Author

G & P Jürgens

Liliaceae

Lilium wallichianum

by G & P Jürgens

Schult.f.

Bhutan2012 515
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September
Bhutan2012 516
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September

Description

Lilium wallichianum is a tall, trumpet-flowered lily of the Himalaya, ranging from northern India and Nepal through Bhutan to Myanmar, with naturalised or cultivated occurrences elsewhere; GBIF records (c. 217) reflect both its native distribution and its presence in cultivation. In the wild it grows on grassy and shrubby slopes, in forest clearings, scrub and along the margins of temperate forest, generally between about 1500 and 2700 m. The photographed plant from Wangdi (Wangdue Phodrang) in Bhutan, at 2600 m and flowering in September, is characteristic of its late-summer to autumn flowering in mid-elevation montane vegetation.

The plant arises from a stoloniferous, white, scaly bulb and produces a stout, erect stem up to 1–2 m tall bearing scattered, narrowly linear to linear-lanceolate leaves. The flowers are large, solitary or few, long-tubular to trumpet-shaped and powerfully fragrant; the six perianth segments are white, often flushed greenish or rose-purple externally, recurving at the tips. The flowers are typically held horizontally or somewhat declined, with six stamens bearing versatile anthers and a long, slender style ending in a three-lobed stigma. The fruit is an erect, oblong, loculicidal capsule containing numerous flat, papery, wind-dispersed seeds.

Lilium wallichianum belongs to the trumpet- or Aurelian-lily group (section Leucolirion / Lilium), the Asiatic trumpet lilies prized in horticulture for their fragrance and elegant form; it has contributed to the breeding of garden trumpet hybrids. The epithet commemorates Nathaniel Wallich, the Danish botanist who pioneered the study of Himalayan flora. Although locally not uncommon, wild populations of showy lilies are vulnerable to bulb collection and grazing, warranting habitat protection.

Author: Schult.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, The Genus Lilium (Liberty Hyde Bailey / Comber classification)

Boraginaceae

Lindelofia longiflora 

by G & P Jürgens

Baill.

Nepal 99 350 ergebnis
Nepal Kalomura 3710m, June
Nepal 99 350 ergebnis
Nepal Kalomura 3710m, June

Description

Lindelofia longiflora (Benth.) Baill. is a robust perennial herb of the borage family native to the western and central Himalaya and the adjoining mountains of Central Asia. Its core native range covers Pakistan, northern India and Nepal, with numerous additional records from Europe, North America, Russia and New Zealand reflecting its cultivation as an ornamental and its escape from gardens. It grows in open subalpine and alpine meadows, on grassy slopes, forest margins and stony banks, generally between about 2,500 and 4,000 m. The photographed plant at Kalomura in Nepal, recorded at 3,710 m in June, is typical of its preference for moist, well-drained montane grassland during the early monsoon flush.

The plant develops from a stout, woody rootstock, producing erect, leafy, bristly-hairy stems. The leaves are alternate, the lower long-petiolate and the upper sessile, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, entire and roughly hispid on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a terminal, often branched, scorpioid cyme bearing nodding flowers; the corolla is deep violet-blue to purple, tubular and conspicuously long, exceeding the calyx, with prominent scales (fornices) in the throat. The fruit comprises four nutlets that are flattened and marginally winged with a row of hooked, glochidiate spines aiding epizoochorous dispersal.

Lindelofia belongs to tribe Cynoglosseae, near Cynoglossum and Adelocaryum, and the long-tubed, winged-nutlet morphology distinguishes it within the group. The species is widely grown in alpine and herbaceous-border horticulture, which accounts for its scattered naturalised occurrences across temperate regions. Within its native Himalayan range it remains common and is not considered threatened, while in some introduced areas its self-sowing habit warrants monitoring.

Author: Baill. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Kazmi: Boraginaceae of West Pakistan and Kashmir

Plantaginaceae

Lindenbergia muraria

by G & P Jürgens

(Roxburgh ex D. Don) Brühl

Bhutan2015 73
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 1500m, October
Bhutan2012 410
Bhutan Wangdi 2700m, September
Bhutan2012 654
Bhutan Tserang 1200m, September

Description

Lindenbergia muraria is a widespread herb of warm-temperate and subtropical Asia, recorded across India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and into parts of Arabia and Africa; GBIF logs 585 occurrences over this broad range. As its epithet implies, it is a colonist of old walls, rock crevices, stony banks, roadsides and waste ground, generally from the lowlands up to about 2700 m. The illustrated plants come from several Bhutanese stations, Wangdue Phodrang at 1500 m in October, Wangdue at 2700 m in September and Tsirang at 1200 m in September, spanning the autumn flowering of this ruderal species across a wide elevational band.

The plant is an erect to ascending annual or short-lived perennial herb, the stems softly pubescent and often glandular-hairy. Leaves are opposite below and sometimes alternate above, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, with a serrate margin and short petiole. The flowers are solitary or paired in the upper leaf axils, forming a leafy terminal spike-like inflorescence; each has a tubular, five-toothed calyx and a yellow, two-lipped corolla with a short tube, the lower lip three-lobed and often marked. There are four didynamous stamens, and the superior ovary ripens into a small, ovoid, septicidal capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

Lindenbergia, long placed in Scrophulariaceae, is now referred to the broadly circumscribed Plantaginaceae (consistent with the input family) following molecular reclassification, occupying a basal position near the family's scrophularioid lineages. POWO and GBIF accept the name. Its tolerance of walls and disturbed mineral substrates underlies its wide, weedy distribution across monsoon Asia.

Author: (Roxburgh ex D. Don) Brühl · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Revision of Lindenbergia (Plantaginaceae/Scrophulariaceae)

Fagaceae

Lithocarpus fenestratus

by G & P Jürgens

(Roxb.) Rehder

Bhutan2015 82
Bhutan Wangdi Galegphug 800m, October
Bhutan2015 83
Bhutan Wangdi Galegphug 800m, October

Description

Lithocarpus fenestratus is an evergreen stone-oak widely distributed across the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma, ranging from Nepal, Bhutan and north-eastern India through Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia into southern China and Taiwan. GBIF aggregates over 1080 occurrences, concentrated in the montane forests of South-East Asia and the Sino-Himalayan borderlands. It is a canopy or sub-canopy tree of subtropical and warm-temperate evergreen broad-leaved forest, often in mixed laurel-oak associations on hill slopes, generally from the lowlands up to around 2000 m. The tree photographed in Bhutan near Wangdue/Gelephu (800 m, October) reflects its presence in the warm foothill forests of the southern Bhutanese duars.

The species is a medium to large tree with greyish, fissured bark and stout twigs. The leaves are simple, alternate, coriaceous, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, entire and pinnately veined, glabrous and lustrous above and often glaucous or thinly tomentose beneath. The flowers are unisexual, borne in erect catkin-like spikes, the male inflorescences elongate and the female flowers seated singly or in clusters at the base of mixed spikes. The diagnostic fruit is the acorn: a hard nut wholly or largely enclosed by a woody cupule covered in concentric, often lamellate rings, maturing over more than one season and dispersed by gravity and rodents.

Lithocarpus is a large Asian genus distinguished from Quercus by its erect (rather than pendulous) male catkins and its frequently enclosing, ringed cupules. L. fenestratus, transferred to the genus by Rehder, has a broad range and considerable foliar variation, and several infraspecific taxa have been recognised regionally. As a widespread, often dominant forest tree it is not globally threatened, though locally exploited for timber and important as mast for forest wildlife.

Author: (Roxb.) Rehder · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Thailand, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, monograph of Asian Lithocarpus (Camus)

Fagaceae

Lithocarpus pachyphyllus

by G & P Jürgens

Rehder

Sikkim 2006 222 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 221 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ramman 2250m, May

Description

Lithocarpus pachyphyllus is a stone oak widely distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, with records from China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand and Vietnam and a substantial occurrence base of around 229 georeferenced collections. It is a canopy and subcanopy tree of montane evergreen broadleaved forest, forming a conspicuous element of the laurophyllous oak-laurel belt on humid, well-drained slopes. The tree photographed at Ramman in West Bengal (India) at about 2250 m in May represents its characteristic position in the mid-montane cloud-forest zone, where Lithocarpus and Quercus species dominate the wet temperate forests of the southern Himalayan front.

It is an evergreen tree with a dense, rounded crown and grey, finely fissured bark. The leaves are coriaceous and pachyphyllous (thick-textured, as the epithet indicates), elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, entire-margined, glabrous and glossy above and dull beneath, with a prominent midrib and arcuate lateral veins. As in all Lithocarpus, the staminate flowers are borne in erect, rigid catkins rather than the pendulous catkins of true oaks, while the pistillate flowers are clustered at the base of the inflorescence axis. The fruit is a thick-walled nut seated in a woody cupule whose scales are typically arranged in concentric rings; the acorns are often densely aggregated along the rachis.

Lithocarpus is distinguished from Quercus chiefly by its erect staminate catkins and frequently aggregated, sessile fruits, features expressed clearly in this species. Its heavy, animal-dispersed acorns provide an important mast resource for montane wildlife, while the species contributes substantially to the structure and carbon stock of Himalayan oak forest. Although not currently of conservation concern across its broad range, local populations are reduced by timber extraction and the conversion of mid-elevation forest, making it a key indicator of intact wet temperate woodland.

Author: Rehder · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Camus Les Chênes: Monographie du genre Lithocarpus

Liliaceae

Lloydia longiscapa

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.

Nepal 99 296 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4100m, June
Garh 07 380 ergebnis
Garh 07 396 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3900m, June

Description

Lloydia longiscapa Hook. is a delicate bulbous geophyte of the high Himalaya. According to GBIF (about 75 occurrences) it ranges across Nepal, northern India, southern China (Tibetan plateau margins) and Bhutan, growing in alpine meadows, on grassy and rocky slopes and among open turf near the upper limit of vegetation. It is a true high-alpine plant, recorded chiefly between 3,500 and 4,500 m. The populations documented at Kalmura in West Nepal (4,100 m) and Khiar Kutti in Garhwal (3,900 m), both flowering in June, illustrate its phenology as a snow-melt species that emerges and blooms shortly after the retreat of the winter snowpack.

The plant develops from a small ovoid bulb enclosed in membranous tunics, producing one or few slender stems. The leaves are narrowly linear, almost grass-like, with basal leaves longer than the few reduced cauline ones. The flowers are solitary or few, erect, broadly campanulate, with six free, white to pale yellowish tepals usually marked with fine purplish veins and a small nectary at the base; the long, slender scape gives the species its epithet "longiscapa". Stamens are six, the ovary superior and three-locular, maturing into a loculicidal capsule containing numerous flat seeds.

GBIF flags this name as a synonym; the genus Lloydia is now widely subsumed within Gamochaeta-unrelated Gagea (Gagea sensu lato), so the taxon is best treated under the accepted concept indicated by current authorities while retaining Lloydia longiscapa as the working name. As a snow-bed and alpine-turf specialist it exemplifies the bulbous "spring ephemeral" strategy adapted to short Himalayan growing seasons, and its restricted high-elevation habitat warrants attention under scenarios of alpine climate change.

Author: Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Stearn: Notes on the genus Lloydia

Liliaceae

Lloydia yunnanensis

by G & P Jürgens

Franch.

BhutanPG2011 123
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Lloydia yunnanensis is a small alpine bulbous herb ranging across south-central China (notably Yunnan and Xizang), the Indian Himalaya, Bhutan and Nepal, with around one hundred and thirty GBIF records testifying to a fairly continuous high-mountain distribution. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadows, on grassy and rocky slopes, in open scrub and among rocks, typically between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m, flowering in June, is characteristic of its early-summer flowering as the snow recedes from the upper pastures it favours.

The species arises from a small ovoid bulb with a fibrous tunic and produces a slender, erect stem. The leaves are few, narrowly linear and grass-like, the lower ones basal and the upper cauline and reduced. The flowers are solitary or few, erect, with six free, spreading tepals that are white to pale yellow, often veined or tinged with purple toward the base and bearing a nectary at the inner base; the six stamens have slender filaments and the superior ovary bears a single style. The fruit is a small loculicidal capsule containing numerous flat seeds.

Lloydia yunnanensis is here treated under the accepted name Lloydia yunnanensis. Although the genus Lloydia has frequently been merged into Gagea in modern molecular treatments, the segregate name is retained here following the input. Its dwarf stature, bulb-protected perennating organ and rapid post-snowmelt flowering are classic adaptations to the brief alpine growing season. The species is widespread and not regarded as threatened, though high-altitude grassland degradation could affect local populations.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Peruzzi & Zarrei revision of Gagea/Lloydia (Liliaceae monograph)

Campanulaceae

Lobelia nicotianifolia

by G & P Jürgens

Roth

Bhutan2015 35
Bhutan Dochu-La 2700m, October
Bhutan2015 36
Bhutan Dochu-La 2700m, October
Bhutan2014 286
Bhutan Trithangebe at a farm, 800m May
Bhutan2012 338
Bhutan Dochu-La 3000m, September

Description

Lobelia nicotianifolia is a robust, wide-ranging lobelia of the Indian subcontinent and tropical Asia, documented from India, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Bhutan, Laos, Malaysia and Taiwan, with around 763 occurrences making it one of the better-collected species in this set; New World records reflect cultivation or error. It occupies a wide altitudinal span, from warm foothill farmland to cool montane forest margins, favouring open, disturbed, moist ground along roadsides, clearings and field edges. The Bhutanese collections illustrate this breadth, ranging from a farm at Trithangebe at about 800 m in May to the Dochu-La between roughly 2700 and 3000 m flowering in September and October.

It is a tall, stout biennial or short-lived perennial herb, sometimes exceeding two metres, with an erect, little-branched stem exuding acrid milky latex when cut. The leaves are large, alternate, lanceolate to elliptic, finely toothed and tobacco-like in size and texture, hence the epithet nicotianifolia, the lower ones forming a substantial basal array. The flowers are borne in a long, dense terminal raceme; each is zygomorphic with a tubular, two-lipped corolla, typically pale greenish-white to bluish, split nearly to the base, the upper lip of two narrow lobes and the lower of three, the stamens connate into a staminal tube around the style. The fruit is a many-seeded capsule dehiscing at the apex.

Within Campanulaceae, Lobelia is a large genus distinguished by strongly bilabiate flowers and syngenesious anthers, and tall species such as this are notable for their imposing single-stemmed inflorescences and their pyridine alkaloids related to lobeline, giving them a long history of medicinal and folk use. The acrid latex deters herbivores, and the protandrous flowers favour outcrossing by insect visitors. Common and adaptable across a vast range, the species is of no conservation concern and behaves as a colonist of disturbed, anthropogenic habitats.

Author: Roth · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Lammers's monographic studies of Lobelia (Campanulaceae)

Campanulaceae

Lobelia nummularia

by G & P Jürgens

Lam.

Sikkim 2006 457 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ruigi-Chu 2100m, May

Description

Lobelia nummularia is a creeping, mat-forming perennial herb of the Campanulaceae (subfamily Lobelioideae), widely distributed across tropical and subtropical Asia. GBIF data (over 2,600 occurrences) confirm a broad native range spanning the eastern Himalaya, southern China, Taiwan, Indochina, the Malesian region and Papua New Guinea, with naturalised or cultivated records further afield. The species favours shaded, humid forest floors, mossy banks, ravine sides and the margins of streams in evergreen broadleaved and subtropical montane forest. The collection from the Ruigi-Chu valley in West Bengal at 2,100 m in May illustrates its habit of carpeting damp, sheltered ground in the lower montane belt.

The slender, prostrate stems root at the nodes and form extensive mats. Leaves are alternate, small, orbicular to broadly ovate or cordate, shortly petiolate, with shallowly crenate to serrate margins, the rounded coin-like blades giving rise to the epithet nummularia. The solitary axillary flowers are borne on long, filiform pedicels. The corolla is bilabiate, pale purplish-pink to whitish, with the two upper lobes erect and the three lower lobes spreading; the five anthers are fused into a tube around the style. The fruit is a small, more or less globose to subglobose capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

Members of subfamily Lobelioideae are characterised by their resupinate, strongly zygomorphic flowers and connate anthers, and like many lobelias the species contains piperidine alkaloids. As a ground-cover element of intact understorey, L. nummularia contributes to soil stabilisation on humid forest banks. Its very wide distribution renders it secure overall, though forest clearance threatens local populations dependent on continuous shade and humidity.

Author: Lam. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Lammers: World Checklist and Bibliography of Campanulaceae (2007)

Campanulaceae

Lobelia pyramidalis

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Garw 2005 418 ergebnis
India Garhwal Didina 2470m, September

Description

Lobelia pyramidalis is a widespread Asian lobelia ranging through the Himalaya and into mainland Southeast Asia and southern China, with GBIF records from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Thailand and Japan (a few extralimital records from the United States represent cultivation or introductions). Its nearly 419 documented occurrences confirm a broad and well-collected distribution. The species grows on grassy banks, open hillsides, forest margins, roadside cuttings and moist disturbed ground from the lowlands up to roughly 2,800 m. The photographed plant from Didina in Garhwal, India, at 2,470 m flowering in September illustrates its preference for the temperate Himalayan zone, where it flowers late in or after the monsoon.

The plant is an erect biennial or short-lived perennial herb with a tall, simple, pyramidal flowering stem reaching up to a metre or more. The leaves are alternate, sessile and crowded below, lanceolate to oblanceolate with finely toothed margins, the lower ones forming a basal rosette. The inflorescence is a long, dense, spike-like terminal raceme of many small zygomorphic flowers, each subtended by a leafy bract; the corolla is bilabiate and pale blue to lilac or whitish, with the two upper lobes erect and the three lower lobes spreading. The fruit is a small two-valved capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

The species belongs to Lobelia subgenus Tupa-related Asian lineages and, like its congeners, contains piperidine alkaloids that render it acrid and medicinally noteworthy in folk traditions. Its tolerance of disturbed and secondary habitats makes it locally common and of no conservation concern. Its wide latitudinal and altitudinal amplitude makes it a useful indicator of the disturbed grassland flora across monsoonal Asia.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Lammers: World Checklist and Bibliography of Campanulaceae