Asteraceae

Asteraceae

Ajania myriantha

Asteraceae

Anaphalis busua

Asteraceae

Aster peduncularis 

Asteraceae

Artemisia austroyunnanensis

Asteraceae

Asteraceae

Cremanthodium palmatum

by GP Jürgens

Benth.

Sikkim2003 335 G472
Sikkim Saniti-Lake 4100m August

Description

Cremanthodium palmatum is an alpine herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded in GBIF (about 330 occurrences) from China, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Taiwan. It inhabits moist alpine meadows, streamsides, seepage slopes and rocky turf, generally between 3500 and 4500 m, where late-summer monsoon moisture sustains lush herbaceous growth. The photographed population at Saniti Lake in Sikkim at 4100 m in August typifies its preferred high-elevation, snowmelt-fed habitat, flowering as the brief alpine summer reaches its peak.

It is a perennial with a short rhizome and fibrous roots, producing erect, somewhat glandular-hairy stems. The basal leaves are long-petiolate and palmately lobed or divided, the blade reniform to orbicular in outline with toothed segments, recalling the foliage of a buttercup; the stem leaves are reduced and sessile upwards. The capitula are usually solitary and nodding, characteristic of the genus, with broad campanulate involucres of subequal, often dark-margined bracts. The ray florets are yellow, ligulate and spreading, surrounding numerous yellow tubular disc florets; the fruit is a cylindrical, glabrous achene crowned by a pappus of fine white bristles.

Cremanthodium belongs to tribe Senecioneae of the Asteraceae and is closely allied to Ligularia and Parasenecio, distinguished by its predominantly nodding, solitary alpine capitula. The genus is centred on the Hengduan Shan and eastern Himalaya, where rapid diversification has accompanied uplift and glacial cycling, making C. palmatum part of a characteristic high-alpine endemic radiation. Restricted to specialised cold, wet habitats but locally frequent across its range, it is not regarded as globally threatened, though such alpine specialists are sensitive to climatic warming.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Good revision of Cremanthodium

Asteraceae

Cremanthodium reniforme

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Benth. 

BhutanPG2011 282
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4100m June
Sikkim2003 110 P149
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m August
Nepal 95 161 P262 ergebnis
Nepal Rupien La 3900m October
Nepal 99 619 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4300m, July

Description

Cremanthodium reniforme is a high-alpine herb of the central and eastern Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, India (Sikkim), Bhutan and adjacent China; the 294 occurrences map a continuous Himalayan arc, with outlying records in New Zealand reflecting cultivated material. It grows on moist alpine meadows, rocky slopes, screes and streambanks, characteristically between about 3500 and 4800 m. The collated localities, from Bhutan's Jule-Tso at 4100 m and Sikkim's Dzongri at 3900 m to the Rupien La and the Kagmara-La in west Nepal at 3900–4300 m, span June to October, illustrating its strictly high-elevation distribution and protracted summer flowering in the snow-melt zone.

The species is a perennial herb with a short rhizome bearing fleshy roots and erect, often purplish, arachnoid scapose stems. The basal leaves are conspicuous, long-petiolate and reniform to cordate-orbicular, with a palmately veined, dentate blade; the cauline leaves are few and reduced. The capitula are large, solitary and nodding, radiate, with an involucre of blackish-hairy phyllaries. The ray florets are female and golden-yellow, the disc florets tubular and yellow. The cypselae are oblong and glabrous, bearing a pappus of soft, brownish or whitish barbellate bristles roughly equalling the corolla.

Cremanthodium is a Sino-Himalayan genus of about seventy species centred on the Hengduan Shan and Himalaya, segregated from Ligularia chiefly by its solitary nodding capitula, an adaptation that shields pollen and developing achenes from rain and intense alpine radiation. The reniform basal leaves make C. reniforme distinctive among its congeners. Restricted to high alpine habitats yet wide-ranging, it is not currently regarded as threatened, though such species are sensitive to climatic warming and upslope habitat compression.

Author: (DC.) Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Good Revision of Cremanthodium

Asteraceae

Dolomiaea macrocephala 

by G & P Jürgens

DC. ex Royle

Garw 2005 147 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Kuari-Pass 3700m, September
Garw 2005 308 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Kuari-Pass 3700m, September

Description

Dolomiaea macrocephala is a stemless alpine thistle-relative of the western and central Himalaya and adjacent Central Asian highlands, recorded from India, Nepal, Pakistan, China, Iran and Mongolia, with about 131 occurrences in GBIF. It grows on open alpine slopes, stony pastures and grazed meadows of the upper subalpine and alpine zones, generally between 3000 and 4500 m, often in well-drained turf exposed to full sun. The photograph from the Kuari Pass in Garhwal, India, at about 3700 m in September shows the plant in fruit late in the alpine season among the short turf of the high-meadow belt.

The species is a perennial, essentially acaulescent herb arising from a stout taproot and a short rootstock. The leaves form a flat or appressed basal rosette and are pinnatifid to lyrate with spiny-toothed margins, green above and frequently white-tomentose beneath. As the specific epithet indicates, the conspicuously large flower heads are sessile or nearly so, sitting in the centre of the rosette; the involucre bears numerous imbricate, often spine-tipped phyllaries surrounding a head of purple, tubular disc florets. The achenes are oblong and crowned by a pappus of plumose or barbellate bristles aiding wind dispersal.

The genus Dolomiaea was long included within Jurinea and Saussurea and belongs to the thistle tribe Cardueae of the Asteraceae; molecular studies support its recognition as a distinct Sino-Himalayan and Central Asian lineage. The ground-hugging rosette and centrally clustered heads represent a typical adaptation to wind exposure and heavy grazing at high elevation. Several species, including this one, have a history of use in Tibetan and Himalayan herbal medicine. Widespread across its montane range, D. macrocephala is not regarded as threatened.

Author: DC. ex Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Susanna and Garcia-Jacas revisions of the Cardueae

Asteraceae

Doronicum kamaonense

by G & P Jürgens

(DC.) Alv.Fern.

Garh 07 333 ergebnis
India Garhwal Mahji 2650m, June

Description

Doronicum kamaonense is a perennial herb of the temperate and subalpine Himalaya, distributed across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and south-western China, with some 191 georeferenced occurrences documented in the GBIF network. It is a plant of moist alpine meadows, open grassy slopes, stream margins, the edges of birch and rhododendron scrub, and rocky pastures, typically occurring between about 2500 and 4000 m elevation. The plant photographed at Mahji in the Indian Garhwal Himalaya at 2650 m in June, when its golden flower heads coincide with the early monsoon flush of the high pastures, sits squarely within this favoured montane zone, where snowmelt keeps the substrate cool and humus-rich.

The species forms a short, ascending or erect stem 15–45 cm tall arising from a knotty, often shortly creeping rhizome bearing fibrous roots. The basal leaves are long-petiolate with ovate to cordate, crenate or sinuate-dentate blades, while the cauline leaves become sessile and clasping, reduced upwards. The stems and foliage are clothed in glandular and eglandular hairs. Flower heads are usually solitary, terminal and radiate, 3–5 cm across, subtended by a hemispherical involucre of narrow, acuminate, pubescent phyllaries. The bright yellow ray florets are ligulate and pistillate; the disc florets are tubular and hermaphrodite. The fruit is a ribbed cypsela, those of the ray often lacking a pappus while the disc achenes bear a pappus of barbellate bristles.

Within Doronicum, a Eurasian genus of the tribe Senecioneae, D. kamaonense belongs to the assemblage of Himalayan leopard's-banes that diversified along the great montane arc. Its combination of cordate basal leaves and typically single heads distinguishes it from related taxa, though intergrading populations and broad morphological plasticity have long complicated its circumscription. Like many high-altitude Senecioneae it is insect-pollinated and flowers with the brief alpine growing season. The species is widespread and locally common across its range and is not regarded as threatened, though grazing pressure and trampling locally affect meadow populations.

Author: (DC.) Alv.Fern. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Pakistan, A Revision of the Genus Doronicum (Compositae)

Asteraceae

Doronicum roylei

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

Nepal 99 467 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3200m, June

Description

Doronicum roylei is a Himalayan leopard's-bane distributed from Pakistan and the Western Himalaya through India and Nepal into Bhutan, with GBIF recording 67 occurrences across PK, IN, NP and BT. It grows in subalpine and alpine meadows, on open grassy slopes, among shrubberies and along moist banks, broadly between about 3000 and 4200 m. The photographed plant was found in West Nepal at Churta-Khola near 3200 m, flowering in June. In the GBIF backbone the name is flagged as a SYNONYM, with Doronicum roylei itself given as the accepted name, so that binomial is retained here as the correct designation.

The species is a perennial herb arising from a short, often tuberous or knotty rhizome, with erect, simple or sparingly branched, glandular-hairy stems. The basal and lower leaves are petiolate, ovate to cordate and toothed, while the upper cauline leaves become sessile and amplexicaul, clasping the stem. The capitula are large, radiate and usually solitary (or few), with an involucre of narrow green phyllaries; the bright yellow ray florets are female and ligulate, surrounding numerous yellow, tubular, bisexual disc florets. The fruit is a cypsela, typically with a pappus of fine bristles on the disc florets, in the manner characteristic of the genus.

Doronicum is a genus of the tribe Senecioneae centred on the temperate mountains of Eurasia, with a notable Himalayan and Central Asian radiation. As a showy meadow composite it is a typical component of Himalayan summer-flowering alpine flora. It is locally common across its range and is not regarded as threatened, though grazing pressure affects accessible high pastures.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of China (Asteraceae: Senecioneae)

Asteraceae

Dubyaea hispida

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 56
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September

Description

Dubyaea hispida is an alpine member of the lettuce tribe (Cichorieae) ranging across the eastern and central Himalaya into south-western China, with reliable records from Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Pakistan and China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan); extra-regional points in Austria and Great Britain among the 544 occurrences represent cultivated or misattributed material rather than native range. It grows in moist alpine meadows, scrub margins, rocky slopes and streamsides, typically between about 3000 and 4300 m. The plant figured from the Shele-La pass in Bhutan at roughly 4000 m in September reflects its characteristic late-season flowering in cool, humid high-mountain habitats.

The species is a perennial herb with a short rhizome and erect, hispid stems clothed, like the peduncles and involucres, in spreading blackish or purplish multicellular hairs. The leaves are thin, oblong to lyrate-pinnatifid, with a large terminal lobe and a winged, amplexicaul petiole base; the upper leaves are reduced. The capitula are several, nodding in a loose corymb, with an involucre of imbricate, hispid phyllaries. The florets are all ligulate and yellow, as in the milky-juiced Cichorieae. The cypselae are narrowly fusiform, ribbed and slightly narrowed above, bearing a pappus of soft, white, finely barbellate bristles.

Dubyaea is a small Sino-Himalayan genus of perhaps a dozen species centred on the eastern Himalaya and Hengduan Shan, segregated from the related Crepis and Soroseris by its nodding heads, dark-hispid indumentum and distinctive achene and pappus characters. The nodding capitula and abundant glandular-setose vestiture are adaptations to wet alpine conditions, sheltering florets from rain. As a widespread high-elevation species across multiple countries, D. hispida is not considered threatened, although it is naturally restricted to the narrow alpine belt.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Stebbins Cichorieae of the Himalaya

Asteraceae

Duhaldea eupatorioides

by G & P Jürgens

(DC.) Anderb.

Bhutan2012 1356
Bhutan Sandrup 1500m, October

Description

Duhaldea eupatorioides is a subtropical to warm-temperate composite of the Himalaya and adjacent montane Asia, recorded from India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Laos and Vietnam, with GBIF listing about 156 occurrences. It grows on open hillsides, forest margins, scrub, roadcuts and grassy slopes in the foothill and lower montane belt, broadly from 1000 to 2500 m. The photographed plant was found in Bhutan at Sandrup at 1500 m in October, when the species comes into bloom at the close of the monsoon, its leafy stems carrying numerous small heads above the autumn grassland.

It is an erect, somewhat woody-based perennial herb or subshrub with leafy, branching, often pubescent stems. The leaves are alternate, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, acuminate, with serrate margins and a finely hairy surface, narrowing to a short petiole or sessile base, the foliage recalling Eupatorium, hence the epithet. The capitula are small, numerous, and aggregated into terminal corymbose panicles; each head is radiate, with an involucre of several rows of imbricate bracts, marginal yellow ray florets and yellow tubular disc florets. The fruit is a ribbed, hairy cypsela crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles, dispersed by wind.

The species belongs to the tribe Inuleae and to genus Duhaldea, a segregate split from the broadly defined Inula on molecular and morphological grounds; older floras may list it under Inula eupatorioides. A tolerant species of open and disturbed montane habitats, it is widespread and not of conservation concern. Its Sino-Himalayan to Indochinese range typifies the warm-temperate element of the southern Asian mountain arc.

Author: (DC.) Anderb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, generic revision of Inuleae (Anderberg)

Asteraceae

Duhaldea nervosa 

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex DC.) Anderb.

Garw 2005 265 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kuno 2800m, September

Description

Duhaldea nervosa is a perennial composite of the Himalaya and montane south-east Asia, recorded from China, Nepal, Thailand, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam. Its roughly 584 georeferenced collections span the temperate to subtropical hill belt from the western Himalaya eastward into Indochina. It grows on grassy slopes, open hillsides, forest margins, roadside banks and in scrub, favouring well-drained sunny to lightly shaded ground. The photographed plant from Garhwal at Kuno at 2800 m, flowering in September, is typical of its upper-temperate habitat and its late-monsoon to autumn flowering, when the capitula open above the surrounding herbage.

It is an erect, often hairy perennial herb with leafy stems arising from a woody rootstock. The alternate leaves are elliptic to lanceolate or oblong, with a finely toothed margin and conspicuous, raised lateral veins on the lower surface, the prominent venation giving the species its epithet nervosa. The capitula are radiate and borne in terminal corymbose clusters, each head with an involucre of several rows of imbricate, herbaceous to membranous bracts. The yellow ray florets are female and ligulate, surrounding numerous yellow, tubular, bisexual disc florets. The fruit is a ribbed, cylindrical cypsela crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Duhaldea was segregated from the broadly defined Inula and now comprises a group of Asian species formerly placed in that genus; D. nervosa was transferred from Inula by Anderberg, as the parenthetical authorship records. Members of the tribe Inuleae, these plants are visited by a range of generalist insect pollinators. D. nervosa is widespread and locally common across its extensive range and is of no conservation concern, several allied species being used in regional folk medicine.

Author: (Wall. ex DC.) Anderb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Anderberg's Phylogeny and Reclassification of the Tribe Inuleae

Asteraceae

Echinops cornigerus 

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

Garw 2005 182 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Pana 2800m, September

Description

Echinops cornigerus is a Sino-Himalayan globe-thistle distributed across the western and central Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan plateau, with verified records from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and China, alongside a scatter of cultivated or extra-regional occurrences (Iran, France, Belgium) among the roughly 294 georeferenced GBIF collections. It inhabits open, sunny slopes, dry stony pastures, forest margins and disturbed ground in the upper temperate to subalpine belt, typically between about 2000 and 3500 m. The plant photographed at Pana in the Garhwal Himalaya at 2800 m in September, fruiting at the close of the monsoon, exemplifies its preference for well-drained montane grassland exposed to strong insolation.

A stout perennial herb, it forms an erect, ridged and somewhat cottony-tomentose stem arising from a woody rootstock. The leaves are coriaceous, deeply pinnatifid to bipinnatifid, glabrescent and green above but white-tomentose beneath, the lobes terminating in conspicuous rigid yellowish spines. The inflorescence is the spherical compound capitulum characteristic of the genus: numerous one-flowered capitula aggregated into a globose synflorescence, each enclosed by stiff bristly involucral scales. The corollas are tubular, pale blue to whitish, and the achenes are cylindrical, densely hairy and crowned by a short pappus of fused scales.

The genus Echinops is taxonomically intricate, the spherical secondary head having evolved as a striking adaptation that pools many reduced florets into a single pollinator-attracting unit. The spiny architecture deters mammalian grazing, an advantage in heavily pastured Himalayan rangelands. Though not assessed as threatened, populations are locally affected by overgrazing and slope disturbance, and the species remains a useful indicator of dry montane grassland.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China (Asteraceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Kew monograph of Echinops

Asteraceae

Erigeron bellidioides 

by GP Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) Benth. ex C.B.Clarke

Nepal 97 284 G577
Nepal Chamtrug 2550m May
Nepal 97 284 G577
Nepal Chamtrug 2550m May

Description

Erigeron bellidioides is a small fleabane of the Western and Central Himalaya, with verified GBIF occurrences confined to Pakistan, Nepal and India. It is a plant of open grassy slopes, forest clearings, banks and stony pastures through the temperate zone, generally between about 1800 and 3000 m. The material photographed at Chamtrug in central Nepal at around 2550 m in May illustrates its flowering at the onset of the growing season in just such open montane grassland, where it forms low, daisy-like tufts among the sward.

The species is a low perennial or short-lived herb forming a basal rosette of obovate to spathulate, entire or slightly toothed leaves that, as the epithet bellidioides suggests, recall those of a daisy (Bellis). The stems are slender, sparingly leafy and finely hairy, each typically bearing a solitary terminal capitulum. The involucre is hemispherical with narrow, hairy phyllaria in a few rows; the head carries numerous slender, thread-like ray florets that are white, pink or pale lilac surrounding a disc of yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a small flattened achene crowned by a pappus of fine bristles that facilitates wind dispersal.

Within Erigeron, a large genus easily confused with related Aster, this species is distinguished by its rosette habit, narrow many-rayed heads and Himalayan distribution; it was transferred to the genus by C.B. Clarke from a Buchanan-Hamilton and Don basionym. Ecologically it behaves as a pioneer of open and disturbed ground and provides a nectar and pollen source for generalist insects. It is widespread and locally common in suitable grassland and is not regarded as being of conservation concern.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) Benth. ex C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of British India