Author

G & P Jürgens

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga engleriana

by G & P Jürgens

Harry Sm.

Sikkim2003 201 G281 ergebnis
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m, August

Description

Saxifraga engleriana is a high-alpine perennial of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent southwestern China, recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Myanmar; its roughly 51 GBIF occurrences are concentrated in the alpine zone of the Sino-Himalayan ranges. It is a plant of cool, humid altitudes, as exemplified by the collection above Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3900 m in August, when flowering coincides with the late-monsoon growing season. It grows in moist alpine turf, on rock ledges and in cliff crevices kept damp by snowmelt and cloud condensation, within the cushion-plant and dwarf-herb communities of the subnival belt.

The plant forms low, tufted to loosely matted growth from a branched caudex, the slender stems bearing small, somewhat fleshy leaves that may carry lime-secreting chalk glands at their margins, a trait of the encrusted silver saxifrages. The glandular-hairy flowering stems carry few-flowered cymes of small flowers with five free, usually white to pale petals, five sepals, ten stamens and a bicarpellate, semi-inferior ovary. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between persistent styles to release numerous minute seeds.

Saxifraga is a large, predominantly arctic-alpine genus whose Himalayan species are partitioned among sections distinguished by leaf encrustation and indumentum; S. engleriana belongs among the lime-encrusted alpines centred on the high mountains of central Asia. As a narrowly distributed orophyte of a cold, fragmenting habitat, it is potentially sensitive to climate-driven upslope contraction of the alpine zone, though its remoteness affords protection from direct disturbance.

Author: Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Saxifrages of the World (Webb & Gornall)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga hispidula

by G & P Jürgens

D.Don

Bhutan2012 236
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 4000m September

Description

Saxifraga hispidula D.Don is a small alpine herb of the Himalaya and southern China, recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Myanmar, with around 460 GBIF occurrences. It grows on damp rock ledges, mossy cliffs, boulder crevices, stream banks and shaded alpine turf, mostly between about 3000 and 4500 m. It was recorded in Bhutan in the Haa (Haar) Valley at 4000 m in September, a high alpine setting where it occupies moist, sheltered niches among rocks at the end of the growing season when the autumn-flowering shoots are conspicuous.

It is a delicate, trailing to ascending perennial forming loose mats, the slender stems clothed in spreading hispid or glandular hairs, as the epithet hispidula indicates, and frequently producing thread-like stolons or runners that root at the nodes. The leaves are small, orbicular to obovate, crenate to few-lobed at the apex, and likewise hairy. The flowers are solitary or few in lax cymes; the five free petals are yellow, often spotted with orange or red toward the base, alternating with the calyx lobes, surrounding ten stamens and a bicarpellate ovary. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the persistent styles to shed numerous minute seeds.

Within the immense genus Saxifraga, S. hispidula belongs to section Irregulares (Diptera), a Sino-Himalayan group of stoloniferous, spotted-flowered species adapted to moist montane and alpine rock habitats. Its trailing runners allow vegetative spread across damp substrates, complementing seed dispersal, and the spotted petals serve as insect nectar guides. The species is widespread within its altitudinal band and not considered threatened, though it is restricted to specialised high-elevation microhabitats sensitive to alpine warming.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Saxifraga monograph (Webb & Gornall, Saxifrages of Europe; Pan revision of Asian Saxifraga)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga montanella 

by G & P Jürgens

Harry Sm.

Nepal 99 620 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4350m, July

Description

Saxifraga montanella Harry Sm. is a diminutive alpine perennial of the saxifrage family endemic to the high Himalaya and adjacent China, with GBIF recording 54 occurrences from China (CN), Bhutan (BT), Nepal (NP) and India (IN). It is a plant of stony alpine turf, rock crevices, moraines and damp gravelly slopes at high elevation, and was photographed in West Nepal on the Kagmara-La at 4350 m in July, in the open alpine zone during the brief high-mountain flowering season. The source URL references Saxifraga elliptica, reflecting the close affinity and historical confusion among related Himalayan saxifrages.

The plant is a small tufted or loosely matted herb with short, slender, often reddish stems. The leaves are mostly basal, forming a small rosette, oblong to spathulate or elliptic, entire and somewhat fleshy, with a few reduced cauline leaves. The flowers are small and usually solitary or few in a lax cyme, with five free sepals, five narrow yellow petals that are often spotted, ten stamens and a bicarpellate ovary that is half-inferior to nearly superior. The fruit is a capsule of two divergent, beaked follicles dehiscing to release numerous minute seeds.

Saxifraga is an enormous, taxonomically complex genus centred on the alpine and arctic Northern Hemisphere, and S. montanella belongs to the yellow-flowered Himalayan assemblage allied to section Ciliatae, which has radiated extensively in the Sino-Himalayan high mountains. Like other cushion and rosette saxifrages it is adapted to short growing seasons, intense radiation and freezing nights. Its narrow range and specialised alpine habitat make it potentially sensitive to climate warming, though it is not currently assessed for conservation status.

Author: Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Saxifraga monograph (Gornall; Pan revision of Himalayan Saxifraga sect. Ciliatae)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga neopropagulifera

by G & P Jürgens

H.Hara

Nepal 99 543 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 4200m, June

Description

Saxifraga neopropagulifera is a high-alpine cushion- or mat-forming perennial of the central Himalaya, known from Nepal and Bhutan, with GBIF recording 9 occurrences. It grows on damp rock ledges, moss-cushions, gravelly slopes and the margins of late-melting snow patches in the upper alpine zone. The illustrated plant was gathered in the Churta Khola of West Nepal at about 4200 m, flowering in June, where cold, well-drained substrates and a brief growing season prevail.

The species is a low, tufted herb forming compact rosettes of small, often spathulate to oblong leaves. As its epithet implies, it characteristically produces vegetative propagules (bulbils or gemmae) in the leaf axils or at the rosette base, a mode of clonal reproduction well suited to environments where seed set is unreliable. The flowering stems are short and few-flowered, bearing small white to pale flowers with five free petals, ten stamens, and a superior to half-inferior ovary maturing into a two-beaked capsule.

The taxon is accepted in current treatments. It belongs to a group of bulbil-bearing Himalayan saxifrages allied to Saxifraga propagulifera, whose names have been repeatedly revised; H. Hara erected the present species to accommodate Himalayan material. The reliance on asexual propagules is a recurrent adaptive theme among Sino-Himalayan alpine Saxifraga, underpinning persistence on unstable scree. As a narrowly distributed orophyte it is of biogeographic interest and potential conservation concern.

Author: H.Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Hara's Enumeration of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga poluniniana

by G & P Jürgens

Harry Sm.

Nepal 99 144 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June
Nepal 99 145 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June

Description

Saxifraga poluniniana is a cushion-forming alpine perennial of the western and central Himalaya, known from Nepal and India, with GBIF recording 30 occurrences. It occupies rock crevices, cliff faces, stable scree and moss-bound boulders in the upper subalpine to alpine zone. The photographed plant comes from south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at about 3800 m, flowering in June, a region of granitic outcrops and high-rainfall slopes where compact saxifrages thrive on shaded, moist rock.

The species forms dense, low cushions of small, crowded rosettes. The leaves are narrowly spathulate to linear-oblong, often hardened and lime-encrusted in the manner of section Porphyrion relatives, packed tightly to conserve moisture and resist wind exposure. The flowering shoots are short and usually carry a single, relatively large flower with five spreading petals, white to pale pink, ten stamens and a half-inferior ovary; the fruit is a small two-beaked capsule.

The taxon is accepted and was described by Harry Smith, a leading twentieth-century monographer of Sino-Himalayan Saxifraga, the epithet honouring the botanist Oleg Polunin, a noted collector in Nepal. As a narrow-range orophyte restricted to specialised rock habitats it is of considerable biogeographic interest; cushion saxifrages of this kind are valued in alpine horticulture and serve as indicators of intact high-altitude rock-ledge communities. Its limited known range warrants attention to its long-term conservation.

Author: Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Harry Smith's revisions of Asiatic Saxifraga, Polunin & Stainton's Flowers of the Himalaya

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga serrula

by G & P Jürgens

Harry Sm.

Bhutan2015 386
  Bhutan Tumching-La 3900m, October

Description

Saxifraga serrula is a high-alpine saxifrage of the eastern Himalaya, documented from Nepal, Bhutan and northern Myanmar, with a small body of records (c. 12 in GBIF) reflecting both its restricted range and the remoteness of its terrain. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, growing among damp rock crevices, on moist screes, turfy ledges and seepage slopes, generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The photographed individual from Tumching-La in Bhutan, at 3900 m and still in flower in October, exemplifies its tolerance of late-season cold at the margins of the snowbed environment.

The species is a small, perennial, cushion- or rosette-forming herb arising from a branched caudex, the foliage frequently forming low, compact tufts. The leaves are crowded in basal rosettes, oblanceolate to spathulate, and conspicuously serrate to serrulate along the margins—a feature reflected in the epithet—often somewhat fleshy and glabrous to sparsely glandular. The flowering stems are short and few-flowered, bearing actinomorphic flowers with five free, spreading petals (yellow to cream, sometimes red-dotted), five sepals, ten stamens, and a semi-inferior to inferior ovary of two carpels. The fruit is a many-seeded capsule dehiscing between the persistent styles.

Saxifraga is a very large, predominantly arctic-alpine genus, and the Sino-Himalayan region is one of its principal centres of diversification, with numerous narrowly endemic species concentrated in sections adapted to high elevations. Saxifraga serrula belongs to this radiation of eastern Himalayan alpines. Its narrow distribution and specialised habitat make it potentially vulnerable to climate-driven upward shifts of the alpine zone, although it has not been formally assessed; populations appear naturally fragmented across isolated high passes and ridges.

Author: Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Saxifrages of the World (Webb & Gornall)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga staintonii

by G & P Jürgens

Harry Sm.

Nepal 99 823 ergebnis
Nepal Baga-La 4000m, July
Nepal 99 824 ergebnis
Nepal Baga-La 4000m, July

Description

Saxifraga staintonii is a rare, narrowly endemic saxifrage known only from central Nepal. It inhabits moist rock crevices, scree slopes, and alpine turf in the upper subalpine to lower alpine zone, at elevations of approximately 3,800–4,500 m. The species has been recorded from very few localities, with only three documented occurrences in GBIF, indicating an extremely restricted distribution. The photograph from the Baga-La at 4,000 m in July represents one of the few field records of this elusive species in its typical high-altitude habitat.
The plant forms compact cushions or loose tufts. Basal leaves are rosulate, spatulate to obovate, 5–12 mm long, with entire to crenulate margins, often glandular-hairy on the upper surface and margins. Flowering stems are erect, 3–8 cm tall, bearing 1–3 flowers in a lax cyme. Flowers are pentamerous with obovate white to pale yellow petals, 4–6 mm long, often with faint orange or red spots near the base. Stamens 10, with clavate filaments. The ovary is semi-inferior, maturing into a capsule with numerous minute seeds.
Saxifraga staintonii was described by Harry Smith and named in honour of J.D.A. Stainton, the eminent British botanist who contributed extensively to the floristic exploration of Nepal. The species belongs to the highly diverse Himalayan radiation of Saxifraga and its precise sectional placement remains under investigation. Given its extremely limited known range and few documented populations, it may warrant conservation attention, though its remote alpine habitat provides a degree of natural protection from direct anthropogenic disturbance. Further survey work in central Nepal is needed to clarify its full distribution.

Author: Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal (ongoing), Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga stella-aurea

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 102 P139 ergebnis
Sikkim Choka 2900m, August
Sikkim2003 147 P198 ergebnis
Sikkim Choka 2900m, August

Description

Saxifraga stella-aurea is a Sino-Himalayan alpine herb distributed through China, India, Nepal and Bhutan, with scattered ex situ records in Europe. It inhabits moist alpine meadows, seepage slopes, streamsides and rock crevices, typically between about 2700 and 4500 m. The illustrated plant from Choka in Sikkim at roughly 2900 m, flowering in August at the height of the post-monsoon season, reflects its affinity for cool, humid, well-drained sites where snowmelt and persistent moisture sustain the dense, cushion-forming growth characteristic of high-elevation saxifrages.

The species is a small, tufted perennial forming low rosettes or loose mats from a short rhizomatous base. The basal and cauline leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, entire or obscurely toothed, somewhat fleshy and often ciliate at the margins. The flowering stems are slender and few-leaved, bearing solitary or few yellow flowers. The five petals are obovate to oblong and typically marked with orange or reddish dots, surrounding a hypanthium with ten stamens and a bicarpellate ovary; the fruit is a small capsule dehiscing between the two divergent styles, releasing numerous minute seeds.

The epithet stella-aurea, golden star, refers to the bright stellate yellow corolla. The taxon falls within the large and taxonomically complex section Hirculus, a predominantly Sino-Himalayan alpine group whose species are notoriously difficult to delimit and frequently confused. Like many high-montane Saxifraga, it is an indicator of intact alpine seepage habitats; while not presently threatened given its wide distribution, such communities are sensitive to grazing intensification and climate-driven shifts in snowmelt regimes.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Saxifrages of the World (Webb & Gornall)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga tangutica

by G & P Jürgens

Engl.

Nepal 99 655 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 5000m, July

Description

Saxifraga tangutica is a high-alpine saxifrage of the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau, distributed across China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with GBIF documenting 734 occurrences from these four countries (CN, NP, IN, BT). It is a true alpine, growing on open grassy and stony slopes, gravelly flats, rock ledges, moraines and damp turf, typically between about 3500 and 5300 m, ranking among the highest-ascending flowering plants of the region. The photographed plant from the Kagmara-La in West Nepal at 5000 m in July shows it flowering at the height of the brief alpine summer, on a high pass in the Dolpo region where it endures intense radiation, frost and a very short growing season.

It is a small, tufted, perennial herb forming low rosettes or loose mats, the basal leaves oblong to spathulate, often somewhat fleshy and ciliate or glandular-margined. From the rosettes arise slender, glandular-hairy flowering stems bearing a few small cauline leaves and a terminal cymose cluster of several flowers. Each flower has five reflexed green sepals, five yellow petals frequently dotted with orange or reddish glandular spots, ten stamens, and a bicarpellate, partly inferior ovary. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the persistent divergent styles to release numerous minute seeds.

The species is referable to Saxifraga section Ciliatae, a large Sino-Himalayan group of yellow-flowered alpine saxifrages centred on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and the Hengduan ranges, the epithet tangutica alluding to the Tangut (Amdo/northeast Tibet) region. Its compact cushion to rosette habit and glandular indumentum are adaptations to the cold, dry, exposed alpine environment, and the small glandular flowers are visited by flies and other generalist high-altitude insects. Widespread on remote high terrain and not subject to significant pressure, it is of least conservation concern.

Author: Engl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Saxifrages: A Definitive Guide (Webb & Gornall, and Pan's revision of section Ciliatae)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga tentaculata

by G & P Jürgens

C.E.C. Fisch.

Nepal 99 658 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 5850m, July

Description

Saxifraga tentaculata is a high-alpine cushion saxifrage of the central and eastern Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, Bhutan and south-western China. GBIF holds only 19 occurrences across these three countries, marking it as a narrowly distributed, infrequently collected species of the loftiest screes and rock crevices. It occupies stony moraine, gravelly slopes, glacial debris and damp rock ledges near the upper limit of vascular plant growth, generally above 4500 m. The plant figured here was found in West Nepal at the Kagmara-La at 5850 m in July, an extreme elevation that places it among the highest-growing flowering plants of the region, blooming briefly during the short summer thaw.

The plant forms low, compact tufts or loose mats from a branching caudex, the slender stems clothed with small, fleshy leaves. The leaves are oblong to spathulate and characteristically fringed with long, gland-tipped, tentacle-like cilia along their margins, a feature giving the species its epithet and distinguishing it from related members of the Hirculus group. The flowering stems are short and glandular-hairy, bearing solitary or few yellow, five-petalled flowers; the petals are obovate, often dotted orange near the base, and exceed the lanceolate sepals. The fruit is a small bilobed capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

Saxifraga tentaculata belongs to section Ciliatae (the Himalayan Hirculus alliance), a large and taxonomically complex group centred on the Sino-Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau that has radiated extensively in alpine and subnival habitats. Its glandular marginal cilia are typical of this section. Given its restricted range and remote, high-elevation habitat, populations are naturally small but largely buffered from human disturbance, though climate-driven upward shifts of the snowline pose a longer-term threat to such subnival specialists.

Author: C.E.C. Fisch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, An Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Saxifrages of the World, Monograph of the Genus Saxifraga