Asteraceae

Asteraceae

Ajania myriantha

Asteraceae

Anaphalis busua

Asteraceae

Aster peduncularis 

Asteraceae

Artemisia austroyunnanensis

Asteraceae

Asteraceae

Saussurea simpsoniana

by GP Jürgens

(Fielding & Gardner) Lipsch.

Garw 2005 337 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bagubas 4150m, October
Garw 2005 336 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bagubas 4150m, October

Description

Saussurea simpsoniana is a high-alpine cushion thistle of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges. GBIF documents it from Nepal, India, China, Pakistan and Bhutan, with around 260 occurrences concentrated along the main Himalayan axis. It inhabits open stony slopes, screes, glacial moraines and alpine turf, typically between 4000 and 5500 m, often in the uppermost zone where vascular plant life thins out. The collection figured here was made at Bagubas in Garhwal, northern India, at 4150 m in October, late in the alpine season when the plant persists as a dense persistent rosette.

It forms a compact, stemless or short-stemmed perennial with a thick taproot and a rosette of oblanceolate, white-woolly leaves. The capitula are aggregated into a dense terminal cluster nestled among the leaves and enveloped by long, dense, silky-white lanate hairs that form a protective woolly mass. Individual florets are tubular and purple, with bristly pappus; the involucral bracts are concealed within the wool. This dense indumentum, characteristic of the snowball saussureas, traps heat and shelters the developing achenes from intense ultraviolet radiation, desiccation and frost.

The species belongs to Saussurea subgenus Amphilaena, the woolly snowball group whose adaptations to extreme altitude have made them classic subjects of alpine ecophysiology. The woolly bracts elevate floral temperatures and attract the few high-altitude pollinators active in this environment. Widely collected for Tibetan and Ayurvedic medicine, several relatives in this group face harvesting pressure; although S. simpsoniana is not formally assessed as threatened, its restricted high-elevation habitat warrants monitoring under warming alpine climates.

Author: (Fielding & Gardner) Lipsch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, A revision of the genus Saussurea (Asteraceae: Cardueae)

Asteraceae

Saussurea stella

by GP Jürgens

Maxim.

Sikkim2003 511 G712
Sikkim Yume Samdong 4600m August

Description

Saussurea stella is a high-alpine herb distributed across the eastern Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, recorded from China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu), Bhutan and India, with some 821 georeferenced occurrences documented in GBIF. It occupies open alpine meadows, marshy turf, gravelly flushes and the margins of glacial streams, typically between 3000 and 5400 m. The plant photographed at Yume Samdong in northern Sikkim at about 4600 m in August is characteristic of the wet, peaty seepage slopes the species favours during the monsoon, where it forms part of a low cushion-and-rosette sward exposed to intense radiation, nightly frost and a brief growing season.

The species is a stemless, near-acaulescent perennial forming a flat, star-shaped rosette pressed against the substrate from a stout taproot. The numerous lanceolate to linear leaves are glabrous, entire and often suffused with purplish-red, radiating symmetrically and giving the plant its epithet stella. The capitula are sessile and densely clustered at the rosette centre, each involucre with imbricate, purple-tinged phyllaries enclosing tubular purple florets; the corollas are deeply lobed and the anthers tailed at the base. Fruit is a glabrous cylindrical achene with a double pappus of short outer and longer plumose inner bristles.

A member of the large genus Saussurea (subtribe Saussureinae, tribe Cardueae), S. stella belongs to the rosette-forming, ground-hugging guild that recurs in Tibetan alpine floras as an adaptation to cold, windy, high-irradiance environments, the flattened habit and dark pigmentation enhancing heat capture and protecting against ultraviolet stress. Pollination is by alpine flies and bees, and the plumose pappus enables wind dispersal. Though not formally assessed as threatened and locally abundant, it is sensitive to grazing and the warming-driven contraction of alpine seepage habitats.

Author: Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Lipschitz Monograph of Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea taraxacifolia

by GP Jürgens

(Lindl. ex Royle) Wall. ex DC.
Sikkim2003 431 G598
Sikkim below Dzongri 3800m, August
Sikkim2003 101 G138
Sikkim below Dzongri 3800m, August

Description

Saussurea taraxacifolia is a high-elevation composite of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, distributed through Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and southern China, with roughly 209 GBIF records. It is a plant of the alpine zone, growing on open stony slopes, screes, gravelly flats and rocky alpine turf, generally well above the treeline. The Sikkim population photographed below Dzongri at 3800 m in August documents the species in its characteristic high-mountain habitat, flowering during the brief monsoon-fed alpine summer when these rosette perennials complete their reproductive cycle.

The plant is a low, often acaulescent or short-stemmed perennial herb arising from a stout rootstock, typically with a basal rosette of leaves. As the epithet indicates, the leaves are taraxacum-like (dandelion-like): oblanceolate in outline and runcinate-pinnatifid, with backward-pointing lobes, often somewhat woolly. The capitula are discoid, solitary or aggregated into a dense terminal cluster, each enclosed by an involucre of imbricate phyllaries and containing tubular purple to purplish florets; ray florets are absent, as throughout the genus. The fruit is a cypsela crowned by a pappus of plumose inner bristles and shorter, often barbellate outer bristles, an arrangement diagnostic of Saussurea and adapted to wind dispersal.

Saussurea is a large Sino-Himalayan and central Asian genus that has radiated extensively in the high mountains, with many narrowly endemic alpine specialists. S. taraxacifolia, with its dandelion-like rosette leaves, belongs to the low cushion- and rosette-forming alpine element rather than the woolly "snowball" snow-lotus group. Its dependence on open high-elevation habitats makes it a characteristic member of the Himalayan alpine flora; it is moderately widespread and not formally assessed as threatened, though high-mountain endemics of this kind are increasingly vulnerable to warming and habitat contraction.

Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lipschitz's monograph of Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea tridactyla

by GP Jürgens

Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 363
Bhutan Jule-Tso 4250m, June
Sikkim2003 296 P415
Sikkim above Saniti-Lake 4400m August
Sikkim2003 294 P408
Sikkim above Saniti-Lake 4400m August

Description

Saussurea tridactyla Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f. is a high-alpine composite of the eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF from Nepal, China, India and Bhutan across some 234 occurrences. It belongs to the celebrated group of woolly snowball saussureas of the uppermost mountain zone, growing on open screes, moraine, rocky alpine turf and stony slopes near the snowline, generally between about 4000 and 5000 m. The plants documented at Jule-Tso in Bhutan around 4250 m in June and above Saniti-Lake in Sikkim at about 4400 m in August illustrate its occurrence at the extreme upper limit of vascular plant life, in a harsh environment of strong insolation, wind and cold.

The species forms a low, compact perennial in which the stem and crowded upper leaves and capitula are enveloped in dense, long, white or greyish woolly hairs, producing the characteristic cottony cushion that insulates the developing flowers from cold and ultraviolet radiation. The basal and lower leaves are narrow and toothed to lobed, and the heads are aggregated into a congested terminal cluster. Each capitulum is discoid, with purplish tubular florets enclosed by woolly-margined involucral bracts; the achenes are topped by a pappus of feathery and shorter outer bristles aiding wind dispersal.

Saussurea (tribe Cardueae) is a large Asian genus, and the woolly high-alpine species such as S. tridactyla represent a striking convergent adaptation to extreme altitude, the dense indumentum functioning as a glasshouse-like protection for the inflorescence. With a restricted high-elevation range, the species is naturally localised; such alpine snowball saussureas are increasingly of conservation concern owing to harvesting of related species for medicine and to climate-driven contraction of their cold habitats, making them important sentinels of Himalayan alpine change.

Author: Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Lipschitz monograph of the genus Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea uniflora

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Wall. ex Sch.Bip.

Sikkim2003 435 P605
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4000m August
Sikkim2003 436 P606
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4000m August

Description

Saussurea uniflora is a high-alpine thistle-relative of the eastern Himalaya, recorded in GBIF from Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and Japan across 156 occurrences. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, occupying moist meadows, rocky slopes, screes and seepage flushes generally between 3800 and 4800 m. The photographed individual was found in Sikkim's Chopta Valley at about 4000 m in August, when the brief post-monsoon flowering peak coincides with maximum snow-melt moisture in these exposed habitats.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb arising from a stout, often woody caudex topping a thick taproot, the stem very short or almost absent so that the plant appears acaulescent. The leaves are crowded in a basal rosette, oblanceolate to elliptic, narrowed to a winged petiole, with entire or denticulate margins and a thin floccose-arachnoid indumentum. As the epithet uniflora implies, the plant typically bears a single (or few) large terminal capitulum, the involucre of imbricate, often purple-tinged phyllaries enclosing numerous purple, tubular disc florets; there are no ray florets. The fruit is a glabrous cypsela crowned by a double pappus of outer short bristles and inner plumose hairs.

Saussurea (Asteraceae, tribe Cardueae) is a vast genus centred on the mountains of Asia, many species being cushion- or rosette-forming cold-zone specialists. The reduced stem and condensed solitary head are adaptations to the short alpine growing season and high insolation, with pollination chiefly by bumblebees and flies. Although not formally evaluated for conservation, its restricted high-elevation niche makes it potentially sensitive to upward shifts in vegetation belts driven by warming.

Author: (DC.) Wall. ex Sch.Bip. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Lipschitz Monograph of the Genus Saussurea

Asteraceae

Senecio scandens

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don

Bhutan2012 109
Bhutan Chogcham 2900m, June

Description

Senecio scandens, the climbing groundsel, is a widely distributed scrambling composite of South, East and Southeast Asia, with 5,659 GBIF occurrences across China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines, plus scattered records as an introduction elsewhere. It grows in forest margins, thickets, hedgerows, ravines and disturbed slopes over a very broad altitudinal range from the foothills to over 3000 m. The plant pictured was recorded at Chogcham in Bhutan at 2900 m in June, an upper-temperate setting where this vigorous scrambler clambers over shrubs and forms tangled masses.

It is a perennial herb or subshrub with elongate, climbing or trailing, much-branched stems that can reach several metres. The leaves are alternate, ovate-lanceolate to triangular, often hastate or with a few basal lobes or teeth, acuminate at the apex and shortly petiolate. The numerous yellow capitula are arranged in broad terminal and axillary corymbose panicles; each radiate head has about eight to ten short ray florets around a yellow disc, subtended by a calyculate involucre of narrow phyllaries with conspicuous outer bracteoles. The cypselae are cylindrical and ribbed, bearing a copious white pappus of fine capillary bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Described by Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don, the species belongs to the large, cosmopolitan genus Senecio (tribe Senecioneae). Like many of its relatives it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is used in traditional Asian herbal medicine, particularly in Chinese pharmacopoeia. Abundant, fast-growing and tolerant of disturbance, it is in no way threatened and can behave weedily where introduced.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Senecioneae of the World (Nordenstam), Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton)

Asteraceae

Senecio scandens var. incisus

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Bhutan2015 327
Bhutan, Trongsa 3100m, October

Description

Senecio scandens var. incisus is a regional variant of the widespread climbing groundsel, recorded from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Nepal, with 338 georeferenced occurrences across the type species' range; the variety is part of an East Asian to Himalayan complex. It grows in moist montane forest margins, thickets, scrub and along streamsides and clearings, scrambling over shrubs and rocks, generally in the temperate zone. It was photographed near Trongsa, Bhutan, at 3100 m in October, flowering in the cool post-monsoon season when its golden heads brighten forest edges and disturbed slopes.

It is a scrambling or climbing perennial herb with long, slender, ribbed and often woody-based stems reaching several metres through surrounding vegetation. The alternate leaves are ovate to triangular-lanceolate, in var. incisus more deeply and irregularly incised or lobed than in the typical form, with toothed margins, an acuminate apex and frequently a pair of small basal lobes. The numerous radiate flower heads are arranged in broad terminal and axillary corymbose panicles; each head has bright yellow ray and disc florets subtended by a uniseriate involucre of green phyllaries with small outer calyculate bracts. The fruit is a cylindrical cypsela bearing a white pappus of fine bristles.

The species belongs to Senecio s.str. in tribe Senecioneae, one of the largest genera of flowering plants; the scandent climbing habit is unusual within an otherwise herbaceous genus. The variety incisus, described by Franchet, is distinguished by its more dissected leaves and treated as part of the variable S. scandens aggregate. Like the type, it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is common and not of conservation concern.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Senecioneae of the World (Nordenstam & Pelser studies)

Asteraceae

Shangwua denticulata 

by G & P Jürgens

(DC.) Raab-Straube & Yu J.Wang

Garw 2005 64 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 3400m, September
Garw 2005 170 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Shertoli 3100m, September

Description

Shangwua denticulata is an alpine perennial herb of the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau region, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 170 occurrences in GBIF. It is a plant of high open habitats, growing on alpine and subalpine slopes, in meadows, on screes and among rocks, generally above the treeline. The photographed plants come from the Garhwal Himalaya of India, at the Valley of Flowers (3400 m) and at Shertoli (3100 m), both recorded in September as the late-summer alpine flora comes into flower and fruit, an elevation and setting characteristic of this cold-mountain specialist.

The plant arises from a perennial rootstock and produces erect or ascending stems bearing alternate leaves; the leaves are oblong to lanceolate with toothed (denticulate) margins, as the epithet records, and are often somewhat hairy. The flower heads (capitula) are borne singly or in small clusters and are surrounded by a many-rowed involucre of bracts, the latter frequently tinged dark or purplish as in many alpine composites. As a member of the tribe Cardueae the capitula are discoid, composed wholly of tubular, purplish florets, and the achenes are crowned by a pappus of fine bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Shangwua is a small genus recently segregated from Saussurea on molecular and morphological grounds, the species formerly treated under that genus; the recombination by Raab-Straube and Wang reflects modern phylogenetic revision of the Saussurea complex. As a high-alpine thistle relative, S. denticulata is adapted to short growing seasons, intense radiation and cold, and its specialised montane distribution makes it of biogeographic interest within the rich Sino-Himalayan Cardueae flora.

Author: (DC.) Raab-Straube & Yu J.Wang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Saussurea and allies revision (Raab-Straube)

Asteraceae

Soroseris depressa subst. depressa

by GP Jürgens

unknown

Bhutan2012 281
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September

Description

Soroseris depressa is a cushion-forming alpine composite of the high Himalaya and Tibetan margins, documented from Bhutan, India, China, Nepal and Japan, with about 62 GBIF occurrences. It is a specialist of the highest open ground, colonising scree, gravelly alpine turf, moraines and stony flats well above the treeline, commonly between about 4000 and 5000 m. The photographed material comes from the Shele-La in Bhutan at 4100 m in September, a wind-exposed pass where the species hugs the substrate among sparse alpine cushion vegetation late in the season.

The plant is a low, compact perennial herb with a stout, deep-seated taproot and a contracted, often subterranean caudex from which the leaves and capitula are densely crowded at ground level, forming a flattened ("depressa") rosette or cushion. The leaves are linear-oblanceolate to spathulate, entire to pinnatifid, and frequently woolly or glandular. The capitula are aggregated into a dense, head-like synflorescence sunk among the leaves; each is ligulate with yellow to whitish strap-shaped florets, enclosed by an involucre of few phyllaries. The fruit is a slender, ribbed cypsela crowned by a pappus of fine bristles.

Soroseris is a small genus of the tribe Cichorieae endemic to the Sino-Himalayan and Tibetan high mountains, and S. depressa (also treated under the name Tibetoseris depressa) exemplifies the extreme cushion habit evolved in response to cold, desiccation and short growing seasons. Its restriction to fragile high-alpine substrates makes it sensitive to climate warming and trampling, though its remote habitat affords some protection.

Author: unknown · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Systematics of Cichorieae (Asteraceae)

Asteraceae

Soroseris pumila

by GP Jürgens

Stebbins

Sikkim2003 292 P406 2
Sikkim Dzongri 4300m August

Description

Soroseris pumila is a high-alpine cushion composite restricted to the eastern Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, northern India (Sikkim) and Bhutan, with only about 97 GBIF records reflecting both its narrow range and the inaccessibility of its habitat. It is a plant of the upper alpine and subnival zones, growing on open screes, gravelly flats, moraine and stony turf well above the treeline, typically between about 4000 and 5000 m. The Sikkim population imaged at Dzongri at 4300 m in August captures the species in its characteristic late-summer flowering, when the brief post-snowmelt growing season allows these dwarf perennials to bloom and set seed.

The plant is a diminutive, often almost stemless perennial with a stout, deep taproot and a congested rosette or low tuft of leaves pressed close to the substrate, an adaptation to wind, cold and intense irradiation. The leaves are narrowly oblanceolate to spathulate, entire to pinnately lobed, and the foliage exudes milky latex when broken. The capitula are crowded into a dense terminal cluster nestled among the leaves; each head is ligulate with yellow ray florets, the corollas five-toothed. The fruit is a cypsela bearing a pappus of soft white bristles that facilitates wind dispersal across the open high-mountain terrain.

Soroseris is a small genus of cushion-forming lactucoid composites endemic to the high mountains of the Sino-Himalaya, and S. pumila is among the most reduced, dwarfed members, its compact habit typical of the subnival flora. Its restricted distribution and specialised habitat at the upper limit of plant life make it a notable element of eastern Himalayan alpine biogeography; while not formally assessed, such narrow-range high-elevation endemics are intrinsically vulnerable to climatic warming and habitat shift.

Author: Stebbins · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Stebbins' revision of Soroseris and Crepidinae (monograph)