Author

G & P Jürgens

Ericaceae

Rhododendron maddenii

by G & P Jürgens

Hook. f.

Sikkim2011 171
Sikkim Lachen 2760m, June
61F33B91D6814425A5DC452DD80DA368
Bhutan Paro, 2400m June

Description

Rhododendron maddenii is a temperate Himalayan and Indo-Burmese species native from India and Bhutan through China to Myanmar and Vietnam; GBIF's 432 records also reflect its wide cultivation, with occurrences logged from New Zealand, Australia, Britain, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the United States. In the wild it grows on steep, often rocky and humus-rich slopes, cliff ledges and the margins of temperate broadleaf and conifer forest, frequently as an epiphyte or lithophyte. The figured plants from Lachen in Sikkim at 2760 m and Paro in western Bhutan at 2400 m, both flowering in June, place it firmly within the cool temperate forest belt where summer monsoon moisture and high atmospheric humidity prevail.

It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, the bark smooth and peeling in papery flakes. The leaves are leathery, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, dark green and glabrous above, the undersurface densely covered with brown lepidote scales characteristic of the subgenus. The flowers, borne in terminal trusses of few blooms, are large, funnel-form to tubular-campanular and strongly fragrant, white often flushed with pink and scaly on the outside of the corolla tube. There are typically numerous stamens and a long style, the ovary lepidote. The fruit is an elongate, scaly, dehiscent capsule releasing many small seeds adapted to wind and epiphytic establishment.

Within Rhododendron subgenus Rhododendron, R. maddenii belongs to the large, taxonomically complex subsection Maddenia, distinguished by lepidote foliage and showy scented corollas, and it shows considerable variation in size and indumentum across its range. The fragrant, pale flowers attract long-tongued moths and other nocturnal pollinators. Long prized in horticulture, it is the source of many hybrids; in the wild it remains generally secure, though habitat loss and over-collection threaten some local populations.

Author: Hook. f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Rhododendron (Royal Horticultural Society), Cullen's revision of lepidote Rhododendron

Anacardiaceae

Rhus chinensis

by G & P Jürgens

Mill.

Bhutan2012 535
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September
Bhutan2015 252
Bhutan Zhemgang 900m, October

Description

Rhus chinensis is a widespread deciduous shrub or small tree of East and South Asia, recorded across China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and beyond, with more than ten thousand documented occurrences making it one of the most frequently collected sumacs in the region. It is a pioneer of open and disturbed ground, colonising forest margins, clearings, roadsides, scrub and abandoned cultivation from the lowlands into the montane zone. In Bhutan it ranges over a wide elevational band, as shown by collections near Wangdi at about 2600 m in September and at Zhemgang at 900 m in October, the autumn dates corresponding to fruiting.

The plant is a shrub to small tree with greyish bark and stout, often warted branchlets. The leaves are alternate and odd-pinnate, the rachis characteristically winged between the leaflets; the leaflets are ovate to oblong, coarsely serrate, acuminate, and tomentose beneath, turning red in autumn. The inflorescence is a large terminal pubescent panicle of numerous small whitish to greenish-yellow flowers, the plant functionally dioecious. The fruit is a small, flattened, reddish drupe covered with short hairs and a sour, salty surface bloom.

Rhus chinensis is the principal host of the Chinese sumac aphid Schlechtendalia chinensis, whose feeding induces large hollow leaf galls extraordinarily rich in tannins; these galls, known as Chinese galls or wubeizi, are harvested as a major commercial source of gallotannic acid and are valued in traditional medicine and dyeing. Wax from the fruit and the tannin-laden tissues have long been utilised economically. Hardy, fast-growing and broadly tolerant of disturbance, the species is abundant throughout its range and faces no conservation concern, functioning ecologically as an early-successional colonist.

Author: Mill. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Min & Barfod treatment of Anacardiaceae

Grossulariaceae

Ribes himalense

by G & P Jürgens

Royle ex Decne.

Garh 07 113 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3200m, June
Garh 07 114 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3200m, June

Description

Ribes himalense Royle ex Decne. is a deciduous currant of the Himalaya and the mountains of western China. Its native range, reflected in GBIF records from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan, China and Myanmar (with numerous European and North American records representing cultivated or naturalised material), spans the Himalaya into the Hengduan ranges. It inhabits subalpine forest, forest margins, streamsides and rocky slopes, typically between about 2,500 and 4,000 m. The plant from Meggu Kichatti in Garhwal at 3,200 m, fruiting in June, illustrates its occurrence in the upper temperate to subalpine belt.

The species is an erect, unarmed (spineless) shrub up to about 1–2 m tall with glabrous to glandular young branches. The alternate leaves are palmately three- to five-lobed, cordate at the base, with serrate lobes, glabrous or sparsely hairy. The flowers are borne in erect to spreading racemes; each flower has a shallowly saucer-shaped, greenish to purplish hypanthium, small reflexed sepals and minute petals, and is subtended by a bract. The fruit is a smooth, glabrous, red berry that is edible, ripening to a translucent crimson.

Ribes himalense belongs to the subgenus Ribes (the true unarmed currants) and is closely related to the European R. rubrum, with which it shares edible red fruit; it has been treated by some authors as a subspecies. The fruits are gathered locally and consumed, and the species is of interest as a wild relative of cultivated currants for breeding. It is widespread and of least concern.

Author: Royle ex Decne. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Pakistan, Berger: A Taxonomic Review of Currants and Gooseberries

Rosaceae

Rosa macrophylla

by G & P Jürgens

Lindl.

Garh 07 246 ergebnis
India Garhwal Barron Chatti 2450m, June
Garh 07 571 ergebnis
India Garhwal Barron Chatti 2450m, June

Description

Rosa macrophylla is a wild rose of the Himalaya and southwestern China, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with numerous cultivated occurrences across Europe and North America; GBIF holds around 1506 georeferenced records. It grows in open temperate to subalpine habitats: forest margins, scrub, shrubberies, riverbanks and grassy slopes, typically between about 2400 and 3700 m. The photographed plant from Barron Chatti in Garhwal, India, at 2450 m in June is characteristic of these mid-montane Himalayan settings, where it flowers in early summer along trails and woodland edges.

It is a deciduous shrub 2–4 m tall with stout, erect to arching reddish-purple stems that are usually sparsely armed with straight or slightly curved prickles, sometimes nearly unarmed. The leaves are imparipinnate with usually 7–11 leaflets, these elliptic to oblong, serrate, glaucous or pubescent beneath. The flowers are large, solitary or in few-flowered corymbs, with five broad bright deep-pink to crimson petals, numerous stamens, and a glandular-setose pedicel and receptacle. The fruit is a large, conspicuous, flask-shaped to oblong-ellipsoid scarlet-red hip crowned by the persistent erect sepals, enclosing numerous bony achenes.

Described by Lindley, Rosa macrophylla belongs to section Cinnamomeae, the cinnamon roses, and is distinguished by its large flowers, large persistent-sepalled hips and big leaflets, having contributed to garden roses and several named cultivars and hybrids. The showy hips are dispersed by birds and mammals, while the flowers attract bees and other insects. Locally common across its Himalayan range and widely cultivated, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 9, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, The Genus Rosa (Phillips & Rix)

Rosaceae

Rosa webbiana

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex. Royle

Nepal 99 45 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June
Nepal 99 46 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June

Description

Rosa webbiana is a wild rose of the dry inner Himalaya and the mountains of Central Asia, with a broad distribution reflected in its 1266 georeferenced records spanning India (IN), China (CN), Pakistan (PK), Afghanistan (AF) and the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan (KZ), Kyrgyzstan (KG), Tajikistan (TJ), Turkmenistan (TM) and Uzbekistan (UZ); many European and North American records represent cultivation. It is a plant of arid and semi-arid montane environments, favouring open stony slopes, dry valley scrub, riverbanks and forest margins, generally between about 1500 and 3500 m. The plant photographed at Nyor Gaad in West Nepal at 2800 m in June is typical of these sunny, well-drained inner-valley habitats where it flowers in early summer.

It is a deciduous, much-branched shrub with arching to erect stems armed with slender, straight or slightly curved, paired prickles. The leaves are pinnately compound with usually five to nine small, obovate to elliptic, simply serrate leaflets, often glaucous and somewhat glandular. The flowers are solitary or few, with a pink (rarely white) corolla of five broad, notched petals surrounding numerous stamens, and an entire, persistent calyx. The fruit is a smooth, globose to ovoid, bright red hip crowned by the persistent erect sepals, ripening in late summer.

Rosa (Rosaceae) is a large and taxonomically intricate genus with widespread hybridisation and polyploidy; R. webbiana belongs to the dry-zone section of true roses adapted to continental, low-rainfall mountain climates. Its hips are rich in vitamin C and are gathered locally for food, while the species is also of horticultural and breeding interest. Widespread and frequent across its range, it is of no conservation concern, though it is an important component of fragile, grazing-pressured inner-Himalayan scrub vegetation.

Author: Wall. ex. Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Boulenger and Ku monographic treatments of Asian Rosa

Zingiberacaea

Roscoea alpina

by G & P Jürgens

Royle

Nepal 99 25 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June

Description

Roscoea alpina is a diminutive, hardy ginger relative widely distributed along the Himalayan arc from Pakistan and Kashmir eastward through India, Nepal and Bhutan into southwestern China (Xizang, Yunnan and Sichuan), with outlying records reaching Myanmar. With well over three hundred occurrences in GBIF and a long horticultural history, it is among the most familiar of the alpine Roscoeas; many of the country records from Europe, North America and Korea reflect cultivated and naturalised material rather than native populations. It grows on open grassy slopes, forest clearings, banks and alpine pastures, generally between about 2400 and 4000 m. The plant photographed at Chere in West Nepal at 2850 m, flowering in June, is characteristic of these summer-moist meadow habitats, where the species emerges with the onset of the monsoon and dies back to a tuberous rootstock as the soil dries.

The plant is a small herbaceous perennial arising from a cluster of fleshy, fascicled root tubers. The short pseudostem is formed by overlapping leaf sheaths and bears a few narrowly lanceolate to linear leaves. Unlike most of its relatives, R. alpina typically produces a single flower at a time, opening successively. The flower is rose-pink to purple, with a long slender perianth tube; the dorsal corolla lobe arches as a hood over the floral parts, the lateral lobes are narrow, and the prominent two-lobed labellum, formed from staminodes, is reflexed and notched, serving as a landing platform for bee pollinators. A single fertile stamen and an inferior ovary complete the flower, the latter maturing into an elongate, several-seeded capsule.

Roscoea is a remarkable temperate offshoot of the otherwise tropical Zingiberaceae, having adapted to seasonal montane climates through its tuberous, deciduous habit and monsoon-synchronised phenology; the genus shows a striking Sino-Himalayan distributional disjunction. R. alpina sits among the small-flowered, solitary-flowered species and is one of the most cold-tolerant, accounting for its popularity in alpine and rock gardens. The family is here spelled "Zingiberacaea" following the source; the accepted form is Zingiberaceae. Though not globally threatened owing to its broad range, local populations are vulnerable to overgrazing and habitat conversion, and the species remains a model for studying the evolution of montane life in a predominantly lowland tropical lineage.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3 Part 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, The Genus Roscoea (Jill Cowley, Kew)

Zingiberacaea

Roscoea nepalensis

by G & P Jürgens

Cowley

Nepal 99 396 ergebnis
West-Nepal Talphi 2830m, June
Nepal 99 923 ergebnis
West-Nepal Roha 2750m, July
Nepal 99 925 ergebnis
West-Nepal Roha 2750m, July

Description

Roscoea nepalensis is a tuberous-rooted herb of the western and central Himalaya, recorded by GBIF chiefly from Nepal and adjoining SW China, with a modest tally of around 19 georeferenced occurrences reflecting its localised distribution. Unlike most members of the ginger family, Roscoea is montane and temperate rather than tropical, and this species inhabits open grassy slopes, forest margins and meadows of the middle hills. The photographed populations in West Nepal at Talphi (2,830 m, June) and Roha (2,750 m, July) are characteristic, the plants emerging and flowering with the onset of the summer monsoon at around 2,700–2,900 m.

The plant is a deciduous perennial arising from fleshy fascicled roots, with an erect leafy pseudostem formed by the imbricate leaf sheaths. The leaves are lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, glabrous, sheathing at the base. The flowers are produced in a terminal spike, exserted from or partly enclosed by the leaf sheaths, and are strongly zygomorphic and orchid-like: a tubular calyx, a trilobed corolla with a hooded dorsal lobe, prominent petaloid lateral staminodes, and a large, deflexed, bilobed labellum, typically purple to violet. The fruit is an elongate capsule containing arillate seeds.

The family is given verbatim as Zingiberacaea (a misspelling of Zingiberaceae). Roscoea is a remarkable case of a predominantly tropical lineage that has radiated into cool Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan highlands, its summer-deciduous, tuberous habit being an adaptation to a markedly seasonal monsoon climate. The orchid-like floral architecture promotes pollination by long-tongued insects. The genus is of considerable horticultural interest, and species delimitation within the R. purpurea complex, to which R. nepalensis is allied, has been clarified by molecular and morphological study.

Author: Cowley · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Cowley: The Genus Roscoea (Kew, 2007)

Zingiberacaea

Roscoea tibetica

by G & P Jürgens

Batalin

BhutanPG2011 32
Bhutan Pele-La, 2800m June
Bh09 248 G414
Bhutan Tibetica, 3100m June

Description

Roscoea tibetica is a small, hardy terrestrial ginger of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China, recorded from China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal across about 309 occurrences. Unusually among the largely tropical Zingiberacaea, it is a montane plant of cool grassy slopes, open forest, meadows and stream banks, growing between roughly 2500 and 4000 m. The illustrated plants come from Bhutan, at Pele-La (2800 m) and a locality recorded as Tibetica (3100 m), both flowering in June soon after the start of the growing season, when the genus emerges from dormant rootstocks.

The plant is among the smallest of its genus, usually only 5-15 cm tall, arising from a cluster of fleshy, fasciculate tuberous roots. The few leaves are lanceolate to oblong, sheathing at the base and often only partly expanded at flowering. The flowers, one or few in succession, are borne low among the leaf sheaths and are strongly zygomorphic and orchid-like; the corolla is pale to deep violet or purple, comprising a hooded dorsal lobe, two lateral staminodial petaloid structures and a large, often reflexed and notched labellum. A single fertile stamen and an inferior ovary characterise the family; the fruit is a capsule.

The Sino-Himalayan genus Roscoea is remarkable for its temperate, high-altitude ecology, an adaptation involving dormant tuberous roots that survive cold winters. The orchid-like flowers are pollinated chiefly by long-tongued bees and, in some species, hawkmoths. Widely distributed and locally frequent, R. tibetica is not regarded as threatened, though it is valued as a hardy ornamental and a model for studies of pollination and montane radiation.

Author: Batalin · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Roscoea (Cowley, Kew monograph), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Crassulaceae

Rosularia adenotricha

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex Edgew.) C.-A.Jansson

Bhutan2012 1072
Bhutan Anthso 980m, October
Bhutan2012 1073
Bhutan Anthso 980m, October

Description

Rosularia adenotricha (Wall. ex Edgew.) C.-A.Jansson is a succulent rosette-forming herb of dry rocky slopes and cliff crevices in the western and central Himalaya and adjacent mountains. GBIF records span India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan, with scattered occurrences eastward to Myanmar and Thailand and west to Oman, totalling some 200 collections. It is a chasmophyte of warm, well-drained, often sun-exposed rock faces and gravelly banks, typically from low and middle elevations into the subalpine zone; the illustrated material was gathered in Bhutan at Anthso, 980 m, in October, near the lower end of its altitudinal range.

The plant develops compact basal rosettes of fleshy, obovate to spathulate leaves that are densely covered with glandular (adenose) hairs, giving a viscid, greyish-green appearance and accounting for the epithet adenotricha. From the rosette arises an erect, glandular-pubescent flowering stem bearing a cymose or thyrsoid inflorescence. The flowers are 5(–7)-merous with narrow, erect to slightly spreading petals fused only at the base, whitish to pale yellow often flushed pink, the stamens twice as many as the petals; nectar scales subtend each carpel. The fruit is a group of erect, many-seeded follicles.

Rosularia (subfamily Sempervivoideae) is a small Old World genus close to Sempervivum and Prometheum, distinguished by its campanulate, basally connate corolla. The species has been treated under several combinations, reflecting unsettled generic limits within the Sempervivum alliance. As a widespread rock-dwelling succulent it is not considered threatened, though its glandular indumentum makes it a distinctive element of arid Himalayan cliff floras.

Author: (Wall. ex Edgew.) C.-A.Jansson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Jansson: Studies in Rosularia (Sempervivoideae)

Crassulaceae

Rosularia rosulata 

by G & P Jürgens

(Edgew.) H.Ohba

Garw 2005 234 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Guni 2400m, September

Description

Rosularia rosulata is a saxicolous succulent of the western and central Himalaya, recorded from northern India, Pakistan and Nepal, with around 106 georeferenced occurrences in the GBIF dataset. It is a plant of dry, sunny rock faces, cliff crevices, stony slopes and crumbling walls at montane to subalpine elevations, where it exploits thin pockets of mineral soil and tolerates strong insolation and seasonal drought. The collection illustrated from Guni in Garhwal, India, at 2400 m in September, exemplifies its occurrence on exposed rocky ground in the inner-Himalayan ranges where the monsoon is attenuated and conditions are markedly continental.

It is a perennial herb forming dense basal rosettes of fleshy, obovate to spathulate leaves that are glabrous or finely glandular-pubescent, often reddish-tinged at the margins and apex. From the rosette arises an erect or ascending leafy flowering stem bearing a cymose, somewhat secund inflorescence. The flowers are five-merous, with narrow sepals and a campanulate to shortly tubular corolla of pale yellowish-white to pinkish petals fused at the base, the lobes erect to spreading. Stamens are typically ten, the carpels free and erect, maturing into follicles that release small seeds. After flowering the monocarpic rosette commonly dies, the plant persisting through offsets.

The genus Rosularia, segregated from Sedum and Cotyledon, comprises Old World rosette-forming Crassulaceae distinguished by their tubular fused corollas and rosulate habit. Rosularia rosulata, treated by H. Ohba, occupies a biogeographically interesting niche in the drier inner valleys, sharing affinities with Central Asian congeners. CAM photosynthesis and water storage adapt it to arid rock habitats; it is not considered threatened but is locally restricted to suitable lithic microsites.

Author: (Edgew.) H.Ohba · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Crassulaceae of the Himalaya (H. Ohba), A Revision of the Genus Rosularia