Asteraceae

Asteraceae

Ajania myriantha

Asteraceae

Aster peduncularis 

Asteraceae

Anaphalis busua

Asteraceae

Aster ageratoides

Asteraceae

Asteraceae

Aster flaccidus

by G & P Jürgens

Bunge

Garh 07 531 ergebnis
Garh 07 270 ergebnis
India Garhwal Belak Khal 2900m, June

Description

Aster flaccidus is a widespread alpine daisy of the high mountains of Asia, with extensive GBIF records (over 1600 occurrences) from China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Nepal, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Bhutan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. It is a true alpine of stony meadows, scree, gravelly slopes, moraines and short turf, mostly above the treeline but descending where open ground occurs. The record from Belak Khal in Garhwal, India, at about 2900 m in June is a lower, early-season occurrence; across its range the species ascends well above 4000 m, flowering through the brief alpine summer. Here gbif_status is SYNONYM, with the name Aster flaccidus treated as the accepted taxon.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb arising from a short rhizome, the stems solitary or few, simple, erect and conspicuously clothed in long, soft, white or purplish, often glandular hairs. The basal leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, entire and narrowed to a petiole, the cauline leaves few, sessile and reduced. Each stem terminates in a single large capitulum; the numerous ray florets are violet, blue-purple to lilac and spread around a central disc of yellow tubular florets. The involucre is hemispherical with herbaceous, hairy, purple-margined phyllaries in two or three subequal series. Achenes are flattened and pubescent, surmounted by a pappus of reddish barbellate bristles.

A member of Aster section Alpigenia, A. flaccidus is morphologically variable and has accumulated numerous synonyms and infraspecific names reflecting its vast range and the influence of altitude on stature and indumentum. It is a hardy, cushion-tolerant pioneer of cold, exposed habitats and an important component of alpine sward. Being abundant and broadly distributed it is of least concern, although high-altitude populations may serve as sensitive indicators of climate-driven vegetation change.

Author: Bunge · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Polunin & Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya, Onno revision of Aster Alpigenia

Asteraceae

Aster himalaicus

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2012 53
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 55
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 292
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September
Sikkim2003 138 P186
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August

Description

Aster himalaicus is an alpine aster of the eastern and central Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, China, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Pakistan (NP, CN, BT, IN, MM, PK), with around 277 GBIF occurrences indicating a genuinely high-mountain, comparatively restricted range. It grows in alpine meadows, on grassy and stony slopes, moist turf and the margins of dwarf-rhododendron scrub above the treeline. The photographed populations occur on the Shele-La in Bhutan at 4000–4100 m in September and at Dzongri in Sikkim at 3950 m in August, flowering through the late monsoon on open alpine grassland. Note that under GBIF this name carries SYNONYM status, though the accepted name is likewise given as Aster himalaicus.

It is a low perennial herb with a short, woody rhizome bearing solitary or few erect, simple stems usually 5–20 cm tall, more or less hispid with spreading hairs. The leaves are mostly basal and lower-cauline, obovate to oblanceolate or spathulate, tapering to a winged petiole, with entire ciliate margins and sparse hairs. The capitula are large and solitary, terminal and radiate, subtended by an involucre of several series of narrow, often purple-tinged, hairy phyllaries. The ray florets are conspicuous, ligulate and blue-violet to purple, encircling a disc of numerous yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy cypsela crowned by a pappus of fine barbellate bristles in one or two series.

Aster sensu lato in the Himalaya has been much reorganised, several alpine taxa having been segregated into genera such as Aster s.str. of the tribe Astereae; the synonymy attached to this binomial reflects that ongoing taxonomic flux. The large solitary heads borne on dwarf stems are characteristic of cushion-forming alpine asters adapted to short, cool growing seasons. The species is not assessed as threatened, but its dependence on high alpine turf renders it locally vulnerable to grazing pressure and climatic shifts.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Asteraceae monograph (Grierson, revision of Himalayan Aster)

Asteraceae

Aster nakaoi

by GP Jürgens

Kitam.

Bh2008 555 P839
Bhutan Paro 3300m, May

Description

Aster nakaoi is a high-montane perennial of the Eastern Himalaya, presently documented chiefly from Bhutan and adjacent Sikkim and southern Tibet, where it occupies the upper temperate to subalpine belt. The species is poorly represented in aggregated occurrence databases, reflecting its restricted range and infrequent collection rather than true rarity. It favours open grassy slopes, the margins of Rhododendron and Abies forest, rocky banks and the verges of alpine meadows, typically between about 3000 and 4000 m. The plant illustrated here was photographed near Paro in western Bhutan at roughly 3300 m in May, when the earliest flowering heads appear among emerging summer herbage.

The plant forms low tufts arising from a short, somewhat woody rhizome bearing fibrous roots. Stems are erect to ascending, simple or sparingly branched above and often shortly pubescent. Basal and lower cauline leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, narrowed to a winged petiole, with entire or obscurely toothed margins; the upper leaves are sessile, smaller and progressively reduced. The capitula are solitary or few, radiate, with a hemispherical involucre of imbricate, herbaceous phyllaries in several rows. Ray florets are female, ligulate and lilac to bluish-violet, surrounding numerous yellow tubular disc florets. The achenes are compressed and pubescent, crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles facilitating wind dispersal.

A member of the large and taxonomically intricate genus Aster, the species commemorates the Japanese botanist who collected extensively in the Himalaya, and it belongs to the assemblage of small Sino-Himalayan asters whose circumscription remains under revision following molecular reappraisal of the tribe Astereae. Its narrow known distribution along the Bhutan–Sikkim axis makes it of biogeographic interest as a regional endemic, and its conservation status is best regarded as data-deficient pending further field survey across the Eastern Himalayan high country.

Author: Kitam. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Grierson & Long Asteraceae account, Monograph of Himalayan Aster

Asteraceae

Aster neoelegans

by GP Jürgens

Grierson

Bhutan2014 411
Bhutan Jakar 2400m, May

Description

Aster neoelegans is an eastern Himalayan composite native to Bhutan, China (Tibet), India and Nepal, with 53 georeferenced occurrences indicating a fairly localised distribution along the main range. It grows on open grassy slopes, in scrub, forest clearings and on rocky banks in the temperate montane zone. It was photographed near Jakar in central Bhutan at 2400 m in May, flowering in spring on warm, well-drained slopes of the mid-montane belt, where it is a component of meadow and open-woodland communities.

It is an erect perennial herb arising from a short rhizome, with simple or sparingly branched, leafy, finely hairy stems. The alternate leaves are oblong to lanceolate or oblanceolate, entire to slightly toothed, narrowing to a sessile or clasping base and roughly pubescent. The flower heads are radiate and solitary or few in a loose corymb at the stem tips; each head has a hemispherical involucre of imbricate green phyllaries, an outer ring of spreading ligulate ray florets that are pale blue, lilac or mauve, and a central disc of yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of barbellate bristles.

The genus Aster s.str. belongs to tribe Astereae and, following the segregation of numerous American and Asian species into other genera, comprises a predominantly Eurasian group well represented in the Sino-Himalaya. Aster neoelegans, described by Grierson, is one of several closely related Himalayan asters distinguished by subtle differences in leaf shape, indumentum and phyllary form. Ecologically it is an insect-pollinated meadow species. Owing to its restricted range it warrants monitoring, though it is not currently assessed as threatened.

Author: Grierson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Asteraceae of the Himalaya (Grierson & Long studies)

Asteraceae

Aster souliei

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

BhutanPG2011 475
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4450m June

Description

Aster souliei is an alpine aster centred on the Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded principally from China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar (CN, BT, MM, IN), with around 549 GBIF occurrences reflecting a range concentrated in the high mountains of the eastern Himalaya and south-west China; scattered records elsewhere (US) represent cultivation. It grows in alpine meadows, on grassy and rocky slopes, screes and open turf above the treeline, where it forms low mats. The photographed plant occurred on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at the Warrtlang-La in Bhutan at 4450 m in June, flowering early in the season at considerable altitude on exposed alpine grassland.

It is a dwarf, mat- or tuft-forming perennial herb arising from a short, thick rhizome, with very short or almost stemless flowering scapes, the whole plant rarely exceeding 5–15 cm. The leaves are chiefly in a basal rosette, spathulate to obovate or oblanceolate, narrowed into a winged petiole, with entire, often ciliate margins and sparsely hairy surfaces. The capitula are large and solitary, terminal and radiate, subtended by an involucre of several series of narrow, frequently purple-flushed and hairy phyllaries. The ray florets are numerous, ligulate and deep blue-violet to purple, surrounding a central disc of yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a compressed, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of fine, barbellate, reddish to whitish bristles.

Described by Franchet from the Sino-Himalayan borderlands, A. souliei belongs to the cushion- and rosette-forming alpine asters of the tribe Astereae that have undergone repeated taxonomic revision in the region. Its near-stemless habit and disproportionately large violet heads are adaptations to the short, cold growing season at high elevation, maximising display to scarce pollinators. Widespread within its montane belt, it is not considered threatened, though like other high-alpine specialists it may be sensitive to warming-driven habitat contraction.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Asteraceae monograph (Grierson, revision of Himalayan Aster)

Asteraceae

Aster stracheyi

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 345
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4400m June
Nepal 99 530 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3750m, June

Description

Aster stracheyi is a dwarf, mat-forming alpine daisy of the high Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan and China, with around 202 GBIF occurrences. In GBIF the name is returned with synonym status, the accepted name nonetheless being Aster stracheyi, under which it is here treated. It is a plant of high alpine turf, screes, gravelly flats and stony slopes well above the treeline, typically between about 3700 and 5000 m. The photographed plants are from Jule-Tso in Bhutan at 4400 m and from Churta-Khola in west Nepal at 3750 m, both flowering in June at the start of the high-alpine season.

The species is a low, cushion- to mat-forming perennial herb spreading by slender creeping rhizomes or stolons, the short flowering stems clothed in small, crowded leaves. The leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, entire, somewhat fleshy and often ciliate, forming dense basal tufts. The capitula are solitary and almost sessile among the leaves, radiate, with a single series of narrow lilac to pale purple ray florets surrounding a compact disc of yellow tubular florets; the involucre is hemispherical with herbaceous, often purple-tinged phyllaries. The fruit is a flattened, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of barbellate bristles.

Aster in the broad sense is a large and much-revised genus of the tribe Astereae, and A. stracheyi, named for Richard Strachey, exemplifies the cushion-forming high-elevation asters of the Sino-Himalaya, an adaptation to cold and exposure. Restricted to remote alpine ground, it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Revision of Himalayan Aster (Astereae)

Asteraceae

Aster thomsonii 

by G & P Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Garw 2005 40 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 2900m, September
Garw 2005 25 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 2900m, September

Description

Aster thomsonii is a western and central Himalayan daisy ranging through India, Pakistan and Nepal, with roughly 223 GBIF records. It inhabits open slopes, forest clearings, meadows and shrubby banks in the temperate and subalpine zone. The material from the Valley of Flowers in Garhwal at about 2900 m, flowering in September, is characteristic of its preference for moist, well-lit montane sites where it blooms late in the growing season as the monsoon recedes, often forming scattered colonies among grasses and other tall herbs.

The plant is a perennial herb with erect, often branched stems bearing alternate, simple leaves that are ovate to lanceolate, the lower ones petiolate and the upper sessile and somewhat clasping, with toothed margins and a thinly hairy surface. The flower heads are radiate and solitary or few at the branch tips, with an involucre of imbricate, herbaceous phyllaries. The ray florets are female and ligulate, lilac to pale blue-violet, surrounding a central disc of numerous yellow, tubular, bisexual florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy achene crowned by a pappus of fine barbellate bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Though catalogued here under the name Aster thomsonii C.B. Clarke, this name is treated as a synonym in current taxonomic databases, with Aster thomsonii cited as the accepted name following the ongoing recircumscription of Aster and its segregate genera in the eastern Old World. Such reassignments reflect molecular evidence that the traditional broad Aster is polyphyletic. The species remains a widespread and unthreatened component of Himalayan herbaceous vegetation.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora Simlensis, Grierson's revision of Himalayan Aster

Asteraceae

Aster tricephalus

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2015 326
Bhutan Trongsa 2200m, October
Sikkim2011 182
Sikkim Lachung 2600m, June
Sikkim2011 188
Sikkim Lachung 2600m, June
Bh09 311 G477
Bhutan Yetong-La, 2900m June

Description

Aster tricephalus is a Himalayan species ranging through India, Nepal, Pakistan, China and Bhutan, GBIF recording some 87 occurrences along the temperate Himalayan chain. It grows on open grassy and shrubby slopes, in forest clearings, along banks and in subalpine meadows where it benefits from full sun and moist, well-drained soils. The cited gatherings span its altitudinal range: Trongsa in central Bhutan at 2200 m in October, Lachung in Sikkim at 2600 m in June, and the Yetong-La at 2900 m in June. This spread of localities, flowering from early summer through to autumn, reflects its presence across the temperate to lower subalpine belt of the Eastern Himalaya.

It is a perennial herb arising from a short rhizome, with erect, leafy, often pubescent stems. The leaves are alternate, the lower ones oblanceolate and narrowed to the base, the upper smaller, sessile and somewhat clasping, with entire or slightly toothed margins and scabrid or hairy surfaces. The capitula are radiate and few, sometimes clustered into a small terminal group as the epithet suggests; the involucre is campanulate with imbricate, herbaceous phyllaries in several rows. The ray florets are female and ligulate, mauve to purplish-blue, surrounding numerous yellow tubular disc florets. The cypselae are flattened and hairy, bearing a pappus of fine barbellate bristles.

Aster in the strict modern sense (tribe Astereae) is centred on Eurasia, and many Himalayan species formerly placed here have been variously reassigned among segregate genera, so the generic placement of montane taxa such as A. tricephalus remains under continuing taxonomic scrutiny. Attributed to C. B. Clarke, it is treated as an accepted species. Its violet-rayed heads attract a range of bees, hoverflies and butterflies. As a widespread plant of open montane habitats it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson's revision of Himalayan Aster (Astereae)

Asteraceae

Aster vestitus

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Bhutan2012 114
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September
Bhutan2012 115
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September

Description

Aster vestitus is a Sino-Himalayan composite distributed through China, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand, with cultivated material accounting for the British GBIF records; some 247 occurrences are aggregated overall. It is a plant of open subalpine and alpine slopes, forest margins, scrub and grassy banks, generally in the upper montane to alpine zone. The specimen figured was recorded at Shele-La in Bhutan at about 3,600 m in September, when the species comes into flower toward the end of the growing season, its asters providing late-season colour on the high meadows.

It is an erect perennial herb with stems and foliage more or less clothed in a soft, woolly or villous indumentum, as the epithet vestitus (clothed) implies. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate to oblong, sessile or shortly petiolate, the margins entire to obscurely toothed and the surfaces pubescent. The capitula are radiate and borne in a loose corymbose arrangement; the involucral bracts are imbricate in several series. Each head bears an outer ring of pistillate ray florets with violet to pale purple ligules surrounding numerous yellow, tubular, bisexual disc florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy achene (cypsela) crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Aster in the broad sense is a large genus undergoing taxonomic recircumscription, with many Asiatic species now distributed among segregate genera; A. vestitus belongs to the predominantly Sino-Himalayan assemblage of woolly-stemmed alpine asters. The radiate capitula are insect-pollinated, while the pappus-bearing cypselas are dispersed anemochorously. Widespread and locally frequent across its montane range, the species is of no particular conservation concern.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson's revisionary studies of Himalayan Aster (Compositae)

Asteraceae

Chromolaena odorata

by GP Jürgens

(L.) R.M.King & H.Rob.

Bhutan2015 309
Bhutan Trongsa 1900m, October

Description

Chromolaena odorata, Siam weed, is native to the Neotropics (Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and tropical South America) but is now one of the world's most aggressive invasive weeds, reflected in its enormous GBIF dataset of 63,557 occurrences spanning the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific. It colonises disturbed ground, forest margins, abandoned fields, roadsides and plantations in the seasonal tropics and lower subtropics. The photograph was taken at Trongsa in central Bhutan at 1900 m in October, near the upper elevational limit of its spread into warm Himalayan valleys, where it forms dense post-monsoon thickets.

It is a scrambling, much-branched perennial shrub or subshrub reaching 1.5-3 m, with brittle, pubescent stems and opposite, triangular to ovate-deltoid leaves that are three-veined from the base, coarsely toothed, and aromatic when crushed. The numerous small, cylindrical capitula are grouped in flat-topped corymbose clusters and contain only tubular (disc) florets, lacking rays; the pale lilac to whitish corollas have exserted styles giving a fluffy appearance. The cypselae are slender, blackish and angled, each crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles enabling abundant wind dispersal.

Described as Eupatorium odoratum by Linnaeus, it was transferred to Chromolaena by R.M. King & H. Robinson during the dismemberment of the broad genus Eupatorium. Allelopathic, fire-promoting and prolific, it suppresses native vegetation and pasture and is the subject of biological-control programmes worldwide. Its appearance in Bhutan signals the ongoing upslope advance of a serious tropical invasive of major economic and ecological concern.

Author: (L.) R.M.King & H.Rob. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, CABI Invasive Species Compendium, Eupatorieae of the World (King & Robinson)