Author

G & P Jürgens

Rosaceae

Spiraea arcuata

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

Bhut09 528G 14.06.
Bhutan Jakar 2600m, June
Nepal 99 585 ergebnis
West-Nepal Garpung-Khola 3500m, July

Description

Spiraea arcuata is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan shrub native to Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 376 GBIF records, supplemented by cultivated occurrences in Europe and North America. It grows in the temperate and subalpine zone on open hillsides, forest margins, scrub and rocky slopes. The cited records span its altitudinal range, from Jakar in central Bhutan at around 2600 m flowering in June to the Garpung-Khola in western Nepal at about 3500 m in July, where it forms part of the deciduous shrub component of montane vegetation on well-drained slopes.

The plant is a deciduous shrub with slender, arching to recurved branches, the epithet alluding to their curving habit. The leaves are small, alternate, simple, obovate to oblong-elliptic, entire or with a few apical teeth, glabrous to thinly hairy and often paler beneath. The white flowers are numerous and crowded in dense, rounded, corymb-like clusters borne along the branches; each small flower has five petals, a shallow hypanthium, numerous stamens, and several free carpels. The fruit is a cluster of small, dehiscent follicles each containing several narrow seeds.

Described by Hooker f., S. arcuata belongs to the section of pink- to white-flowered Himalayan spiraeas. The genus is taxonomically intricate, with much intergradation among the alpine and subalpine species of the region. Several Himalayan Spiraea, including this one, are valued horticulturally for their profuse spring and early-summer flowering. With its broad distribution and tolerance of open and disturbed montane habitats, the species is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Rehder's account of Spiraea

Rosaceae

Spiraea micrantha

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 83 ergebnis scaled
Bhutan Chogcham, 3000m June

Description

Spiraea micrantha is a deciduous shrub of the temperate forests and forest margins of the eastern Himalaya, native to Nepal, Bhutan, India and adjacent China, with around 208 documented occurrences (records from Britain and North America representing cultivated material). It grows in open mixed and conifer forest, woodland edges, scrub and along streambanks, typically between about 2500 and 3300 m. The photographed plant was recorded at Chogcham in Bhutan at 3000 m, flowering in June, when these mid-montane shrubs come into bloom at the start of the summer growing season.

The species is a much-branched shrub with slender, arching, glabrous to thinly pubescent reddish-brown branches. The leaves are alternate, simple and ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex and serrate to doubly serrate along the margin, glabrous or sparsely hairy and somewhat glaucous beneath, on short petioles. The inflorescences are lax, terminal, leafy-based corymbose panicles of numerous small flowers (the epithet micrantha denoting the small blooms); each flower has five rounded white to pinkish petals, a shallow campanulate hypanthium, and numerous exserted stamens longer than the petals. The fruit is a cluster of small, glabrous, dehiscent follicles.

Spiraea, of the family Rosaceae and subfamily Amygdaloideae (tribe Spiraeeae), is a north-temperate genus of ornamental shrubs; S. micrantha belongs to the group of Himalayan species with terminal panicle-like inflorescences, distinguished by its small flowers and acuminate, sharply serrate leaves. As a forest-margin shrub it is insect-pollinated and contributes to montane understorey structure. Widespread across the eastern Himalaya and locally common, it is not considered to be of conservation concern.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, A Monograph of the Genus Spiraea

Ranunculaceae

Stauntonia latifolia

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) R.Br. ex. Wall.

Bhutan2012 357
Bhutan Dochu-La 2900m, September
Bhutan2014 609
Bhutan Phobjika 3100m, May
Sikkim2004 26 P41
Sikkim West-Bengal, Sambon 1850m April

Description

Stauntonia latifolia is a Himalayan woody climber distributed through China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, with GBIF aggregating some 517 occurrences across the warm temperate belt. It is a liana of moist broad-leaved and mixed forest, scrambling over shrubs and into the canopy along forest margins, ravines and streamsides typically between about 1500 and 3100 m. The accompanying records span this range well, from Sambon on the Sikkim–West Bengal border at 1850 m in April, through the Dochu-La in Bhutan at 2900 m in September, to Phobjika at 3100 m flowering in May, reflecting an extended phenology across elevation and longitude in the eastern Himalaya.

The family is here cited as Ranunculaceae, but the plant in fact belongs to the Lardizabalaceae; the description follows the true affinity. It is an evergreen twining climber with palmately compound leaves of three to seven leathery, entire, ovate to elliptic leaflets borne on long petioles. The plant is functionally monoecious, the flowers unisexual and borne in axillary racemes; they are greenish-white to purplish, lacking true petals, the showy parts being six sepals in two whorls, with six stamens in male flowers and three carpels in female ones. The fruit is a fleshy, oblong, purple berry-like follicle, edible and sweet, containing numerous black seeds embedded in a juicy pulp.

The taxon was described by Wallich and is widely treated under the synonym Holboellia latifolia, the generic limits between Holboellia and Stauntonia having been repeatedly debated and revised; under recent circumscriptions the Himalayan plant is placed in Stauntonia. The Lardizabalaceae are a small east-Asian and Chilean family of considerable phylogenetic interest as an early-diverging lineage of the Ranunculales. The succulent fruits are locally gathered and eaten and serve to disperse the seeds via birds and mammals; the species is common and faces no significant conservation concern.

Author: (Wall.) R.Br. ex. Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, monographic studies of Lardizabalaceae (Holboellia and Stauntonia)

Caryophyllaceae

Stellaria congestiflora

by G & P Jürgens

H. Hara

Nepal 99 554 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 4230m, June

Description

Stellaria congestiflora is a high-alpine chickweed of the Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, China, Bhutan and India, a restricted and infrequently collected distribution reflected in its small number of georeferenced records. It grows in alpine meadows, on stony slopes, screes and the gravelly margins of streams and snowbeds at high elevations, generally well above 4000 m. The plant photographed at Churta-Khola in West Nepal at 4230 m in June is a characteristic occurrence in the cold, open alpine zone, flowering soon after snowmelt at the upper limit of vascular plant growth.

It is a small, tufted or mat-forming perennial herb arising from a slender, branched rootstock. The stems are short, slender and often densely clothed, bearing opposite, sessile, narrowly lanceolate to linear leaves. As the epithet indicates, the small white flowers are aggregated into congested, head-like terminal clusters subtended by leafy bracts, rather than borne in the open, spreading cymes typical of many relatives. Each flower has five sepals and five deeply bifid white petals, ten stamens and a superior ovary bearing three styles; the fruit is a capsule dehiscing by valves to release several small seeds.

Stellaria is a large, cosmopolitan genus of the Caryophyllaceae distinguished by the deeply two-cleft petals, and the dense, congested inflorescence of S. congestiflora, described by H.Hara, separates it from the looser-flowered Himalayan species. Its narrow, high-elevation range makes it potentially sensitive to alpine climate change and habitat shifts, though its remote habitat limits direct human pressure. As a cushion-like alpine herb it contributes to the sparse but specialised flora of the upper screes and snowbed margins.

Author: H. Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hara's Flora of Eastern Himalaya, monographic studies of Himalayan Stellaria (Caryophyllaceae)

Caryophyllaceae

Stellaria decumbens var. pulvinata

by G & P Jürgens

Edgew. & Hook. f.

Nepal 99 555 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 4100m, June
Nepal 99 799 ergebnis
West-Nepal Baga-La-Phedi 4500m, July

Description

Stellaria decumbens var. pulvinata is a diminutive alpine chickweed of the Himalaya and adjoining Tibetan plateau, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal and Bhutan with around 104 occurrences. The variety occupies cold, exposed alpine and subnival terrain, where it grows in rock crevices, on stabilised scree and among cushion vegetation at very high elevations. It was photographed in West Nepal in the Churta-Khola at 4100 m in June and near the Baga-La-Phedi at 4500 m in July, habitats typical of its preference for open, gravelly ground close to the upper limit of vascular plant life.

As its epithet pulvinata implies, this variety forms dense, hard, compact cushions, more condensed than the laxer typical S. decumbens. The slender, much-branched stems are crowded and decumbent, bearing small, sessile, narrowly lanceolate to ovate leaves arranged in opposite pairs, often somewhat fleshy and ciliate at the margins. The minute flowers are solitary or few, with five free, lanceolate, acuminate sepals and five white petals that are deeply bifid for roughly half their length, the characteristic forked petals of Stellaria; stamens are typically ten and the styles three. The fruit is a small ovoid capsule dehiscing by six valves and releasing several reniform, finely tuberculate seeds.

GBIF accepts the variety. The cushion habit represents convergent adaptation to wind desiccation, frost and a short season shared by many unrelated high-Himalayan plants. Within Caryophyllaceae the species belongs to a complex of dwarf alpine Stellaria whose infraspecific limits remain debated. No conservation concern attaches to this widespread, naturally cryptic high-altitude taxon.

Author: Edgew. & Hook. f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, monograph of Himalayan Caryophyllaceae

Caryophyllaceae

Stellaria semivestita

by G & P Jürgens

Edgew.

Nepal 2009 68 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Yangri 1330, May
Garh 07 340 ergebnis
India Garhwal Dohdi-Tal 3070m, June

Description

Stellaria semivestita Edgew. is a delicate herbaceous member of the Caryophyllaceae native to the Himalaya and the mountains of southwestern China. GBIF data place it in Nepal, India and China, with a modest 22 georeferenced records reflecting its inconspicuous habit and uneven collection. The species occupies a broad altitudinal span, from warm-temperate forest understorey and shaded banks at around 1,300 m up to subalpine meadows and damp rocky slopes near 3,000 m. The cited gatherings from Helambu (Yangri, Nepal) at 1,330 m and from Dohdi-Tal in Garhwal at 3,070 m illustrate this ecological amplitude across the monsoon-influenced Himalayan front.

The plant is a weak-stemmed, ascending to straggling perennial with quadrangular stems that are pubescent at least in lines, the indumentum being uneven or "half-clothed" as the epithet implies. The leaves are opposite, sessile to shortly petiolate, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, acuminate and ciliate at the margins. Flowers are borne in lax, leafy dichasial cymes; the five sepals are lanceolate and the five white petals are deeply bifid, equalling or slightly exceeding the calyx. The fruit is an ovoid capsule dehiscing by six valves and containing numerous reniform, finely tuberculate seeds.

Stellaria semivestita belongs to a taxonomically complex genus in which species delimitation rests on subtle differences in pubescence, petal length and seed sculpture. It is of no conservation concern, being widespread and adaptable, but it contributes to the ground-layer diversity of Himalayan forests and clearings and exemplifies the genus's success across a wide elevational gradient.

Author: Edgew. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 6, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan (Caryophyllaceae), Majumdar: Caryophyllaceae of India

Liliaceae

Streptopus simplex

by G & P Jürgens

D.Don

CA5B74EED12643D5951B19E897481F0A
Bhutan Chogcham, 3300m June
Sikkim2003 474 P657
Sikkim Lachung Valley 3200m August

Description

Streptopus simplex, a twistedstalk of the Sino-Himalayan region, is distributed across China (CN), Nepal (NP), Bhutan (BT), India (IN), Myanmar (MM) and Japan (JP), with 726 GBIF occurrences indicating it is a frequent component of high forest. It grows in shaded, humid temperate and subalpine coniferous and broadleaf forest, in bamboo thickets, ravines and on mossy slopes, typically between about 3000 and 4000 m. The illustrated plants came from Chogcham in Bhutan at around 3300 m in June and the Lachung Valley of Sikkim at about 3200 m in August, spanning the early- and late-monsoon flowering and fruiting seasons.

It is a slender perennial herb arising from a short creeping rhizome, with an erect, simple or sparingly branched stem. The leaves are alternate, sessile and somewhat clasping, ovate to lanceolate with entire margins and parallel venation. The flowers are solitary and nodding, borne on slender pedicels that hang beneath the leaves; the perianth consists of six free, campanulate to spreading tepals, white to pink and often purple-spotted within. There are six stamens, and the ovary is superior. The fruit is a globose, fleshy red berry containing several seeds, providing dispersal by birds and other animals.

Streptopus is now placed in Liliaceae sensu lato (the family cited verbatim here), within the Lilioid monocots; some treatments segregate it variably among the lily allies. The genus has a disjunct circumboreal and montane Asian-American distribution, and S. simplex represents its Himalayan and East Asian extension, of biogeographic interest as part of the temperate forest-floor herb flora.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Monograph of the genus Streptopus

Acanthaceae

Strobilanthes atropurpurea

by G & P Jürgens

Nees

Garw 2005 247 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Sitel 1850m, September

Description

Strobilanthes atropurpurea Nees is a robust perennial herb of the Acanthaceae, distributed along the Himalaya from Pakistan and India through Nepal and Bhutan to southwestern China, with further records reaching Myanmar and Vietnam (GBIF: c. 328 occurrences). It is a characteristic understorey and forest-margin plant of moist temperate broad-leaved and mixed forests, favouring shaded, humid ravines and stream banks. The illustrated plant from Sitel in Garhwal, western India, at about 1,850 m and flowering in September, reflects its typical late-monsoon flowering in the mid-montane forest belt.

The plant is an erect, branched herb or subshrub reaching 0.5–1.5 m, with quadrangular stems often swollen at the nodes. The leaves are opposite and decussate, the pairs frequently unequal (anisophyllous), ovate to elliptic, acuminate, with crenate-serrate margins and prominent venation; cystoliths are usually visible as fine streaks on the leaf surface. The inflorescence is a terminal or axillary spike or panicle of cymose clusters subtended by bracts. The flowers have a tubular-funnelform corolla that is deep violet to purple, five-lobed and slightly two-lipped, with four didynamous stamens. The fruit is an explosively dehiscent capsule bearing few seeds on hooked retinacula.

Strobilanthes is a large, taxonomically difficult genus noted for gregarious, often plietesial (mast) flowering, in which many individuals bloom synchronously after several years and then die. Such cohort dynamics complicate field identification and herbarium representation. The species is locally common and not considered threatened, though its forest habitat is subject to regional degradation.

Author: Nees · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Wood & Scotland: Strobilanthes monograph

Acanthaceae

Strobilanthes lachenensis

by G & P Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2015 654
Bhutan Semkota 2000m, October
Bhutan2015 653
Bhutan Semkota 2000m, October

Description

Strobilanthes lachenensis C.B.Clarke is a shrubby herb of the Acanthaceae endemic to the eastern Himalaya and adjacent ranges, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 125 GBIF occurrences. It grows in the understorey and along the margins of temperate broad-leaved and mixed forest, on shaded slopes, banks and forest clearings, mainly between about 1800 and 2800 m. It was documented in Bhutan at Semkota near 2000 m in October, an autumn flowering that accords with the often gregarious, plietesial flowering behaviour characteristic of many Himalayan Strobilanthes, in which populations bloom synchronously after several years of vegetative growth.

It is an erect, branched perennial or subshrub with quadrangular stems that are swollen at the nodes. The leaves are opposite and conspicuously anisophyllous, the pair unequal, elliptic to lanceolate, acuminate, with crenate-serrate margins and cystoliths visible as fine streaks on the surface. The flowers are borne in spike-like or capitate inflorescences subtended by bracts; the bilabiate, funnel-shaped corolla is blue to pale violet, curved and slightly inflated at the throat, enclosing four didynamous stamens. The fruit is an elongate, two-valved capsule that dehisces explosively, ejecting a few flattened seeds borne on hooked retinacula.

Strobilanthes is a large and taxonomically complex genus centred on tropical and subtropical Asia, and the Sino-Himalayan species such as S. lachenensis form part of an intricate, much-revised assemblage. Its mass-flowering, bee-pollinated reproductive strategy and the type locality at Lachen in Sikkim, from which the epithet derives, anchor it in the eastern Himalayan flora. The species is forest-dependent and locally distributed, making it potentially sensitive to habitat disturbance, though it is not formally assessed.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Strobilanthes monograph (Wood; Carine & Scotland revision of Strobilanthes)

Styracaceae

Styrax japonicus

by G & P Jürgens

Siebold & Zucc.

Sikkim 2006 330 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tolung 2450m, May

Description

Styrax japonicus, the Japanese snowbell, is a deciduous shrub or small tree of the Styracaceae, distributed through temperate East Asia and extending into the eastern Himalaya. GBIF data (over 16,000 occurrences) reflect its native range across Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Myanmar and the eastern Himalaya, together with extensive cultivation in temperate gardens worldwide. In the wild it grows in deciduous and mixed broadleaved forest, on slopes, along streams and at forest margins, in the warm-temperate to lower montane belt. The collection from Tolung in West Bengal at 2,450 m in May illustrates its occurrence in the moist montane forests of the eastern Himalaya at flowering time.

The tree reaches up to about 10 m, with smooth grey bark and slender, often horizontally spreading branches. The leaves are alternate, simple, ovate to elliptic, with a finely serrate margin and an acuminate apex. The flowers are pendulous and borne singly or in few-flowered racemes from the leaf axils on slender pedicels; the white, bell-shaped corolla is deeply five-lobed and fragrant, subtended by a small cupular calyx, with about ten stamens forming a central column of yellow anthers. The fruit is an ovoid to subglobose, greyish, slightly tomentose drupaceous capsule containing usually a single hard seed.

The Styracaceae is a small family of woody plants notable as a source of aromatic balsamic resins (benzoin, storax) yielded by certain Styrax species. S. japonicus is among the most widely planted ornamentals of the family, valued for its profuse, snowbell-like spring flowers. Its disjunct occurrence in the eastern Himalaya is of biogeographic interest, reflecting the floristic links between the Sino-Japanese region and the eastern Himalaya; though broadly secure, its forest populations there depend on intact montane woodland.

Author: Siebold & Zucc. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Hwang & Grimes: Styracaceae – Flora of China account