Author

G & P Jürgens

Asteraceae

Lactuca dolichophylla 

by G & P Jürgens

Kitam.

Garw 2005 68 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 3200m, September

Description

Lactuca dolichophylla is a Himalayan and Central Asian perennial herb distributed through the Indian Himalaya, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Afghanistan, Russia and Myanmar, documented from a modest number of georeferenced collections. It is a plant of the subalpine and alpine zone, growing on open grassy slopes, herb-rich meadows, forest clearings and stony banks. The photographed material is from the Valley of Flowers in Garhwal, India, at about 3200 m in September, a celebrated high-montane meadow habitat where the species flowers in the late post-monsoon season.

The plant is an erect perennial herb with a leafy, often glaucous stem exuding milky latex when cut. The leaves are elongate and narrow, as the epithet 'dolichophylla' (long-leaved) implies, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, entire to runcinate-lobed, with the upper leaves sessile and often clasping. The capitula are arranged in a lax paniculate-corymbose synflorescence; each head is ligulate, with an imbricate cylindrical involucre and several blue to bluish-purple or violet ray florets, a colour characteristic of the Himalayan blue-flowered lettuces. The fruit is a flattened, ribbed achene (cypsela) narrowed into a beak and crowned by a pappus of simple white capillary bristles.

Lactuca belongs to the tribe Cichorieae of Asteraceae, the dandelion-and-lettuce alliance with milky latex and ligulate florets. The blue-flowered Himalayan species, sometimes segregated under Cicerbita or Mulgedium, form a taxonomically intricate group, and this taxon was described by Kitamura. Wind-dispersed by its pappus, L. dolichophylla is a characteristic component of moist alpine meadows and is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Kitam. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Kitamura's studies of Himalayan Cichorieae (Compositae)

Phrymaceae

Lancea tibetica 

by G & P Jürgens

Hook. f. & Thomson

Nepal 99 681 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Pungmo-Khola 4700m, July

Description

Lancea tibetica Hook.f. & Thomson is a low, perennial herb of the high Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountains, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia and Pakistan. It is a true high-alpine plant of open turf, gravelly and sandy meadows, riverine flats and grazed grassland, generally between about 3,000 and 5,000 m. The July collection from the Pungmo Khola valley in west Nepal at 4,700 m exemplifies its preference for moist alpine swards close to the upper limit of vascular plant growth, where it grows in short, frost-prone vegetation alongside other cushion and rosette herbs of the Trans-Himalayan zone.

The plant is a small, nearly stemless perennial arising from a creeping rhizome and forming low tufts seldom more than a few centimetres tall. The leaves are crowded in a basal rosette, spathulate to oblanceolate, thick, entire or slightly toothed and glabrous. The conspicuous flowers are borne almost at ground level among the leaves; the corolla is deep violet-blue to purple, tubular below and expanded into a two-lipped limb, the lower lip three-lobed and the throat often paler or marked. The fruit is a fleshy, berry-like capsule containing numerous seeds, an unusual feature among its relatives.

Formerly placed in Scrophulariaceae, Lancea is now classified in Phrymaceae following molecular phylogenetic studies, forming with the related Mazus a distinctive Asian lineage. The genus comprises only two species, making L. tibetica of considerable systematic interest as a characteristic endemic of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau flora. Well adapted to cold, high-altitude grassland, it serves as an indicator of intact alpine meadow ecosystems increasingly affected by grazing pressure and climate change.

Author: Hook. f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Nepal, Beardsley & Olmstead: Phylogeny of Phrymaceae (American Journal of Botany)

Urticaceae

Laportea bulbifera

by G & P Jürgens

(Siebold & Zucc.) Wedd

Bhutan2012 855
Bhutan Nangsephal 2800m, October

Description

Laportea bulbifera is a widespread perennial nettle ranging across East and South Asia, with GBIF documenting more than 4500 occurrences from Japan, China, Korea, the Russian Far East, the Himalaya, Taiwan and into Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. It colonises moist forest margins, ravines, streamsides and shaded clearings, often forming patches on humus-rich soils in temperate and subtropical woodland. The photographed population grows in Bhutan at Nangsephal around 2800 m, still in flower or fruit in October; the species occurs broadly from the lowlands to roughly 3000 m, thriving where moisture and partial shade coincide.

The plant produces erect, often unbranched stems from a creeping rootstock, the herbage armed with stinging hairs delivering an irritant on contact. Distinctive bulbils (gemmae) form in the upper leaf axils, giving the epithet bulbifera and providing a means of vegetative propagation. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, acuminate, serrate-margined and three-nerved from the base, on slender petioles. Small unisexual flowers are borne in axillary, paniculate cymes, the female inflorescences asymmetric with the achene set obliquely on an enlarged pedicel; the dry, flattened achene is the fruit.

Laportea belongs to the Urticeae, the tribe of true stinging nettles, and L. bulbifera is among its most morphologically variable and geographically far-flung members, prompting recognition of several infraspecific forms across its enormous range. The axillary bulbils represent an effective clonal strategy in disturbed, shaded habitats. The species is abundant and of least concern; in parts of its range young shoots are gathered as a cooked vegetable and the fibrous stems occasionally used locally.

Author: (Siebold & Zucc.) Wedd · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Urticaceae monograph (Friis / Chen)

Pinaceae

Larix griffithii

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

Bhutan2014 610
Bhutan Phobjika 2810, May
Bh2008 266 P418
Bhutan Tumchinching-La 3760m, April

Description

Larix griffithii, the Sikkim or Himalayan larch, is a deciduous conifer of the eastern Himalaya, native to China (Xizang), Bhutan, India (Sikkim) and Nepal; GBIF lists 525 occurrences, including many cultivated specimens in temperate arboreta abroad. In the wild it forms open montane to subalpine forests, often near the treeline on rocky slopes and moraines, generally between about 2800 and 4100 m. The trees illustrated were photographed in Bhutan at Phobjika (2810 m) in May and at the Tumchinching-La pass (3760 m) in April, the latter near its upper altitudinal limit.

It is a medium-sized deciduous tree with a conical crown and long, often pendulous branchlets. The soft, needle-like leaves are borne singly on long shoots and in dense rosette-like clusters on short, knob-like spur shoots; they are bright green, flushing in spring and turning golden-yellow before falling in autumn, an unusual habit among Himalayan conifers. The pendulous seed cones are oblong-cylindrical with conspicuous, exserted, often reflexed bracts that exceed the seed scales, a key diagnostic character; the winged seeds are wind-dispersed when the cones open.

Larix griffithii belongs to Pinaceae and is the principal larch of the eastern Himalaya, characteristically associated with Abies, Picea and rhododendron scrub at the upper forest limit. Its long-exserted cone bracts readily distinguish it from other larches. The wood is used locally for timber and fuel, and the tree's graceful weeping form has led to its cultivation in temperate collections, accounting for the wide scatter of records. Restricted in natural range but locally frequent, it faces pressure from logging, fire and grazing in the fragile treeline ecotone.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Conifers of the World, Farjon A Handbook of the World's Conifers

Urticaceae

Lecanthus peduncularis

by G & P Jürgens

(Royle) Wedd.

Bhutan2015 105
Bhutan Galephug 600m, October

Description

Lecanthus peduncularis is a widespread herb of tropical and subtropical Asia and beyond, ranging from the Himalaya (Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan) through China, Taiwan, Japan and South-East Asia to Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and parts of Africa (Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia); its very numerous GBIF records (over 2150) reflect this broad distribution. It grows in moist, shady places in evergreen and mixed forest, on damp banks, by streams, on dripping rocks and at forest margins, from the lowlands up to mid-montane elevations of around 2500 m. The photographed plant from Galephug in southern Bhutan at 600 m in October is typical of its warm, humid foothill habitat.

It is a soft, succulent perennial or annual herb with weak, ascending to creeping stems, glabrous to sparsely hairy and rooting at the lower nodes. The opposite leaves are ovate to elliptic, membranous, with a serrate to crenate-dentate margin, an acuminate apex and conspicuous cystoliths, borne on slender petioles. The minute, unisexual flowers are crowded in flat, disc-like receptacular heads subtended by an involucre and carried on long, slender axillary peduncles, the long peduncle giving the species its epithet. The fruit is a small, compressed, ovoid achene.

The small genus Lecanthus belongs to the Urticaceae and is allied to Pilea and Elatostema, distinguished by its long-stalked, involucrate flower-heads. As a shade- and moisture-loving understorey herb of wide ecological tolerance, L. peduncularis is common and not of conservation concern; it has minor local use as a potherb and in traditional remedies across its Asian range.

Author: (Royle) Wedd. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Urticaceae revision (Friis & Wilmot-Dear)

Asteraceae

Leontopodium brachyactis

by G & P Jürgens

Gand.

Sikkim2003 428 P595
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4100m August
Garw 2005 158 ergebnis
India Garhwal valley of flowers 3550m, October

Description

Leontopodium brachyactis is a high-alpine edelweiss of the Sino-Himalayan and Central Asian uplands, recorded from India, Pakistan, Nepal and China, with scattered occurrences extending west into Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Russia; the c. 92 georeferenced collections trace a distribution centred on the inner Himalaya and Tibetan margins. It inhabits open alpine turf, stony slopes, moraines and grazed meadows above the treeline, typically between 3500 and 4500 m. The species was photographed in the Sikkim Chopta Valley at 4100 m in August and in the Garhwal Valley of Flowers at 3550 m in October, sites representative of its preference for cold, well-drained, seasonally snow-covered ground.

It is a low, tufted, woolly perennial herb arising from a branched woody caudex, the stems erect to ascending and densely white-lanate. The leaves are linear to oblanceolate, entire, grey-green above and clothed beneath in a felt of appressed hairs that reflects intense montane irradiance. The capitula are small, several to many, aggregated into a dense terminal glomerule and subtended by a stellate ruff of leaf-like, densely tomentose floral bracts forming the characteristic edelweiss "star." The heads are heterogamous and disciform, with whitish corollas; the fruit is a small ribbed cypsela bearing a pappus of barbellate bristles.

The genus Leontopodium (tribe Gnaphalieae) is taxonomically intricate, its species delimited by indumentum, bract arrangement and capitulum structure, and L. brachyactis belongs to the compact-headed Himalayan element. Its dense white tomentum is a classic adaptation to alpine cold, desiccating winds and ultraviolet exposure. Though locally frequent across a wide range and not presently considered threatened, populations in accessible valleys face pressure from heavy summer grazing and increasing tourism in the Himalayan flower meadows.

Author: Gand. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Handel-Mazzetti revision of Leontopodium

Asteraceae

Leontopodium nivale subsp. alpinum

by G & P Jürgens

(Cass.) Greuter

Sikkim2003 325 P462 ergebnis
Sikkim Samiti lake 4000m, July

Description

Leontopodium nivale subsp. alpinum, the classic alpine edelweiss, is a high-mountain perennial of the Asteraceae with a remarkably broad circum-montane distribution. GBIF records (over 20,000 occurrences) document its core European range across the Alps and Carpathians (France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Croatia) extending eastward into Ukraine and disjunctly to the Sino-Himalayan region (China, India). It is a calcicole of stony alpine meadows, rocky ledges and screes, typically between 1,700 and 4,000 m. The Himalayan population photographed at Samiti Lake in Sikkim at 4,000 m in July illustrates the upper elevational reach of the species complex in seasonally snow-fed alpine turf.

The plant forms compact tufts from a woody caudex, with erect unbranched stems 5–20 cm tall arising from basal leaf rosettes. Leaves are lanceolate to oblong, grey-green and densely white-tomentose on both surfaces, the indumentum of interwoven hairs reducing transpiration and reflecting intense UV radiation. The conspicuous "flower" is in fact a pseudanthium: several small yellowish-white capitula are surrounded by a stellate arrangement of densely woolly, snow-white bracts forming the characteristic star. Each capitulum contains tubular florets, with marginal female and central functionally male florets; the achenes are small and bear a pappus of barbellate bristles.

The Leontopodium nivale complex is taxonomically intricate, with subsp. alpinum often treated as the type European edelweiss and frequently confused with Himalayan congeners such as L. himalayanum. A celebrated symbol of alpine flora, it is legally protected in several European countries against collection, and its woolly indumentum is a textbook example of adaptation to cold, high-irradiance environments.

Author: (Cass.) Greuter · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora Europaea Vol. 4, GBIF, Handel-Mazzetti: Monographie der Gattung Leontopodium (1928)

Lamiaceae

Leonurus cardiaca

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Garh 07 310 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bebra 2450m, June

Description

Leonurus cardiaca, motherwort, is a perennial herb of Eurasian origin that has become widely naturalised, with a very large GBIF dataset of 79501 occurrences concentrated in Europe, Russia and temperate North America. It is a plant of disturbed, nutrient-rich ground, occurring on roadsides, hedgerows, waste places, field margins, fallows and around habitation. The plant recorded at Bebra in the Garhwal Himalaya at 2450 m in June represents an introduced or naturalised montane occurrence, where it grows on open, anthropogenically disturbed ground and flowers in early summer.

The species is an erect perennial reaching 0.5-1.2 m, with the quadrangular stems typical of Lamiaceae, often branched and somewhat pubescent. The leaves are opposite and decussate, long-petiolate, the lower palmately three- to five-lobed with coarsely toothed lobes, grading to narrower, fewer-lobed leaves above. The small flowers are borne in dense axillary verticillasters subtended by stiff, spinescent bracteoles; each has a five-toothed, rigid, sharply pointed calyx and a two-lipped pinkish to pale purple corolla, the upper lip densely white-villous and the lower three-lobed, enclosing four didynamous stamens. The fruit comprises four trigonous nutlets.

Leonurus belongs to the subfamily Lamioideae, and L. cardiaca has long been valued in herbal medicine as a cardiac and nervine tonic, the basis of both its scientific and common names. As a hardy, seed-prolific ruderal, it spreads readily in disturbed temperate habitats and is locally established well beyond its native Eurasian range; it is of no conservation concern and is sometimes regarded as a minor weed.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Krestovskaja's revision of Leonurus

Rubiaceae

Leptodermis amoena

by G & P Jürgens

Spring.

Bhutan2015 289 1
Bhutan Zhemgang 1100m, October
Bhutan2015 291
Bhutan Zhemgang 1100m, October

Description

Leptodermis amoena is a narrowly distributed eastern Himalayan shrub recorded from Bhutan, neighbouring north-east India and adjacent southern China; with only about 18 GBIF occurrences it is among the more poorly collected members of its genus. It is a plant of warm-temperate to subtropical hill forest, occupying forest margins, open thickets, roadside banks and rocky slopes, broadly from 1,000 to 2,500 m. The plant photographed at Zhemgang in central Bhutan at 1,100 m in October illustrates its occurrence at the lower, subtropical end of this range, flowering late in the season on warm, well-drained slopes within the broad-leaved forest zone.

It is an erect, much-branched deciduous shrub up to about 1-2 m tall, with slender greyish to brownish branchlets that are puberulent when young. The leaves are opposite, small, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, entire and shortly petiolate, subtended by interpetiolar stipules bearing a slender awn typical of the genus. The flowers are borne in few-flowered axillary or terminal cymose clusters and are tubular and funnelform, with a narrow corolla tube expanding into five spreading lobes and an often pubescent exterior; the colour ranges from pale lilac to pinkish or whitish. As in Leptodermis, the species is heterostylous, and the fruit is a small capsule splitting into valves to release narrow seeds.

Leptodermis (Rubiaceae, tribe Paederieae) comprises some forty species centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, distinguished by their awned stipules, tubular heterostylous flowers and septicidal capsules. L. amoena is characterised by its delicate, attractively coloured corollas, reflected in the epithet amoena ('charming'). Its restricted range, low collection density and dependence on mid-elevation forest suggest a species potentially sensitive to habitat conversion, though it has not been formally assessed and no global IUCN status is published. Targeted survey across the eastern Himalaya would clarify its true distribution and conservation needs.

Author: Spring. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Rubiaceae of the Himalaya, monograph of Leptodermis

Rubiaceae

Leptodermis ludlowii

by G & P Jürgens

Spring.

Bhutan2012 317
Bhutan Paro-Chu, 2400m September

Description

Leptodermis ludlowii is a narrowly distributed Eastern Himalayan shrub, known from only about 26 georeferenced records confined to China (CN), Bhutan (BT) and India (IN). It is a plant of warm-temperate montane valleys, occupying open hillsides, dry scrub, rocky slopes and forest margins at middle elevations. The plant photographed along the Paro-Chu in western Bhutan at about 2400 m in September is characteristic of these sunny, well-drained inner-valley habitats, where the species flowers into the late monsoon. Its very restricted range and small number of collections mark it out as a regional endemic of the Eastern Himalaya.

It is a small, much-branched deciduous shrub with slender, often pubescent twigs. The leaves are opposite, small, ovate to elliptic, entire, and subtended by characteristic interpetiolar stipules with a membranous base and bristle-like awns, typical of the genus. The flowers are borne in small axillary or terminal clusters; each has a narrowly funnel-shaped, five-lobed corolla, usually white to pale pink or lilac, with the lobes spreading at the mouth. The slender corolla tube and the membranous, often persistent calyx are diagnostic of Leptodermis. The fruit is a small, dry capsule splitting into valves to release the seeds, which are enclosed in a thin, membranous testa from which the genus takes its name.

Leptodermis (Rubiaceae, tribe Paederieae) is an Asian genus centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, with many narrowly distributed, locally endemic species adapted to dry montane scrub. L. ludlowii, commemorating the collector Frank Ludlow, is one such restricted Eastern Himalayan endemic. Its very limited known range and scant collection record make it of conservation interest, although it has not been formally assessed; the integrity of mid-elevation valley scrub is important to its persistence.

Author: Spring. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Robbrecht and Deb taxonomic studies of Asian Rubiaceae (Leptodermis)