Author

G & P Jürgens

Asteraceae

Jacobaea raphanifolia

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex DC.) B.Nord.

Sikkim2003 444 G617
Sikkim Chopta Valley 3900m August
Nepal 95 130 P222 ergebnis
Nepal south of Rupien La 3600m October
Bhutan2015 379
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October

Description

Jacobaea raphanifolia is a perennial herb of the high Himalaya and adjoining mountains of central Asia, recorded by GBIF (some 202 occurrences) from Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar, with scattered records reaching Kenya and South Africa that probably reflect cultivated or naturalised material. It is a plant of the upper subalpine and alpine zones, favouring moist meadows, streamsides, open scrub and damp rocky slopes. The species was photographed across a broad altitudinal band, in the Chopta Valley of Sikkim at about 3900 m in August, south of the Rupien La in Nepal at 3600 m in October, and on the Tumching La in Bhutan near 4000 m, a range centred between roughly 3500 and 4200 m.

It forms an erect, somewhat stout herb arising from a short, fibrous-rooted rhizome, with simple or branched leafy stems. The lower leaves are lyrate-pinnatifid to runcinate with a large terminal lobe, recalling a radish (raphanifolia), the margins toothed and the surfaces sparsely hairy; cauline leaves become smaller, sessile and often auriculate upwards. The capitula are radiate, several to many in a loose terminal corymb, subtended by a single row of narrow green phyllaries with a few short calyculate bracts. Ray florets are yellow, female and ligulate; the disc florets yellow, tubular and bisexual. The fruit is a ribbed, cylindrical cypsela crowned by a pappus of fine white capillary bristles.

The species belongs to a complex of montane ragworts segregated from Senecio into Jacobaea on molecular and morphological grounds. As a wide-ranging meadow herb of the alpine pastures it is locally common and of no conservation concern, though like many Senecioneae it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is generally avoided by grazing stock, a trait that may favour its persistence in heavily pastured high valleys.

Author: (Wall. ex DC.) B.Nord. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Nordenstam's revision of Jacobaea and the Senecioneae

Oleaceae

Jasminum elongatum

by G & P Jürgens

(P.J.Bergius) Willd.

Bhutan2012 787
Bhutan Zemgang 1900m, October
Bhutan2015 277
Bhutan Zhemgang 1000m, October

Description

Jasminum elongatum is a scrambling jasmine of broad Indo-Pacific distribution, recorded by GBIF from Australia, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam and the eastern Himalaya, with over 2270 occurrences. It grows in subtropical and tropical forest margins, secondary thickets, riverine scrub and clearings, often climbing over shrubs and small trees on warm, well-watered slopes. The illustrated plants come from Bhutan in the Zhemgang district between about 1000 and 1900 m, flowering in October; across its range the species spans the lowlands to roughly 2000 m in the warm submontane belt.

The plant is a woody climber or sprawling shrub with slender, terete to slightly angled, pubescent twigs. The leaves are opposite and simple, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded to subcordate at the base, with appressed hairs especially along the veins beneath. The flowers are borne in terminal and axillary cymes, white and fragrant, with a slender corolla tube much longer than the calyx (the epithet elongatum referring to this elongated tube) opening into several spreading lobes; the calyx bears narrow, elongate teeth. The fruit is a black, two-lobed berry.

Jasminum is a large Old World genus of the Oleaceae whose white-flowered, opposite-leaved species form the core lineage distinct from the segregated yellow jasmines. Jasminum elongatum is variable in indumentum and leaf shape across its wide range, prompting a long synonymy. Its fragrant flowers are moth- and bee-pollinated and the berries bird-dispersed. Common, weedy and adaptable, it is of least concern and is occasionally grown for its scented blossom in tropical gardens.

Author: (P.J.Bergius) Willd. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Jasminum monograph (Green)

Oleaceae

Jasminum laurifolium

by G & P Jürgens

Roxb. ex Hornem.

Bhutan2014 149
Bhutan Trashigang 2000m, May

Description

Jasminum laurifolium is a climbing jasmine native to the eastern Himalaya and South-East Asia, occurring in north-eastern India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and southern China, and widely cultivated as an ornamental; its GBIF records (over 440) span this native range together with numerous cultivated occurrences in the Americas, the Pacific and the West Indies that account for the scattered records in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, French Polynesia and the Caribbean. It grows in evergreen and mixed forest, on forest margins, thickets and shrubby slopes, generally up to about 2000 m. The photographed plant from Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 2000 m in May reflects its occurrence in warm, humid mid-elevation forest.

It is an evergreen, woody twining shrub or liana with slender, glabrous, terete branchlets. The opposite, simple leaves are leathery and glossy, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic and laurel-like (whence laurifolium), with an entire margin, a long-acuminate apex and prominent pinnate venation. The fragrant flowers are borne in terminal and axillary cymes; each has a small, toothed calyx and a salverform white corolla with a slender tube and several narrow, spreading lobes. The fruit is a small, two-lobed black berry, often only one lobe maturing.

Jasminum is a large genus of the olive family Oleaceae, well represented in tropical Asia. J. laurifolium, sometimes treated with the variety brachylobum, is grown for its fragrant white flowers and is a familiar ornamental and source of perfume. Widespread in the wild and broadly cultivated, it is not of conservation concern, and its escape and naturalisation in warm regions outside its native range account for many of the extralimital records.

Author: Roxb. ex Hornem. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Thailand, Jasminum (Oleaceae) revision (Green monograph)

Oleaceae

Jasminum officinale

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Garh 07 94 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3100m, June
Garh 07 309 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bebra 2400m, June

Description

Jasminum officinale, the common or poet's jasmine, is native to the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Himalaya through Afghanistan, Pakistan, N India, Nepal and SW China, but is so widely cultivated that GBIF's 3,200-plus records span France, Britain, Spain, Italy, the United States, Australia and beyond, reflecting naturalisation far outside its native range. In its Himalayan homeland it is a plant of open forest, scrub, thickets and rocky slopes. The photographed material from Garhwal in the Indian Himalaya, at Meggu Kichatti (3,100 m) and Bebra (2,400 m) in June, illustrates its occurrence on warm temperate to subalpine slopes between roughly 1,500 and 3,100 m.

It is a deciduous or semi-evergreen scrambling shrub with slender, angular, twining green branches. The leaves are opposite and imparipinnate, with usually five to nine ovate-lanceolate, acuminate leaflets, the terminal leaflet longer and stalked. The fragrant flowers are borne in terminal and axillary cymes; each has a slender corolla tube expanding into four to five spreading white lobes, often flushed pink in bud. The fruit is a black, two-lobed berry, though fruiting is uncommon in cultivated clones.

The intense evening fragrance, produced by volatile esters and indole, attracts moths and other long-tongued nocturnal pollinators and underlies the long economic history of the species in the perfume and tea-scenting industries. Numerous cultivars and forms exist, including the hardy var. affine. As an extensively cultivated and locally naturalising species it is of no conservation concern, and indeed can behave as a garden escape in mild-climate regions worldwide.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Pakistan, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Green: A Revision of the Genus Jasminum (Kew Bulletin)

Oleaceae

Jasminum sambac

by G & P Jürgens

L. (Aiton)

Garh 07 94 ergebnis
India Garhwal Trijugi Narayan 2250m, June

Description

Jasminum sambac, the Arabian jasmine, is believed to be native to a broad region extending from the Indian subcontinent through Southeast Asia, though its precise original range is obscured by millennia of cultivation. It is now widely grown and naturalized throughout the tropics and subtropics, with GBIF records from over 40 countries including India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and numerous Pacific islands. The species typically occurs at low to moderate elevations in warm, humid climates, though it has been documented at Trijugi Narayan in the Garhwal Himalaya of Uttarakhand at 2,250 m in June, likely in a cultivated or semi-naturalized context near this important pilgrimage site, representing an unusually high-elevation occurrence.
Jasminum sambac is an evergreen or semi-deciduous scandent shrub or vine, 0.5–3 m tall, with terete, pubescent young branches. Leaves are opposite, simple (unusual in Jasminum, where most species have compound leaves), broadly ovate to elliptic, 4–12 cm long and 2–7 cm wide, with an obtuse to rounded apex, entire margins, and a glossy, dark green upper surface. The inflorescence is a terminal or axillary cyme bearing three to twelve flowers. Flowers are highly fragrant, with a tubular calyx bearing eight to ten linear lobes and a salverform corolla with a slender tube 10–15 mm long and typically eight to nine oblong, spreading, pure white lobes. In cultivated double-flowered forms, the petals are greatly multiplied. The fruit is a globose, two-lobed berry approximately 8 mm in diameter, black when ripe, though fruiting is rare in cultivated plants.
Jasminum sambac holds profound cultural, religious, and economic significance across Asia. It is the national flower of the Philippines (sampaguita) and one of three national flowers of Indonesia (melati putih), used extensively in religious ceremonies, garlands, and traditional medicine throughout South and Southeast Asia. The flowers are a major source of jasmine absolute and essential oil used in the perfume industry and are the traditional scenting agent for jasmine tea in China. Taxonomically, J. sambac is placed in Jasminum section Unifoliolata, reflecting its simple (unifoliolate) leaves. The species was first described by Linnaeus as Nyctanthes sambac and later transferred to Jasminum by Aiton in 1789.

Author: L. (Aiton) · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Green: A Revision of Jasminum in Asia and Australia (2003), Mabberley: Mabberley's Plant-Book (2017)

Juncaceae

Juncus cephalostigma

by G & P Jürgens

Sam.

Sikkim2011 378
Sikkim Lada-La 3400, June

Description

Juncus cephalostigma is a Himalayan rush distributed from Nepal through Sikkim and adjacent India to Bhutan, northern Myanmar and south-western China, with about 139 GBIF records reflecting a restricted eastern Himalayan to Sino-Himalayan range. It is a plant of wet alpine and subalpine habitats: marshy meadows, streamsides, seepage slopes, springs and the margins of pools, generally between about 3,000 and 4,200 m. The plant photographed at Lada-La in Sikkim at 3,400 m, flowering in June, is typical of the cool, perennially moist high-montane grasslands and mires where rushes of this group thrive.

The plant is a tufted perennial herb growing from a short rhizome, with slender, erect, terete to compressed stems. The leaves are basal and cauline, grass-like, with the characteristic open or closed tubular sheaths of the genus. The inflorescence is a small terminal or pseudolateral cluster of few flowers, often condensed into a head (the epithet cephalostigma alluding to the head-like stigmatic arrangement); each flower has six small, scarious-margined, brownish to greenish tepals, six (or three) stamens, and a superior ovary crowned by a style with three stigmas. The fruit is a small loculicidal capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

Juncus is the largest genus of Juncaceae, a wind-pollinated family of cosmopolitan, mostly cool-climate and wetland graminoid herbs. The Himalayan rushes form a taxonomically demanding assemblage in which species are separated by fine characters of the inflorescence, capsule and seed. As an inhabitant of high-altitude wetlands, J. cephalostigma is sensitive to hydrological change and grazing, though it is not currently regarded as threatened.

Author: Sam. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Kirschner: Juncaceae (Species Plantarum: Flora of the World)

Juncaceae

Juncus concinnus

by G & P Jürgens

D.Don

Sikkim2011 200
Sikkim Yumthang 3300m, June

Description

Juncus concinnus is a tufted, grass-like perennial rush of the Juncaceae, distributed through the Himalaya and the mountains of eastern Asia. GBIF data (nearly 1,000 occurrences) document a native range across China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Japan, Myanmar and Thailand. The species is characteristic of moist alpine and subalpine habitats, including wet meadows, marshy ground, streamsides, seepage flushes and damp grassy slopes, generally between about 2,500 and 4,500 m. The collection from Yumthang in northern Sikkim at 3,300 m in June reflects its occurrence in the wet, snow-fed alpine meadows of the eastern Himalaya in early summer.

The plant forms dense tufts of slender, erect, terete to slightly compressed stems arising from a short rhizome, with narrow, channelled basal and cauline leaves. The inflorescence is a more or less compact, terminal cluster of several flower heads, each head comprising a few small, dark-coloured flowers. As in all Juncus, the perianth consists of six chaffy, lanceolate tepals (the inner and outer whorls similar), subtending three or six stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is a small, three-valved loculicidal capsule containing numerous minute seeds, the chaffy perianth persisting around it.

Juncus is a large, cosmopolitan genus of the rush family, an assemblage of wind-pollinated, reduced-flowered monocots adapted predominantly to wet and seasonally inundated ground. As a component of alpine mire and wet-meadow vegetation, J. concinnus contributes to the structure of high-altitude wetland turf and stabilises moist soils. Widely distributed and secure across its range, it nonetheless depends on intact alpine hydrology, making it sensitive to wetland drainage and to changes in snowmelt regimes.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Kirschner et al.: Juncaceae – Species Plantarum: Flora of the World

Cupressaceae

Juniperus pseudosabina

by G & P Jürgens

Fisch. & C.A.Mey.

Sikkim2011 92
Sikkim Chopta-valley 4300m, June
Nepal1992 120 P170 ergebnis
Nepal Ghunsa 3400m March

Description

Juniperus pseudosabina is a coniferous shrub of the high mountains of Central Asia and the Himalaya, with GBIF documenting around 1678 occurrences across Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bhutan. It is a constituent of the upper subalpine and alpine zones, forming krummholz and prostrate thickets on stony slopes, rocky ridges, moraines and at the timberline. The photographed plants were recorded in Sikkim's Chopta valley at 4300 m in June and at Ghunsa in Nepal at 3400 m in March, illustrating its occupation of cold, exposed high-montane sites near and above the tree limit.

It is typically a low, spreading, mat-forming or procumbent shrub, occasionally a small tree, with reddish-brown shredding bark. The foliage is mostly squamiform (scale-like), with small, closely appressed, rhombic leaves bearing a conspicuous dorsal resin gland; needle-like juvenile leaves may persist on vigorous shoots. The species is usually dioecious; the pollen cones are small and terminal, while the seed cones are berry-like galbuli that ripen blue-black to purplish-black, are glaucous, and characteristically contain a single large seed.

GBIF accepts the name. Belonging to section Sabina, the multi-seeded and single-seeded savin junipers, J. pseudosabina is closely allied to several Himalayan and Central Asian junipers with which it has been taxonomically confused. Its galbuli are dispersed by birds, and the dwarfed, wind-pruned habit reflects adaptation to severe alpine exposure. Wide-ranging and locally abundant, it is assessed as of least concern.

Author: Fisch. & C.A.Mey. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Farjon monograph of Juniperus

Crassulaceae

Kalanchoe integra

by G & P Jürgens

Kuntze

Bhutan2014 260
Bhutan Karu-Chu 1800m, May

Description

Kalanchoe integra is a succulent herb of broad palaeotropical and introduced distribution, recorded by GBIF (around 902 occurrences) across tropical and subtropical Asia and beyond, including Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Thailand, China, Japan, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan, as well as introduced or cultivated populations in the Americas and Europe. It grows on warm, dry, rocky slopes, open hillsides, walls, ledges and disturbed ground, favouring sunny, well-drained sites in the foothill and lower montane zones. The collection from Karu-Chu in Bhutan at about 1800 m in May marks a Himalayan foothill occurrence and reflects its preference for relatively low, warm elevations and its spring flowering at the onset of the growing season.

The plant is an erect, glabrous, fleshy perennial or biennial herb with a stout, often simple stem. The succulent leaves are opposite and decussate, the lower ones petiolate and obovate to oblong with a crenate or shallowly toothed margin, the upper leaves becoming sessile and sometimes pinnately lobed. The inflorescence is a large, terminal, much-branched corymbose cyme of numerous pendent, tubular flowers. Each flower has a fused, somewhat inflated tubular calyx and a longer tubular corolla in shades of yellow to orange or reddish, with four spreading lobes. There are eight stamens inserted on the corolla tube, and the four free carpels mature into many-seeded follicles.

Described under the combination by Kuntze, Kalanchoe integra belongs to a large Old World genus of the Crassulaceae noted for crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), an adaptation enabling water conservation in seasonally dry habitats. The genus is taxonomically intricate, many names being confused within the K. integra-K. laciniata-K. spathulata complex. The species is used in traditional medicine in parts of its range and is sometimes cultivated. Being widespread, weedy and tolerant of disturbance, it is not of conservation concern.

Author: Kuntze · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Raymond-Hamet revision of Kalanchoe

Malvaceae

Kydia glabrescens

by G & P Jürgens

Mast.

Bhutan2012 1294
Bhutan Trashigang 1720m, October
Bhutan2012 1295
Bhutan Trashigang 1720m, October

Description

Kydia glabrescens is a small tree of the eastern Himalayan and Indo-Chinese region, recorded from China, Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam, Bhutan, India and Myanmar, with about 140 georeferenced occurrences. It occurs in subtropical and warm-temperate broadleaved forest, secondary woodland and forest margins at low to moderate elevations. The individual documented near Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at about 1720 m in October illustrates its mid-elevation habitat, flowering and fruiting in autumn on well-drained slopes within and at the edges of mixed hill forest.

The plant is a deciduous tree with grey bark whose young parts are stellate-tomentose but become more glabrescent with age, a feature underlying its epithet. The leaves are alternate, broadly ovate to suborbicular, palmately three- to five-veined and often shallowly lobed, with crenate-dentate margins. The flowers are borne in terminal and axillary panicles and are subtended by conspicuous epicalyx bracts that enlarge and become wing-like in fruit, a diagnostic feature of the genus; the small five-petalled corolla is white to pale pink, the stamens united into a staminal column typical of the Malvaceae. The fruit is a small capsule subtended by the accrescent, persistent bracts that aid wind dispersal.

Kydia is a small Asian genus traditionally placed in the Malvaceae (subfamily Grewioideae or related tribes in the broadly circumscribed family), distinguished by its enlarged fruiting epicalyx and dioecious or polygamous breeding system. The timber is used locally and the mucilaginous bark has minor traditional uses. Reasonably widespread through the eastern Himalaya and Southeast Asia, K. glabrescens is not considered threatened.

Author: Mast. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Tang, Gilbert & Dorr's account of Malvaceae