Author

G & P Jürgens

Primulaceae

Androsace sarmentosa

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Sikkim 2006 12 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Tonglu 3100m, May

Description

Androsace sarmentosa is a mat-forming alpine herb of the Himalaya, well represented in GBIF with 514 occurrences across Nepal, India, China, Pakistan and Bhutan, supplemented by abundant cultivated records from Europe and North America, where it is a popular rock-garden plant. It grows on open grassy slopes, rocky banks and the margins of subalpine and alpine meadows, typically in well-drained, sunny situations. It was recorded at Tonglu in West Bengal, India, at about 3100 m in May, an elevation and season at which the spreading cushions flower freely after snowmelt on the Singalila ridge.

The plant spreads by slender, leafy stolons (sarmentose runners, as the epithet indicates) that root at the tips to form new rosettes, building loose, expanding mats. Each rosette consists of obovate to spathulate leaves densely clothed in long, soft, silvery hairs, the young rosettes more woolly than the old. From the rosettes arise erect peduncles bearing a terminal umbel of flowers subtended by an involucre of bracts; each flower has a five-lobed calyx and a salverform corolla, pink to rose with a yellow then reddish eye at the constricted throat. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule.

Androsace (Primulaceae) is a genus of mostly arctic and alpine cushion and rosette plants centred on the mountains of central Asia, where the Himalaya holds many species. A. sarmentosa belongs to the stoloniferous, perennial section and is among the most ornamental and frequently cultivated of Himalayan androsaces. It is widespread and not of conservation concern, but as a characteristic component of subalpine turf it is of interest for studies of alpine cushion-plant biogeography and horticulture.

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

Primulaceae

Androsace sarmentosa subsp. primuloides

by G & P Jürgens

(Duby) Govaerts

Nepal 99 77 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chanta 2700m, June
Nepal 99 78 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chanta 2700m, June
Garw 2005 42 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 3250m, September

Description

Androsace sarmentosa subsp. primuloides is a mat-forming rock-jasmine of the western and central Himalaya, recorded from India, China, Nepal and Pakistan, with about 122 occurrences in GBIF. It grows on open rocky slopes, ledges, stony pastures and the margins of alpine meadows, mainly in the subalpine and lower alpine zones between roughly 2500 and 4000 m, favouring well-drained, sunny sites. The photographs from Chanta in West Nepal at about 2700 m in June and from the Valley of Flowers in Garhwal at about 3250 m in September capture the plant across its altitudinal range from early summer flowering to late-season fruiting in the high meadows.

The plant forms loose mats by means of slender, leafy stolons or runners (hence sarmentosa) that root at the nodes to produce new rosettes. Each rosette consists of oblong to spathulate leaves clothed, especially when young, in silky white or silvery hairs that give the cushions a downy appearance. From the rosettes arise short, hairy scapes bearing an umbel of several flowers subtended by a whorl of bracts; the flowers have a five-lobed, salver-shaped corolla, rose-pink with a yellow or orange eye and a constricted throat, recalling a small primrose, as the epithet primuloides suggests. The fruit is a small capsule with few seeds.

Androsace belongs to the Primulaceae and is closely allied to Primula, distinguished by its smaller flowers with a constricted corolla throat; the stoloniferous, mat-building habit of this taxon contrasts with the tight cushions of many high-alpine relatives. Long popular in alpine and rock gardening for its free-flowering pink umbels, it propagates readily from its rooting runners. Widely distributed and locally abundant, the subspecies is not of conservation concern.

Author: (Duby) Govaerts · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith and Lowe's monograph of Androsace, Richards' Primula and its allies

Primulaceae

Androsace tapete 

by G & P Jürgens

Maxim.

Nepal 99 622 2 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4550m, July

Description

Androsace tapete Maxim. is a cushion-forming rock-jasmine of the high Himalaya and Tibetan plateau, documented by some 579 records from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan. It is a true subnival specialist, growing on exposed gravelly and rocky slopes, screes, moraines and stony alpine flats, typically between about 4000 and 5500 m. The plant photographed at the Kagmara-La in West Nepal at 4550 m in July epitomises its habitat: a wind-blasted, intensely irradiated, frost-prone pass where it forms tight hemispherical cushions hugging the substrate.

The species is a compact, perennial, evergreen cushion plant built from densely packed columnar shoots, each terminating in a small rosette of imbricate, oblong-spathulate leaves clothed in long white hairs that trap warmth and reduce desiccation. Dead leaves are retained internally, packing the cushion into a firm dome (the epithet "tapete" meaning carpet). The flowers are solitary, sessile or nearly so among the rosette leaves, with a small gamopetalous corolla, the five lobes white to pink with a yellow or reddish eye, borne over a short tube. The fruit is a small few-seeded capsule largely enclosed within the persistent calyx.

Androsace tapete belongs to section Aretia (the aretioid cushion androsaces), a group whose extreme cushion architecture represents convergent adaptation to the cold, dry, high-radiation conditions of the world's highest vegetated terrain. The cushion modifies its own microclimate, ameliorating temperature and moisture and often facilitating other alpine species. Restricted to remote high-altitude habitats and slow-growing, such cushion plants are sensitive to climate warming and trampling, although A. tapete remains widespread and is not formally assessed.

Author: Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, monograph of Androsace (sect. Aretia), Smith & Lowe's cushion Androsace studies

Primulaceae

Androsace umbellata 

by G & P Jürgens

(Lour.) Merr.

Garh 07 23 ergebnis
India Garhwal Ransi at Mandakini 1850m, June

Description

Androsace umbellata is a widespread East and South Asian annual ranging from the Himalaya across China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia to the Russian Far East; GBIF documents over 4000 occurrences, reflecting its abundance and broad ecological tolerance. It is a plant of open, disturbed and grassy ground, occurring on banks, terraces, field margins, roadsides, lawns and forest clearings from the foothills into the lower temperate zone. The image from Ransi by the Mandakini in Garhwal (India) at about 1850 m in June shows it in a typical mid-montane setting, where it forms scattered rosettes on moist, sunny slopes early in the growing season.

It is a small, soft, hairy annual herb forming a basal rosette of leaves close to the ground. The leaves are broadly ovate to orbicular or suborbicular, shallowly toothed to crenate at the margin, narrowed to a winged petiole and clothed in articulated multicellular hairs. From the rosette arise several slender, leafless scapes bearing terminal umbels of few to several small flowers, each subtended by an involucre of small bracts. The corolla is white, occasionally pinkish, with a short tube, yellow eye and five spreading lobes; the calyx is deeply lobed and accrescent. The fruit is a globose, five-valved capsule containing numerous small, angular brown seeds.

The species belongs to the annual, rosette-forming section of Androsace, contrasting with the perennial cushion species of the high alpine zone. Its weedy, self-compatible annual strategy and prolific seed production underlie its remarkable distribution and frequency in anthropogenic habitats. It is of no conservation concern, being among the commonest lowland and montane androsaces, and is sometimes used in traditional medicine across its East Asian range.

Author: (Lour.) Merr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Primulaceae), Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Smith & Lowe monograph of Androsace

Ranunculaceae

Anemonastrum rupestre 

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin

Nepal 2009 29 ergebnis scaled
Nepal 2009 30 ergebnis scaled
Nepal Helambu Koktrok 3100m, May
BhutanPG2011 219 scaled
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4300m June
BhutanPG2011 344
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4300m June

Description

Anemonastrum rupestre (Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin is an alpine perennial of the Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded from Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 223 occurrences in GBIF. It inhabits open alpine meadows, rocky slopes, screes and grassy ledges, mostly between 3,000 and 4,500 m. The photographed plants span this range: one from Helambu, Koktrok, in central Nepal at 3,100 m flowering in May, and another from Jule-Tso in Bhutan at 4,300 m in June, illustrating its broad altitudinal occupation of the subalpine to alpine zone.

It is a tufted perennial herb arising from a stout rhizome, with the leaves largely basal and long-petiolate; the lamina is palmately divided into lobed and toothed segments. The flowering scape bears an involucre of leaf-like bracts subtending a few-flowered umbel-like cyme. The flowers lack true petals; the showy perianth consists of several white (sometimes pinkish or bluish-tinged) petaloid sepals surrounding numerous stamens and a head of free carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of laterally compressed, glabrous to pubescent achenes with a short persistent style.

The species was traditionally placed in Anemone, but molecular and morphological studies have led to its transfer to the segregate genus Anemonastrum (Ranunculaceae), characterised by basal leaves, bracteate scapes and compressed achenes. This taxonomic realignment reflects the modern reclassification of the Anemone alliance. As a widespread high-altitude element of the Sino-Himalayan flora occupying extensive natural habitat, it is not of conservation concern, though it remains subject to grazing pressure across its alpine pastures.

Author: (Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Mosyakin reclassification of Anemone s.l., Ziman & Ehrendorfer studies of Anemone

Ranunculaceae

Anemonoides griffithii

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook. & Thomson) Holub

Sikkim 2006 438 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 351 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tamrong 2650m, May
Bhutan2014 325 scaled
Bhutan Tumching-La 2700m, May
Bhutan2014 330 scaled
Bhutan Tumching-La 2700m, May

Description

Anemonoides griffithii is a slender, woodland-floor perennial of the temperate eastern Himalaya, distributed through Sikkim, the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, Bhutan and adjacent southern Tibet (Xizang); GBIF, which records the species under the name Anemonoides griffithii, holds only a sparse occurrence dataset (a single georeferenced point from China), reflecting how thinly this shade-dwelling herb is documented despite a genuinely wider range. It favours the cool, humus-rich understorey of mixed conifer and broad-leaved forest and damp shrubberies, where it flowers in late spring as the canopy leafs out. The accompanying images, gathered at Tamrong (2650 m) in West Bengal and at the Tumching-La pass (2700 m) in Bhutan, both in May, place the plant squarely in its characteristic mid-montane band between roughly 2500 and 3500 m, in the moist, mossy conditions typical of the monsoon-fed Himalayan flank.

The plant arises from a short, creeping rhizome and is a delicate herb seldom exceeding 15-25 cm. The basal leaves are long-petiolate and ternately to palmately divided, with deeply incised, toothed segments and a thin, soft texture. The flowering stem bears a whorl of three stalked involucral leaves resembling reduced basal leaves, above which is borne a solitary terminal flower. There are no true petals; the showy perianth consists of five to several petaloid sepals, white often flushed pink or purple beneath, surrounding numerous stamens and a head of carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of small, ovoid, pubescent achenes tipped by a short style, dispersed as the involucre withers.

The species belongs to Anemonoides, a segregate genus split from the broadly circumscribed Anemone to accommodate the rhizomatous, woodland anemones of the A. nemorosa alliance, and many references still treat it under Anemone griffithii. Within the Himalaya it is one of several closely allied spring-flowering forest anemones, distinguished by leaf dissection and perianth colour. As a low-growing, monsoon-region understorey herb it has not been formally assessed for conservation status, but its dependence on intact temperate forest makes it locally sensitive to logging and grazing pressure across its restricted eastern-Himalayan range.

Author: (Hook. & Thomson) Holub · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of China Vol. 6, Flora of Nepal, Tamura's Ranunculaceae treatment in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants

Brassicaceae

Aphragmus minutus

by G & P Jürgens

(H.Hara) Al-Shehbaz, G.Q.Hao & J.Q.Liu

Nepal 99 640 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 5000m, July

Description

Aphragmus minutus is a diminutive crucifer of the highest Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan and Indo-Burmese mountains, recorded by GBIF (about 34 occurrences) from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. It is a subnival specialist, growing on open scree, gravelly flats, moraine and fine-grained alpine soils close to the upper limit of vascular plant life, where it endures intense cold, wind and a very short growing season. The illustrated plant was found in West Nepal on the Kagmara La at about 5000 m in July, an elevation typical of the species and among the highest at which flowering plants occur in the region.

It is a tiny, low, cushion- or rosette-forming perennial, as the epithet minutus implies, arising from a slender taproot crowned by a branched caudex. The leaves are crowded, small, entire or slightly toothed, spathulate to oblanceolate, glabrous or nearly so. The flowers are borne in a short, congested raceme scarcely raised above the foliage; each has four greenish sepals and four small white to pale lilac petals in the cruciform arrangement of the family, with tetradynamous stamens. The fruit is a short, oblong to ellipsoid silicula with a persistent style, dehiscing to release a few seeds, its compact form an adaptation to the brief alpine summer.

The species was transferred to Aphragmus on molecular and morphological grounds, the binomial (H. Hara) Al-Shehbaz, G. Q. Hao and J. Q. Liu reflecting that recombination; Aphragmus is a small high-Asian genus of the Brassicaceae centred on the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau. As an extreme high-altitude cushion plant it is naturally rare and very localised but faces few direct threats beyond climate change, which may compress the habitat of such ceiling-dwelling alpines.

Author: (H.Hara) Al-Shehbaz, G.Q.Hao & J.Q.Liu · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Al-Shehbaz's systematic studies of Asian Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae

Aphragmus oxycarpus

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) Jafri

Nepal 99 635 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 5000m, July
BhutanPG2011 415
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La 4400m July

Description

Aphragmus oxycarpus is a high-alpine crucifer of the Himalaya and adjacent Central Asian and Tibetan ranges, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar; the distant European, British, Japanese and North American records (some 540 in total) represent database artefacts rather than native populations. It is a cushion- to mat-forming plant of the upper alpine and subnival zones, colonising scree, moraine, gravelly slopes and the margins of late-lying snow. The documented stations are strikingly high: West Nepal's Kagmara-La at around 5000 m and Bhutan's Warrtlang-La at about 4400 m, both flowering in July during the brief alpine summer.

It is a small perennial herb with a stout, often multicipital caudex topped by rosettes of fleshy, spathulate to oblanceolate leaves with entire or slightly toothed margins. The flowering stems are short and few-leaved, bearing compact corymbose racemes of small white to pale lilac flowers with the four spreading petals and tetradynamous stamens characteristic of the family. The fruit, from which the epithet derives, is an ovoid to lanceolate, acute-tipped silicle that is somewhat flattened and few-seeded, the septum often reduced or perforate as is typical of the genus.

Aphragmus is a small genus of high-mountain Brassicaceae whose generic and species limits have been repeatedly revised through molecular work, and A. oxycarpus, originally described under Hooker and Thomson and later transferred by Jafri, exemplifies the dwarf, snow-bed habit of the group. Such plants endure extreme cold, intense radiation and a very short growing season, relying on the caudex for perennation. The species is widespread across remote high terrain and faces no recognised threat, though alpine cushion communities are increasingly cited as sensitive indicators of climate-driven upslope shifts.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) Jafri · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Al-Shehbaz revisionary studies of Aphragmus (Brassicaceae)

Ranunculaceae

Aquilegia nivalis

by G & P Jürgens

(Baker) Falc. ex Munz.

Nepal 99 157 ergebnis
Nepal 99 156 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Tara-Lake 3300m, June
Garh 07 128 ergebnis
Garh 07 129 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3400m, June

Description

Aquilegia nivalis is a dwarf alpine columbine of the western Himalaya, with GBIF recording around 105 occurrences from Pakistan, India and Nepal. It is restricted to the high alpine zone, growing in moist rocky meadows, screes, glacial moraine and snowbed turf, broadly between 3300 and 4500 m. The photographed plants come from West Nepal south of Tara Lake (3300 m, June) and from Garhwal in India at Meggu Kichatti (3400 m, June), flowering soon after snowmelt on cool, well-drained, gravelly substrates near the upper limit of vascular vegetation.

The plant is a compact perennial arising from a stout rootstock, forming a low tuft of long-petioled, ternately divided basal leaves with rounded, lobed, somewhat glaucous segments. The flowering stem is short and often single-flowered, nodding the large solitary flower well above the foliage. The flower is dark purple to blackish-violet, with five petaloid sepals and five tubular petals each prolonged backward into a short, stout, incurved spur far shorter than in lowland columbines. Numerous stamens surround the carpels, the inner stamens reduced to membranous staminodes. The fruit is a cluster of erect, beaked follicles releasing small black seeds.

Aquilegia (Ranunculaceae) is a model genus for the study of rapid adaptive radiation, in which spur length and flower colour track pollinator shifts; the very short spur and dark, nodding flower of A. nivalis reflect adaptation to a harsh, short alpine season. GBIF treats the name as accepted. Its narrow western-Himalayan range and high-elevation specialism make it a notable endemic, potentially sensitive to climatic warming and snowpack change.

Author: (Baker) Falc. ex Munz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of British India, Munz monograph of Aquilegia

Ranunculaceae

Aquilegia pubiflora

by G & P Jürgens

Royle

Nepal 99 65 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2700m, June
Garh 07 245 ergebnis
India Garhwal Barron Chatti 2450m, June

Description

Aquilegia pubiflora is a columbine of the western and central Himalaya, recorded from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and adjacent China. It grows in shady forest, scrub, grassy slopes, stream banks and rocky places in the temperate montane belt, generally between about 2000 and 3600 m. The photographed plants come from Nyor Gaad in West Nepal at around 2700 m and from Barron Chatti in Indian Garhwal at about 2450 m, both flowering in June. With around 240 georeferenced occurrences it is a moderately well-documented and characteristic Himalayan member of its genus along forest margins and in semi-open habitats of the inner valleys.

It is an erect perennial herb up to about 1 m, arising from a stout rootstock, the stems branched above and finely pubescent. The leaves are mostly basal and biternate, the leaflets obovate and lobed, glaucous and softly hairy especially beneath. The nodding to half-nodding flowers are borne on slender pedicels; each has five petaloid sepals and five petals, the petals prolonged backward into prominent hooked or incurved nectar spurs that are the diagnostic feature of Aquilegia. The flowers are pale to deep purple, lilac or whitish, finely pubescent on the outside, as the epithet pubiflora indicates. The numerous stamens are exserted, the inner ones forming membranous staminodes, and the carpels are five and free, ripening into erect, pubescent, many-seeded follicles.

Aquilegia pubiflora belongs to the Asian assemblage of the genus and is distinguished by its softly hairy, spurred flowers and biternate foliage; it intergrades with related Himalayan columbines and has been treated under varying circumscriptions. Like other columbines it is pollinated by long-tongued insects attracted to the nectar spurs. As a widespread temperate herb it is of least conservation concern.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora Iranica, Munz monograph of Aquilegia