Author

G & P Jürgens

Magnoliaceae

Magnolia hodgsonii

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Keng

Sikkim 2006 492 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chaana 1700m, May

Description

Magnolia hodgsonii is an evergreen tree of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, distributed through northeast India, Nepal, Bhutan, southern China (Yunnan, Xizang), Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and into Malesia. It is a component of warm, humid subtropical to lower montane broad-leaved evergreen forest, favouring sheltered valleys, ravines and moist hill slopes on deep soils. It generally occurs from the lowlands to around 1,800 m; the tree photographed at Chaana in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal at 1,700 m in May exemplifies its upper subtropical forest habitat, flowering at the close of the dry season.

The plant is a medium-sized to large tree with smooth grey bark and stout twigs. The leaves are large, alternate, often clustered toward the branch tips, obovate to elliptic-oblong, coriaceous, glabrous and entire, with a prominent venation. The solitary, terminal flowers are large and fragrant, with creamy-white to pale yellow tepals arranged in several whorls; the numerous stamens and the apocarpous gynoecium of free carpels are borne on an elongate floral axis. The fruit is an ellipsoid to ovoid aggregate of follicles which split to expose seeds enveloped in a fleshy red to orange sarcotesta, dispersed by birds.

The species, with basionym attributed to Hooker f. and Thomson and recombined by H. Keng, was formerly placed in the segregate genus Talauma, now subsumed within a broadly circumscribed Magnolia. As an archaic, beetle-pollinated member of one of the most basal angiosperm lineages, it is of considerable evolutionary interest. Valued for its timber and ornamental flowers, it is subject to selective logging and forest clearance, and warm-temperate populations on the forest fringe merit monitoring where habitat loss is ongoing.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Keng · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Figlar & Nooteboom: Magnoliaceae notes

Magnoliaceae

Magnolia kisopa

by G & P Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Figlar

Bhutan2012 435
Bhutan Dochu-La 2500m, October
Bhutan2015 517
Bhutan Dochu-La 2500m, October
Bhutan2015 519
Bhutan Dochu-La 2500m, October

Description

Magnolia kisopa (Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Figlar is a Himalayan tree distributed across Nepal, China, India, Vietnam, Bhutan and Cambodia, with GBIF recording some 129 occurrences. It is a component of cool temperate to subtropical broad-leaved forest, on humid, well-drained slopes, in ravines and along forest margins in the mid-montane belt. The Bhutanese material from the Dochu-La at 2500 m, photographed in October, places it in the cool temperate evergreen and mixed forest zone, where it occurs as a scattered understorey to canopy tree.

It is a deciduous or semi-evergreen tree with smooth to slightly fissured bark and stout young twigs bearing the conspicuous stipular scars of the family. The leaves are simple, alternate, obovate to oblanceolate, entire-margined, with an acuminate apex and cuneate base, often glaucous beneath. The flowers are large, solitary and terminal, with a perianth of several free, fleshy white to creamy tepals undifferentiated into sepals and petals, surrounding the floral axis bearing numerous spiral stamens and free carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of follicles forming an oblong, cone-like etaerio dehiscing to expose seeds with a fleshy red sarcotesta.

Magnolia kisopa, formerly placed in Michelia, was transferred to a broadly circumscribed Magnolia by Figlar following molecular evidence uniting these Asian magnoliids. It belongs to the evergreen-leaved magnolias of the Sino-Himalayan and Southeast Asian region, an ancient lineage with beetle pollination and bird-dispersed arillate seeds. As a tree valued for timber and ornament, populations are locally affected by forest clearance, and the wider genus includes many taxa of conservation concern.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Figlar · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Figlar & Nooteboom magnolioid classification of the Magnoliaceae

Boraginaceae

Maharanga bicolor

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex G. Don) A. DC.

BhutanPG2011 846
Bhutan Paro-Chu 2400m, July
Nepal 99 477 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3300m, June

Description

Maharanga bicolor (Wall. ex G. Don) A. DC. is a Himalayan herb of the borage family, recorded by GBIF in 64 occurrences from China (CN), Nepal (NP), Bhutan (BT) and India (IN). It grows on open grassy slopes, rocky banks, forest margins and alpine meadows of the temperate to subalpine zone. The image documents two populations: the Paro-Chu valley in Bhutan at 2400 m in July and the Churta-Khola in West Nepal at 3300 m in June, illustrating the species' typical mid- to high-elevation Himalayan range during the early monsoon.

The plant is a perennial herb arising from a thickened, often reddish rootstock, with erect or ascending stems clothed, like the whole plant, in stiff bristly hairs typical of the family. The leaves are alternate, oblong to lanceolate, sessile or shortly stalked and hispid on both surfaces. The flowers are nodding, borne in terminal scorpioid cymes; the corolla is tubular to narrowly campanulate or urceolate, contracted at the mouth and often bicoloured in yellow and dark purple or maroon, with the anthers conspicuously exserted in a connivent cone, a feature distinguishing Maharanga from the closely related Onosma. The fruit comprises up to four hard, ovoid nutlets.

Maharanga is a small Sino-Himalayan genus segregated from Onosma chiefly by its connate, exserted anthers and pendent flowers, and its species are characteristic elements of the open Himalayan flora. The bristly indumentum and reddish roots, which yield dyes in some relatives, are shared features of the Lithospermeae. The pendent tubular flowers are adapted to insect, probably bumblebee, pollination. With a restricted Himalayan range and dependence on open montane habitats, the genus is of biogeographic interest, though M. bicolor remains locally frequent and is not regarded as threatened.

Author: (Wall. ex G. Don) A. DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Boraginaceae revision (Maharanga; I. M. Johnston, Onosma and allied genera)

Boraginaceae

Maharanga emodi

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

BhutanPG2011 99 scaled
Bhutan Chogcham, 3400m June
Nepal 99 42 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June

Description

Maharanga emodi is a striking bristly herb of the Himalaya and adjacent China, recorded from Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, with GBIF documenting 170 occurrences. It grows on open alpine and subalpine slopes, rocky banks, grazed meadows and cliff ledges. The images derive from Chogcham in Bhutan at about 3400 m and from Nyor Gaad in West Nepal at about 2800 m, both flowering in June, illustrating its mid- to high-montane range across the chain.

The plant is a perennial with a stout rootstock and erect to ascending stems densely clothed in stiff, often pustular-based hairs. The leaves are oblong to oblanceolate, rough-hairy and crowded below. The flowers are pendent in nodding, branched cymes; the corolla is tubular and somewhat inflated or urceolate, contracted at the mouth, typically yellow flushed with purple or wine-red, with the anthers connivent around the exserted style, a floral form distinctive of the genus.

GBIF treats this binomial as a synonym while listing Maharanga emodi as the accepted name, reflecting nomenclatural movement between Maharanga and Onosma. Maharanga is a small Himalayan segregate of Onosma defined largely by its inflated corolla and connate stamens, and its taxonomic independence has been debated; some authors subsume it within Onosma. Like its relatives the roots contain red dye pigments. Its showy flowers and montane habitat make it a conspicuous element of Himalayan slope vegetation.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Riedl's treatment of Boraginaceae

Asparagaceae

Maianthemum fuscum

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) LaFrankie

Sikkim 2006 229 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ramman 2100m, May

Description

Maianthemum fuscum is a rhizomatous woodland herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent mountains of southwestern China, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan and Vietnam across roughly 303 georeferenced occurrences. It inhabits cool, moist, shaded broadleaf and mixed forest, growing on humus-rich slopes, beneath rhododendron and oak canopy, and along streamsides in the temperate montane belt, generally between about 1,800 and 3,000 m. The photographed plant from Ramman in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal, India, at around 2,100 m in May is representative of its pre-monsoon flowering, the inflorescences appearing as the new leafy shoots unfurl on the forest floor.

The plant arises from a slender creeping rhizome bearing an erect, often arching aerial stem with several alternate, sessile to short-petioled leaves that are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate and prominently parallel-veined. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme or narrow panicle of small flowers, each flower with a typically six-parted perianth of free or basally connate tepals that are dull purplish-brown to dark maroon, giving the species its epithet fuscum ("dusky"). There are six stamens and a superior ovary maturing into a small globose berry that ripens through mottled to red or purplish-black, containing few seeds and dispersed by birds.

Maianthemum fuscum was long placed in the genus Smilacina, and its transfer reflects the modern circumscription of Maianthemum to encompass the trimerous-flowered Asian "false Solomon's seals" alongside the dimerous North-temperate species; the family placement follows the broad Asparagaceae of APG, the group having previously been treated under Convallariaceae or Liliaceae. Within the Himalaya it is one of several closely related forest Maianthemum species whose vegetative similarity makes them dependent on floral and fruit characters for reliable identification. The species is locally common, not regarded as threatened, but like other shade-demanding rhizomatous herbs it is sensitive to canopy loss and forest disturbance.

Author: (Wall.) LaFrankie · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, LaFrankie's revision of Maianthemum (Smilacina) and the Convallariaceae

Asparagaceae

Maianthemum oleraceum

by G & P Jürgens

(Baker) LaFrankie

Sikkim 2006 58 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Kalipokkri 3100m, May

Description

Maianthemum oleraceum is a robust rhizomatous herb of the eastern Himalaya and western China, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with roughly 259 documented occurrences. It is a woodland species inhabiting moist temperate and subalpine forests, shaded ravines, shrubberies and forest clearings on deep humus-rich soils, often forming loose colonies through its spreading rhizome. In the Indian eastern Himalaya it reaches the upper montane belt, exemplified by the gathering near Kalipokkri in West Bengal at about 3100 m in May, when the species comes into flower at the close of the cool season.

The plant produces stout, erect to arching leafy stems from a thickened creeping rhizome. The leaves are several, alternate, sessile or shortly petiolate, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex and cordate to rounded at the base, with prominent arching venation. The inflorescence is a terminal branched panicle of numerous small flowers, each with six free, spreading, pinkish to greenish-white tepals and six stamens; the flowers are subtended by small bracts. The fruit is a globose berry, green and mottled when young, ripening through red to dark purple, containing few hard seeds.

Maianthemum, treated under Asparagaceae in modern classifications and long placed near Smilacina, comprises rhizomatous forest herbs of the northern hemisphere, of which M. oleraceum is one of the larger Asian species. The fleshy berries are dispersed by birds and small mammals, while clonal rhizome growth allows persistence in shaded understorey. The young shoots and leaves are gathered locally as a potherb, reflected in the epithet oleraceum. Common across its montane range, it is not considered threatened, though it depends on the maintenance of intact temperate forest.

Author: (Baker) LaFrankie · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, LaFrankie revision of Maianthemum (Smilacina)

Asparagaceae

Maianthemum purpureum

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) LaFrankie

BhutanPG2011 169
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June
Nepal 99 100 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3600m, June

Description

Maianthemum purpureum (Wall.) LaFrankie is a montane false Solomon's-seal of the Himalaya and southwestern China, with about 673 records from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Taiwan. It grows in shaded, humus-rich situations: fir and rhododendron forest, subalpine scrub, mossy stream banks and the edges of high meadows, typically in the upper temperate to subalpine belt around 3000 to 3800 m. The plants photographed at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m and south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3600 m, both in June, are typical of its cool, moist, snow-influenced woodland and forest-margin habitats.

The species is an erect rhizomatous perennial arising from a creeping, somewhat fleshy rhizome. The simple, unbranched stem bears several alternate, sessile to subsessile, ovate to elliptic leaves with conspicuous parallel venation. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme or narrow panicle of small flowers; in contrast to typical white-flowered Maianthemum, the perianth here is purple to dull reddish, with six free or shortly united tepals and six stamens. The fruit is a small globose berry that ripens red to purplish-black, each containing one to few seeds.

Long placed in Smilacina (and Tovaria), the species was transferred to a broadly circumscribed Maianthemum, which subsumes those segregate genera on molecular and morphological grounds. Its purple-flowered condition is notable within the predominantly white-flowered genus. The nectariferous flowers attract small insects, and the fleshy berries are dispersed by birds. Widespread across the Sino-Himalayan region and locally common in suitable forest, M. purpureum is not considered threatened, although it depends on the persistence of undisturbed montane woodland.

Author: (Wall.) LaFrankie · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, LaFrankie's revision of Maianthemum (incl. Smilacina)

Rosaceae

Malus baccata

by G & P Jürgens

(L.) Borkh.

Bhutan2014 407
Bhutan Jakar 2400m, May
Bhutan2014 408
Bhutan Jakar 2400m, May

Description

Malus baccata, the Siberian crab apple, is among the most broadly distributed wild apples, ranging across temperate and boreal East Asia from the Russian Far East and Siberia through Mongolia, northern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and extending into the Himalaya in Nepal, India, Bhutan and Afghanistan; the species is widely cultivated and naturalised in Europe and North America, accounting for records from Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Canada and the United States, with over 12,000 GBIF occurrences. In the eastern Himalaya it grows in temperate broad-leaved and mixed forest, margins, riverine thickets and open hillsides, as photographed near Jakar in central Bhutan at around 2400 m in May, when the trees are in full flower.

It is a deciduous tree reaching 10-14 m, with a rounded crown and reddish-brown, glabrous young shoots. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, 3-8 cm long, acuminate, finely serrate, glabrous or nearly so at maturity, on slender petioles. The flowers, borne in umbel-like corymbs of 4-6, are white, 3-3.5 cm across, with five rounded petals and styles connate and pubescent at the base. The fruit is a small globose pome 8-10 mm in diameter, red or yellow, lacking a persistent calyx, on a long slender pedicel, hanging conspicuously into autumn.

Malus baccata is the type of a polymorphic complex and is divided into several varieties and intergrading races across its range; Himalayan material has at times been segregated. As a cold-hardy, disease-resistant species it is of considerable importance in apple breeding and as a rootstock, and its abundant fruit is an autumn food resource for birds and mammals. It is of least concern conservation-wise, being common and widespread.

Author: (L.) Borkh. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, A Monograph of the Genus Malus (Rehder)

Lamiaceae

Marmoritis nivalis 

by G & P Jürgens

(Jacqu. ex Benth.) Hedge

Nepal 99 790 ergebnis
West-Nepal Baga-La-Phedi 4460m, July

Description

Marmoritis nivalis is a high-alpine herb of the Himalaya, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan and China; with only about 36 georeferenced records it is a sparsely collected, narrowly montane species. As the epithet "nivalis" indicates, it is a plant of the snow line, growing on open screes, stony alpine turf, moraine and rocky slopes typically between 4000 and 5000 m. The photographed individual from Baga-La-Phedi in West Nepal at 4460 m, flowering in July, exemplifies its occurrence in the cushion-and-scree zone above the timberline, where the short summer growing season coincides with the monsoon.

It is a low, mat-forming or tufted perennial herb arising from a branched woody caudex and slender rhizome, the stems short, ascending and grey-pubescent. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to orbicular, crenate, thick and densely hairy, an adaptation to cold, exposed, high-radiation habitats. The flowers are crowded in compact terminal heads subtended by leafy bracts; each corolla is bilabiate, pale violet to bluish, with a notched upper lip and a spreading three-lobed lower lip. The calyx is tubular and conspicuously veined, and the four stamens lie under the upper lip. The fruit consists of four small nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

This taxon is treated by GBIF as a synonym, with Marmoritis nivalis itself as the accepted name (combination by Hedge, based on Bentham's earlier name in Dracocephalum/Nepeta). Marmoritis is a small Sino-Himalayan genus segregated from the Nepeta alliance of the Lamiaceae. The cushion habit and dense indumentum are classic high-alpine adaptations. Pollination is by hardy bumblebees active in the brief alpine summer. Owing to its restricted, high-elevation range it warrants monitoring, though no formal threat status is established.

Author: (Jacqu. ex Benth.) Hedge · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hedge's treatment of Himalayan Nepeteae (Lamiaceae)

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis aculeata

by G & P Jürgens

Royle

Garh 07 548 ergebnis
Garh 07 447 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3850m, June

Description

Meconopsis aculeata is a Western Himalayan endemic of the high mountains of northern India, Pakistan and adjacent China (Tibet), extending marginally into Nepal; its roughly 249 GBIF records concentrate in the north-western ranges, with cultivated and herbarium material accounting for the scattered occurrences in Great Britain, Canada and Egypt. It grows on open alpine slopes, moist screes, rock crevices and moraine margins, typically between 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed population at Khiar Kutti in the Garhwal Himalaya of India, at 3850 m in June, is characteristic of its early-summer flowering on damp, stony alpine meadow.

It is a monocarpic or short-lived perennial herb forming a stout taproot and a basal rosette. The whole plant is densely armed with stiff, yellowish bristles and prickle-like setae, giving it its epithet aculeata. Leaves are oblong to oblanceolate, pinnately lobed to deeply pinnatifid, narrowed to a winged petiole. The flowering stem bears several large, nodding to spreading flowers; the four petals are clear sky-blue to purplish-blue, broadly obovate and crinkled. Stamens are numerous; the bristly ovary ripens into an ellipsoid, setose capsule dehiscing by short apical valves to release many small seeds.

Within Meconopsis, this species belongs to the blue-flowered, bristly poppies and is among the most widespread of the blue Himalayan poppies west of Nepal. Its dense armature is an adaptation to grazing and harsh exposure, and like many monocarpic Meconopsis it depends on a multi-year rosette to accumulate resources before a single flowering episode. It remains locally frequent and is not formally assessed as threatened, though habitat degradation and collection pressure are localised concerns.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of British India, The Genus Meconopsis (Grey-Wilson monograph)