampelocissus

Asteraceae

Anaphalis royleana

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

Garw 2005 297 ergebnis
India Garhwal Patanathi 3750m, October
Garw 2005 50 ergebnis

Description

Anaphalis royleana is a high-montane to subalpine perennial widely distributed across the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China and Taiwan. With 482 georeferenced occurrences, it is one of the more frequently collected members of the genus, occupying open stony slopes, alpine meadows, grazed pastures and the margins of rhododendron and birch scrub. The species typically ranges between roughly 3000 and 4500 m; the plant photographed at Patanathi in Garhwal, India, at 3750 m in October exemplifies its preference for well-drained, sunny situations where it flowers and fruits late into the season.

The plant forms tufted clumps from a woody rootstock, with erect, simple, white-woolly (lanate) stems. The leaves are alternate, sessile and frequently decurrent, linear to oblong-lanceolate, entire-margined, and densely grey- to white-tomentose, the lower surface usually more persistently floccose than the upper. The capitula are small, numerous, and aggregated into dense terminal corymbs. Each head is subtended by several rows of dry, papery (scarious), pearly-white involucral bracts that give the genus its garden name; the florets are functionally unisexual, the central disc florets staminate and the marginal florets pistillate. The fruit is a small cylindrical cypsela crowned by a pappus of slender, barbellate bristles facilitating wind dispersal.

Anaphalis is a large Old World genus closely allied to Helichrysum and Gnaphalium within the tribe Gnaphalieae, characterised by its dioecious or subdioecious capitula. A. royleana belongs to a taxonomically intricate complex of Himalayan everlastings in which leaf indumentum and bract form provide the principal diagnostic characters. Its broad elevational and geographic amplitude, tolerance of grazing, and effective anemochory render it secure, and it is not considered threatened.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Anaphalis revisionary studies in Gnaphalieae

Asteraceae

Anaphalis xylorhiza

by G & P Jürgens

Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f.

Sikkim2003 260 P358
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m, July

Description

Anaphalis xylorhiza is a high-alpine pearly-everlasting of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 416 georeferenced occurrences indicating a fairly frequent species along the inner high ranges. It grows in alpine meadows, on stony slopes, screes and rocky ridges above the treeline, typically between roughly 3500 and 4800 m. The plant was photographed at Dzongri in Sikkim at 4000 m in July, a setting representative of its ecology, flowering at the height of the monsoon on open, well-drained, frequently grazed alpine ground.

As the epithet xylorhiza indicates, it is a perennial herb with a thick, woody rootstock from which arise low, white-woolly stems. The leaves are linear to narrowly oblong or spathulate, often crowded toward the base, grey-green and clothed in a dense persistent felt of appressed hairs on both surfaces, the bases sometimes decurrent. The capitula are small and aggregated into compact terminal corymbose clusters; each head is surrounded by dry, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts that give the genus its everlasting quality. The plants are essentially dioecious, with male and female heads on separate individuals, and the fruit is a minute cypsela bearing a pappus of slender bristles.

Anaphalis (tribe Gnaphalieae) is centred in Asia and is distinguished from the closely allied Antennaria and Helichrysum by its corymbose, scarious-bracted heads and its functionally dioecious breeding system; A. xylorhiza belongs to the woody-rooted, high-elevation Himalayan group. Its dense indumentum and persistent papery bracts are adaptations to cold, irradiation and desiccation in the alpine zone. Widespread and locally abundant, it is not considered threatened, although heavy summer grazing affects accessible populations.

Author: Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hooker Flora of British India (Asteraceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace globifera

by G & P Jürgens

Duby

BhutanPG2011 669 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Thitha-Tso, 4300m July
Sikkim2004 163 G276
Sikkim/India Singalila 4100m May
Nepal 99 138 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June

Description

Androsace globifera is a high-alpine cushion-forming perennial distributed along the central and eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF (103 occurrences) from Nepal, India, Bhutan and adjacent Tibetan China. It occupies open, often wind-exposed alpine turf, gravel slopes, moraine margins and the rocky surrounds of glacial tarns, typically between 3800 and 4500 m. The documented gatherings illustrate this range well: dense colonies were found beside Thitha-Tso on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at 4300 m in July, on the Singalila ridge of Sikkim at 4100 m in May, and south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3800 m in June, flowering as the snow recedes.

The plant forms compact, hemispherical cushions or low mats built from numerous crowded, columnar shoots clothed in persistent, imbricate, withered leaf-remains. The leaves are small, sessile, oblong to spathulate, and gathered into dense terminal rosettes, their margins ciliate with simple and branched hairs. Solitary, sessile or shortly pedicellate flowers nestle among the leaves; the calyx is campanulate and lobed to about the middle, and the rotate corolla is white to pink with a yellow throat, the five obovate lobes spreading from a short tube. The fruit is a small globose capsule that splits by five valves to release angular seeds.

A member of the cushion-forming androsaces, the species is diagnosed by its globular, tightly packed habit and short-tubed flowers. Ecologically it is a pioneer of frost-disturbed, well-drained substrates, the cushion architecture buffering temperature extremes and trapping wind-blown detritus. Though locally frequent and not currently threatened, such narrowly stenothermic alpines are sensitive to warming and shifting snow regimes.

Author: Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Smith & Lowe Androsace monograph (Genus Androsace)

Primulaceae

Androsace jacquemontii var. robusta 

by G & P Jürgens

(R.Knuth) Govaerts

Nepal 99 674 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Kagmara-La 4800m, July
Nepal 99 673 2 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Kagmara-La 4800m, July

Description

Androsace jacquemontii var. robusta is a high-alpine cushion plant of the western and central Himalaya and the Tibetan borderlands, recorded from China, India, Nepal and Pakistan among its roughly 212 documented occurrences. It is a denizen of the upper alpine zone, growing on stony slopes, fine moraine, gravelly flats and rock crevices where drainage is sharp and exposure severe. The photographed population at the Kagmara-La in West Nepal, at about 4800 m and flowering in July, is characteristic of its elevational ceiling, where the brief snow-free season concentrates flowering into the early summer weeks following snowmelt.

The plant forms dense, compact cushions or low mats built from numerous crowded rosettes of small, imbricate, linear to oblanceolate leaves, often somewhat fleshy and ciliate at the margins, an adaptation conserving heat and moisture in the windswept environment. From the rosettes arise short scapes bearing solitary flowers or small few-flowered umbels; each flower has a five-lobed campanulate calyx and a salverform corolla with a constricted throat marked by a yellow or pinkish eye, the spreading lobes usually pink to lilac or white. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves at the apex, the var. robusta distinguished by its more vigorous, larger habit relative to typical A. jacquemontii.

Androsace is the classic genus of Himalayan rock-jasmines within Primulaceae, and the cushion-forming alpines exemplify convergent adaptation to cold, high-radiation environments shared with Saxifraga and Arenaria. The recombination of this taxon, originally a Knuth name, by Govaerts reflects ongoing nomenclatural refinement of the infraspecific entities. Cushion plants of this kind are long-lived, slow-growing and act as nurse plants facilitating other seedlings; while not individually threatened given their remote habitat, they are recognised as sensitive sentinels of warming-driven change in high-mountain vegetation.

Author: (R.Knuth) Govaerts · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith and Lowe's monograph of Androsace (Primulaceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace lanuginosa

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 99 60 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June
Garh 07 69 ergebnis scaled
Garh 07 68 ergebnis scaled
India Garhwal Nanu Mandakini 2360m, June

Description

Androsace lanuginosa is a Western and Central Himalayan endemic distributed from Pakistan and the Indian states of the Garhwal and Kumaon Himalaya eastward through Nepal, with collections also referred to adjoining Chinese territory. The species occupies open, rocky slopes, grassy banks and the margins of moist forest at montane to lower-subalpine elevations, generally between roughly 2300 and 3600 m. The photographed populations were recorded in West Nepal at Nyor Gaad around 2800 m and in Indian Garhwal at Nanu Mandakini near 2360 m, both flowering in June; the GBIF dataset records 277 occurrences across IN, NP, CN, PK and several countries (US, CA, DE) reflecting its cultivation as a rock-garden ornamental.

The plant is a mat-forming or trailing perennial with slender, prostrate to ascending stems radiating from a central rosette and rooting at the nodes. The leaves are crowded, oblong-lanceolate to obovate, entire, and densely clothed on both surfaces with long, soft, silky-villous hairs that give the foliage a silvery-grey, lanuginose aspect. Inflorescences are few-flowered umbels borne on softly hairy peduncles, subtended by an involucre of small bracts. Each flower has a hairy, lobed calyx and a salverform corolla, pink to rose-lilac with a yellow to greenish eye, the five obcordate lobes spreading from a short tube. The fruit is a small, few-seeded globose capsule.

Within the large genus Androsace, the species belongs to the perennial, stoloniferous rock-jasmines allied to A. sarmentosa, distinguished by its conspicuously woolly indumentum and trailing habit. It is an indicator of well-drained, sunny Himalayan slopes and is widely grown in temperate rock gardens, where several cultivars exist. Though locally common and not assessed as threatened, populations are sensitive to overgrazing and trampling at accessible elevations.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith & Lowe monograph of Androsace (Primulaceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace lehmannii

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Duby

Nepal 99 304 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4200m, June
Nepal 99 802 ergebnis
West-Nepal Baga-La-Phedi 4500m, July
Sikkim2003 304 G425
Sikkim Saniti-Lake 4200m, August
BhutanPG2011 451 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrthang-Tso, 4400m July

Description

Androsace lehmannii Wall. ex Duby is a cushion-forming alpine of the high Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, with outlying records reported from further across temperate Asia. It is documented from West-Nepal at Kalmura (4200 m) and Baga-La-Phedi (4500 m), from Sikkim at Saniti Lake (4200 m) and from Bhutan along the Ludlow-Sherriff trail near Warrthang-Tso (4400 m), flowering from June to August. The species inhabits open alpine turf, rocky slopes, moraine and gravelly flats, typically between 4000 and 5000 m, where it forms low cushions adapted to wind exposure, intense radiation and a short, cool growing season. Its roughly 158 GBIF records mark it as a genuine high-alpine specialist.

The plant builds a dense, hemispherical cushion of crowded rosettes borne on branched, columnar shoots packed with the marcescent remains of old leaves. The living leaves are small, oblong to spathulate, entire, often ciliate-margined and frequently bearing whitish hairs that reduce water loss and radiation damage. Solitary, almost sessile flowers nestle among the leaves, each with a campanulate calyx and a salver-shaped, five-lobed corolla in white to pale pink, the throat marked by a contrasting yellow or pinkish eye. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves.

Androsace lehmannii belongs to the section of cushion androsaces (allied to sect. Aretia), a growth form that has evolved repeatedly in cold, high-mountain floras as a thermal and mechanical adaptation, the compact canopy trapping warmth and moisture within the cushion. Such plants are slow-growing, long-lived and pioneer-like on unstable substrates. Though not currently threatened, cushion androsaces are recognised as climate-sensitive sentinels, vulnerable to warming, altered snow cover and trampling along increasingly frequented high-altitude routes.

Author: Wall. ex Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Androsace monograph (Smith & Lowe)

Primulaceae

Androsace muscoidea

by G & P Jürgens

Duby

Nepal 99 591 ergebnis
West-Nepal Garpung-Khola 3300m, July
Nepal 99 605 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara Phedi 3900m, July

Description

Androsace muscoidea is a cushion-forming rock-jasmine widely distributed along the Himalaya and into the adjoining mountains of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal and China, with around 120 georeferenced records reflecting its frequency across the high ranges. It is a true alpine, growing on stony slopes, gravelly flats, moraines and in rock crevices of the subalpine and alpine zones, often where snow lies late. The photographed material from West Nepal, gathered at Garpung-Khola around 3300 m and at Kagmara Phedi near 3900 m in July, illustrates the broad altitudinal band over which the species flowers during the brief high-mountain summer.

The plant forms dense, moss-like cushions or low mats, the epithet muscoidea aptly evoking its moss-like habit. Numerous tightly packed rosettes are composed of small, narrowly oblong to spathulate, imbricate leaves that are often densely hairy and somewhat fleshy, giving the cushion a hoary, grey-green appearance. The flowers are solitary or borne few together on very short, hairy scapes scarcely exceeding the foliage; each has a campanulate calyx and a salver-shaped corolla of five spreading lobes, white to pink with a contrasting yellow to reddish eye at the throat. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves.

Androsace is a large genus of mostly arctic and alpine Primulaceae, and the compact, cushion species such as A. muscoidea represent classic adaptations to cold, wind-exposed, drought-prone high-altitude environments, the densely packed rosettes conserving heat and moisture. Variable across its range, the species has given rise to several named forms and varieties. It is not regarded as threatened given its wide distribution, though localised alpine populations are sensitive to grazing, trampling and the warming of Himalayan high-mountain habitats.

Author: Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China (Primulaceae), Smith & Lowe: The Genus Androsace (monograph)

Primulaceae

Androsace rotundifolia

by G & P Jürgens

Hardw.

Nepal 99 26 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June
Nepal 99 27 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June

Description

A perennial rock-jasmine distributed along the Himalaya and into south-western China, with verified records from Pakistan, India, Nepal, China and Afghanistan among nearly 600 GBIF occurrences (several extra-range entries reflect cultivation or misregistration). It favours shaded, humus-rich banks, mossy boulders, forest margins and damp cliff faces in the temperate and subalpine zones, generally between about 2000 and 3500 m. The illustrated plant was recorded in June at Chere in western Nepal at around 2850 m, a moist, partly shaded montane setting characteristic of the species.

Unlike the tight cushion androsaces, A. rotundifolia is a softly hairy, loosely tufted herb with a slender creeping or ascending rootstock. The leaves form a basal rosette and are distinctive in the genus: long-petiolate with a rounded to reniform, palmately lobed and crenate-toothed blade, sparsely pilose on both surfaces. From the rosette arises a slender, hairy scape bearing an umbel of several flowers, each subtended by small bracts. The corolla is salverform with a short tube and five spreading pink to rose lobes constricted at a small throat eye; five stamens are included, and the superior ovary ripens into a small globose, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves.

The broad, rounded, lobed leaves separate this species from most relatives and align it with a small group of woodland-dwelling rock-jasmines. As an accepted species (per GBIF and POWO) it is taxonomically stable. Ecologically it is an indicator of moist, sheltered montane habitats and contributes to early-summer flowering at forest edges. Widespread and locally frequent across its Himalayan range, it is of no particular conservation concern, though dependent on the persistence of undisturbed shaded substrates.

Author: Hardw. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Smith and Lowe monograph of Androsace