Asparagaceae

Asparagaceae

Maianthemum fuscum

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum verticillatum

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum hookeri

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum oppositifolium

Asparagaceae

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)

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum brevistylum

by G & P Jürgens

Baker

Sikkim 2006 315 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chaana 1800m, May

Description

Polygonatum brevistylum is a rhizomatous perennial of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent ranges. GBIF documents it (some 27 occurrences) from Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, in moist temperate forest, forest margins, shrubberies and shaded banks. It grows in cool, humus-rich soils within the broadleaved and mixed conifer zone, generally between about 1,500 and 3,000 m. The photographed plant is from Chaana in West Bengal (Darjeeling–Sikkim Himalaya) at around 1,800 m, flowering in May, a representative low-montane station for the species as it sends up shoots in spring.

The plant has a stout, knotty, horizontally creeping rhizome from which arises an erect or arching stem. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic and acuminate, glabrous, sessile or shortly petiolate. The flowers are pendent and borne in few-flowered axillary clusters; the perianth is tubular-campanulate, white to greenish-white, with six short lobes, and, as the epithet brevistylum signals, a notably short style. The fruit is a globose berry, ripening blue-black to purplish and containing several seeds.

Polygonatum (Solomon's-seal), now placed in Asparagaceae (formerly Convallariaceae or Liliaceae sensu lato), is taxonomically intricate in the Himalaya, where several closely allied rhizomatous species occur. The short style and the clustered axillary flowers are useful diagnostic characters separating P. brevistylum from sympatric congeners. Himalayan Polygonatum rhizomes are widely gathered for food and traditional medicine, so localised harvesting pressure may affect accessible populations.

Author: Baker · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Jeffrey: The Genus Polygonatum (Liliaceae) in Eastern Asia

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum cirrhifolium

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Royle

Bh2008 611 P920
Bhutan, Punakha 2400m, May

Description

Polygonatum cirrhifolium is a rhizomatous perennial herb widely distributed across the Himalaya and the mountains of central and western China, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Vietnam, with around 2251 georeferenced records (records from Canada, Norway and Britain reflect cultivation). It occurs in temperate forest, forest margins, shrubberies and grassy alpine slopes, on moist humus-rich soils typically between about 2000 and 4000 m. The photographed plant from Punakha in Bhutan at 2400 m, flowering in May, sits near the lower edge of its broad altitudinal span.

It has a stout, knotted, horizontal rhizome from which arises an erect to arching stem. The narrow, linear-lanceolate leaves are borne in whorls of three or more, and the epithet cirrhifolium refers to their slender apices, which are characteristically prolonged and curled into tendril-like tips. The pendent flowers hang one to four together in the leaf axils; each perianth is tubular, pale rose-purple to whitish, the six tepals fused into a cylinder with short lobes and enclosing six stamens. The fruit is a globose berry that ripens from red to purplish-black.

Polygonatum, in Asparagaceae subfamily Nolinoideae, is here represented by a whorled-leaved species readily told from P. oppositifolium by its tendrilled leaf tips. The rhizome, known in Chinese and Himalayan medicine, is gathered as a tonic drug, and the species is among the sources of the herbal material huangjing. The pendent nectar-bearing flowers are bumblebee-pollinated and the berries bird-dispersed. Though widespread and not threatened overall, sustained medicinal harvesting locally depletes wild populations.

Author: (Wall.) Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Jeffrey monograph of Polygonatum

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum geminiflorum

by G & P Jürgens

Decne.

Garh 07 101 ergebnis
India Garhwal Trijugin 2300m, June

Description

Polygonatum geminiflorum is a western Himalayan Solomon's seal distributed from Afghanistan and Pakistan through Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand to western Nepal, with disjunct records from the Caucasus region (Georgia, Armenia). GBIF records 123 occurrences across this range. The species inhabits moist, shaded understorey habitats in temperate oak-conifer and mixed broadleaved forests at elevations of 1,800–3,200 m. It favours deep, humus-rich forest soils and is frequently found on north-facing slopes, along streams, and at the base of boulders under canopies of Quercus semecarpifolia, Cedrus deodara, and Abies pindrow.
Polygonatum geminiflorum is an erect, herbaceous perennial arising from a stout, horizontal, moniliform rhizome bearing conspicuous circular stem scars (Solomon's seals). Stems are simple, arching, 30–60 cm tall, glabrous, and angular in cross-section. Leaves are alternate, sessile, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 5–10 cm long, glaucous beneath, with parallel venation and slightly clasping bases. Flowers are typically borne in pairs (geminate) from leaf axils — the diagnostic character reflected in the epithet — occasionally solitary or in threes. Each flower is tubular-campanulate, 12–18 mm long, white to cream with green tips, pendulous on slender pedicels 1–2 cm long. The six tepals are fused for most of their length. The fruit is a globose berry, 8–10 mm in diameter, ripening from green to dark blue-black.
The photographed specimen from Trijugin in Garhwal at 2,300 m in June represents a characteristic occurrence in the west-central Himalayan forests during peak flowering season. Polygonatum geminiflorum is distinguished from the related P. verticillatum by its alternate (not whorled) leaves and consistently paired flowers. The Caucasian disjunction is biogeographically significant, representing a relictual Tertiary connection between the western Himalayan and Irano-Turanian floras. The rhizomes are used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine as a tonic and are locally harvested, which in some areas may impact wild populations.

Author: Decne. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan (Liliaceae), Flora of British India Vol. 6, Tamura: Liliaceae in Flora of China Vol. 24

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum graminifolium

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.

Nepal 99 117 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3750m, June

Description

Polygonatum graminifolium is a high-alpine Solomon's seal restricted to the Himalaya, recorded from Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan; GBIF documents only about 18 occurrences, indicating a narrow range and limited collecting. It inhabits open alpine and subalpine slopes, rocky meadows, grassy turf and the margins of dwarf shrubberies, generally on stony, well-drained soils above the forest line. The plant photographed south of Rara Lake in western Nepal at 3750 m in June is characteristic of its elevation, roughly 3000-4300 m, where the short season compels rapid flowering soon after snowmelt in early summer.

It is a small, slender perennial herb growing from a short, knotted, horizontal rhizome bearing the circular scars that give the genus its name. The wiry, erect to arching stem is unbranched and bears narrow, grass-like (graminoid) leaves that are linear to linear-lanceolate, sessile and parallel-veined, arranged alternately or sometimes subverticillately, their slenderness giving the species its epithet. The flowers are small, tubular-campanulate and pendulous, solitary or paired in the leaf axils, white to greenish-white and often green-tipped, on short pedicels. The perianth tube is cylindrical with six short recurved lobes enclosing six included stamens, and the ovary develops into a small globose berry ripening bluish-black to red.

The epithet graminifolium, grass-leaved, distinguishes it from broader-leaved Himalayan congeners. Polygonatum is a north-temperate genus formerly placed in Liliaceae or Convallariaceae and now treated within an expanded Asparagaceae. Its restricted distribution and modest occurrence record suggest specialisation to alpine turf, though no formal conservation assessment exists; like related species its rhizomes have potential use in the regional pharmacopoeia.

Author: Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan, Jeffrey revision of Polygonatum

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum punctatum

by GP Jürgens

Royle ex Kunth

Bh2008 333 P513
Bhutan Phobjika 2700m, April
Nepal 1994 59 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Bhalukhob 
1900m April

Description

Polygonatum punctatum is a Sino-Himalayan Solomon's seal distributed through China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, with over 450 georeferenced occurrences and additional records from cultivation. It is a plant of cool, shaded temperate forest, mossy banks, rock ledges and humus-rich slopes, where it often grows as a lithophyte or epiphyte. The populations documented at Phobjikha in Bhutan at about 2700 m and at Bhalukhob in eastern Nepal at about 1900 m, both in April, reflect its montane forest habitat, emerging and flowering in spring.

The species grows from a creeping, knotted rhizome that produces an arching to pendent leafy stem. The leaves are alternate, sometimes appearing sub-opposite, ovate to lanceolate and acuminate, often somewhat leathery. Slender axillary inflorescences bear one to several tubular flowers; the perianth is fused into a narrow cylindrical tube, greenish-white and frequently marked with purple dots or spots (the punctate patterning evoked by the epithet), with six short lobes and included stamens. The fruit is a small globose berry, dark purple to blackish when ripe, containing a few seeds.

Within Asparagaceae (formerly Convallariaceae or Liliaceae sensu lato), Polygonatum is a Northern Hemisphere genus whose East Asian and Himalayan species are taxonomically intricate, separated by leaf arrangement, flower number, perianth markings and rhizome form. The frequently epiphytic or saxicolous habit of P. punctatum is unusual within the largely terrestrial genus. Widespread and locally common, it is not regarded as threatened, though several Himalayan congeners are harvested for the medicinal rhizome.

Author: Royle ex Kunth · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Jeffrey's revision of Polygonatum

Asparagaceae

Polygonatum singalilense

by G & P Jürgens

H. Hara

BhutanPG2011 164
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3600m June
Bh09 183 P318
Bhutan Phajoding, 3600m June

Description

Polygonatum singalilense H.Hara is an alpine Solomon's-seal of the eastern Himalaya, named for the Singalila ridge and known from about 66 records in Nepal, India, Bhutan and adjacent China, with herbarium material in Great Britain. It occurs in moist alpine meadows, dwarf-shrub heath, rhododendron scrub and the edges of fir forest, typically among rocks and mossy banks in the upper temperate to subalpine zone. The plants illustrated from Tsochenchen and Phajoding in Bhutan, both near 3600 m in June, are characteristic of its cool, humid, snow-influenced habitats with a brief flowering season at the onset of the monsoon.

This is a small rhizomatous perennial herb growing from a knotty, horizontally creeping rhizome bearing the scars ("seals") of previous shoots. The stem is short, erect to arching and unbranched. Leaves are alternate to subverticillate, sessile or shortly petiolate, ovate to lanceolate, and glabrous. The flowers are solitary or few in the leaf axils, pendulous, with a tubular to campanulate, gamophyllous perianth that is whitish to greenish, often tinged purple; the six tepals are fused with short free lobes, the stamens inserted within the tube. The fruit is a small globose berry, ripening dark blue to blackish and containing few seeds.

The species belongs to a complex of dwarf, alpine Himalayan Polygonatum often confused with P. hookeri and relatives, distinguished by stature, leaf arrangement and perianth proportions. Its nectar-rich tubular flowers are bumblebee-pollinated, and the fleshy berries are bird-dispersed. As a narrow-range montane endemic of the eastern Himalaya, P. singalilense is potentially sensitive to grazing, collection and upward shifts of vegetation belts under climate warming, though it has not been formally assessed.

Author: H. Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Hara's Flora of Eastern Himalaya, monograph/revision of Polygonatum

Asparagaceae

Rohdea nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

(Raf.) N.Tanaka

Nepal1992 155 P227 ergebnis
Nepal Simbua-Khola 2000m March 

Description

Rohdea nepalensis is a rhizomatous perennial herb of the Himalaya and adjacent montane Asia, documented by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Thailand across some 133 occurrences. It is a forest-floor species of shaded, moist broadleaved and evergreen forest, growing on humus-rich slopes, banks and rocky ground in the subtropical to warm-temperate zone. The photographed plant was recorded in Nepal in the Simbua-Khola at 2000 m in March, an early-season flowering in the cool, damp understorey characteristic of the species.

It forms clumps from a short, stout rhizome and produces basal, distichous, strap-shaped to oblanceolate leaves that are leathery, arching, prominently veined and tapered to a sheathing base. The inflorescence is a short, dense, sessile or shortly pedunculate spike borne near ground level, carrying numerous small, crowded flowers; each flower has a fleshy, urceolate to campanulate perianth of six connate tepals, usually pale yellow to greenish, with six included stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is a one- to few-seeded berry that ripens red.

GBIF accepts the name, recombined by N. Tanaka, who expanded Rohdea to include species formerly placed in Tupistra and Campylandra; under that classification the plant appears in older literature under those genera. It is treated within an enlarged Asparagaceae (subfamily Nolinoideae, the former Convallariaceae/Ruscaceae). Several Rohdea are cultivated as evergreen ornamentals and used in traditional medicine. Widely distributed in suitable forest, R. nepalensis is of no conservation concern.

Author: (Raf.) N.Tanaka · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Tanaka revision of Rohdea

Asparagaceae

Theropogon pallidus

by GP Jürgens

(Wall. ex Kunth) Maxim.

Bh09 218 G366
Bhutan Wangdi 2250m, June
Nepal 99 897 ergebnis
West-Nepal Sepka 2760m, July
Sikkim 2006 453 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tolung 2200m, May

Description

Theropogon pallidus is the sole species of its genus, a rhizomatous woodland herb distributed along the Himalaya from Nepal through northern India, Bhutan and south-western China into Myanmar and Thailand. GBIF lists some 264 occurrences concentrated in Nepal, China, India and Bhutan, with outliers in Myanmar and Thailand. It grows in shaded, humus-rich soils of temperate broad-leaved and mixed forest, on mossy banks, ravine sides and beneath shrubbery, broadly between about 1800 and 3000 m. The accompanying images span its range, from Bhutan at Wangdi (2250 m, June) and West Nepal at Sepka (2760 m, July) to West Bengal at Tolung (2200 m, May), illustrating its early-summer flowering across the mid-montane forest belt.

The plant arises from a short, creeping rhizome and forms tufts of narrowly linear, grass-like basal leaves that are channelled, arching and somewhat fleshy. The flowering scape is erect and leafless, bearing a lax, secund raceme of pendulous, bell-shaped flowers; each flower is subtended by a membranous bract and hangs on a slender, jointed pedicel. The perianth is white to pale pink, the six tepals fused below into a campanulate tube with recurved lobes, enclosing six stamens with short filaments. The ovary is superior and trilocular, maturing into a globose, fleshy berry that ripens red, containing few rounded seeds.

Theropogon is a monotypic genus of the Asparagaceae (formerly Convallariaceae or Liliaceae sensu lato), morphologically intermediate between Ophiopogon and Convallaria and allied to the lily-of-the-valley group by its nodding campanulate flowers and berry fruit. Its disjunct, narrowly montane distribution makes it of biogeographic interest as a relict of Sino-Himalayan forest flora. The species is locally frequent and faces no broad conservation concern, though it depends on intact shaded forest understorey.

Author: (Wall. ex Kunth) Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, An Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Genera of Convallariaceae