Campanulaceae

Campanulaceae

Adenophora khasiana

Campanulaceae

Campanula argyrotricha

Campanulaceae

Cyananthus himalaicus

Campanulaceae

Cyananthus microphyllus

Campanulaceae

Campanulaceae

Asyneuma fulgens

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Briq.

BhutanPG2011 840
Bhutan Paro-Chu, 2400m July

Description

Asyneuma fulgens is a bellflower-family herb widely distributed across the Himalaya and adjacent Asia, well represented in GBIF with about 276 occurrences from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and beyond. It is a plant of open, sunny situations, occurring on grassy and rocky slopes, banks, clearings, scrub and roadside verges in the warm-temperate to lower subalpine belt. The plant photographed along the Paro-Chu in Bhutan at about 2400 m in July was recorded in the monsoon flowering season, consistent with its preference for moist but well-drained montane slopes in the lower part of its altitudinal range.

It is an erect perennial herb, often slender and somewhat wiry, with simple or sparingly branched stems arising from a thickened rootstock and exuding latex when cut, as is typical of the family. The leaves are alternate, the lower ones petiolate and ovate to lanceolate, the upper sessile and narrower, with toothed margins. The flowers are borne in elongate, often interrupted spike-like or racemose inflorescences; each has a five-lobed calyx and a deeply five-parted, star-shaped corolla in shades of blue, violet or purple, the linear lobes spreading at anthesis. The style is exserted with a lobed stigma, and the fruit is a capsule dehiscing by lateral pores to shed many small seeds.

Asyneuma is segregated from Phyteuma and Campanula chiefly by its deeply divided, rotate corolla and the manner of capsule dehiscence. The genus is centred on Eurasia, with a notable Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan representation. As a widespread, ecologically tolerant species occupying disturbed as well as natural slopes, A. fulgens is not of conservation concern, and it provides a nectar and pollen resource for bees and other insect visitors in montane meadows.

Author: (Wall.) Briq. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hooker Flora of British India, Lammers World Checklist of Campanulaceae

Campanulaceae

Campanula aristata

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 95 392 P693 ergebnis
Nepal Bahanjyang 3800m October
Nepal 95 393 P694 ergebnis
Nepal Bahanjyang 3800m October

Description

Campanula aristata Wall. is a slender alpine bellflower of the high Himalaya and Tibetan borderlands, ranging across China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan, with about 557 occurrences in GBIF. It grows on open stony slopes, alpine turf, rock crevices and gravelly screes, characteristically at high elevations of roughly 3,000-5,000 m. The photographed plant comes from Bahanjyang in Nepal at 3,800 m, recorded in October, consistent with its occupation of the upper alpine zone where flowering and fruiting extend into the late season.

It is a small, slender, erect annual or short-lived perennial herb, typically only a few centimetres to about 20 cm tall, with a basal rosette of linear to oblanceolate leaves and narrow, sessile, entire cauline leaves. The flowers are solitary or few at the stem apex; the calyx is its most distinctive feature, with very long, narrow, awn-like (aristate) lobes that often equal or exceed the corolla, hence the epithet. The corolla is narrowly tubular to campanulate, pale blue to violet, with short erect lobes. The fruit is a capsule dehiscing by basal pores to shed numerous minute seeds.

Campanula (Campanulaceae) is a large, mainly Northern Hemisphere genus, with the Himalayan high-alpine species forming a distinctive group of dwarf, narrow-flowered herbs. C. aristata is readily recognised among them by its conspicuously elongate, bristle-like calyx lobes, an adaptation thought to aid in the wind-exposed alpine setting. Widespread across the Himalayan-Tibetan alpine belt and occupying abundant natural habitat, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hooker Flora of British India, Campanulaceae revisionary studies

Campanulaceae

Campanula pallida

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2012 188
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3300m September
Bhutan2012 313
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3300m September
Sikkim2003 381 P537
Sikkim Tista valley 3300m August

Description

Campanula pallida is a widespread Asian bellflower with an extensive GBIF record (over 68,000 occurrences) centred on China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan and Afghanistan, with numerous further reports across the broader range from Myanmar and Thailand to scattered cultivated and recorded localities elsewhere. It is a plant of open, well-drained ground, frequenting grassy slopes, rocky banks, terrace margins, roadside cuttings and forest clearings in the temperate and subalpine zones, broadly between about 1500 and 3500 m. The plants illustrated from the Haa valley in Bhutan at 3300 m in September and the Tista valley in Sikkim at 3300 m in August reflect its long summer-to-autumn flowering across the eastern Himalaya.

The species is a perennial herb with slender, ascending to decumbent stems bearing scattered hairs and clear latex. The leaves are alternate, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, with a crenate to serrate margin, the lower leaves petiolate and the upper sessile. The flowers are nodding, borne singly or in a loose few-flowered inflorescence; the corolla is broadly campanulate, five-lobed and pale blue to lilac or sometimes whitish, with reflexed appendages between the calyx lobes. The five stamens have dilated filament bases, and the inferior ovary matures into a nodding capsule that dehisces by basal pores to shed numerous small seeds.

Campanula is a large and taxonomically difficult genus, and C. pallida belongs to a complex of variable Himalayan bellflowers in which flower size and indumentum vary geographically. The pendulous, protandrous flowers are pollinated principally by bees, and the pore-dehiscent capsule disperses seed by wind shaking. The species is abundant, ecologically tolerant and frequently associated with semi-disturbed ground, and it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Revision of the Asiatic Campanula (Kolakovsky)

Campanulaceae

Campanula sylvatica

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bh2008 504 P773
Bhutan Chongsakha 1800m, May

Description

Campanula sylvatica Wall. is a Himalayan bellflower distributed along the temperate ranges from Pakistan and India through Nepal to Bhutan; the GBIF record of about 78 occurrences indicates a moderately frequent but regionally restricted endemic. As its epithet implies, it is a woodland and forest-margin herb of moist, shaded banks, clearings and grassy slopes in broad-leaved and mixed forest, broadly between 1500 and 3000 m. The photographed plant at Chongsakha in western Bhutan at about 1800 m, flowering in May, exemplifies its pre- to early-monsoon anthesis in the cool, humid mid-montane forest of the eastern Himalaya.

The species is an erect to ascending perennial or biennial herb with simple or sparingly branched, slender stems that are usually hispid or scabrid with stiff hairs. The leaves are alternate, ovate to lanceolate, toothed or crenate-serrate and shortly petiolate below, becoming sessile upward. The flowers are borne in a lax, leafy raceme or panicle, each nodding on a slender pedicel; the corolla is broadly campanulate, blue to violet-blue, divided to about a third into five spreading lobes, with a five-lobed calyx whose sinuses often bear reflexed appendages. The five stamens have dilated filament bases, and the inferior ovary ripens into a nodding capsule dehiscing by basal or lateral pores.

Campanula is a large, predominantly Holarctic genus, the Himalayan species forming a distinctive subtropical-to-temperate Asian element; C. sylvatica is recognised by its hispid stems and lax woodland inflorescence. It is taxonomically close to other Himalayan campanulas and has at times been confused in herbaria with allied forest taxa. As a fairly widespread endemic of relatively undisturbed forest, it is not formally assessed but may be locally affected by forest clearance; it has occasional value in rock and woodland gardens.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lammers — World checklist and bibliography of Campanulaceae

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis foetens

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 425 G591
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4250m August

Description

Codonopsis foetens is an alpine herb of the eastern Himalaya, distributed across China, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal, with about 712 georeferenced records in GBIF. It occupies high-elevation meadows, alpine scrub, screes and rocky slopes, typically between roughly 3500 and 4800 m. The plant illustrated was photographed in Sikkim's Chopta Valley at 4250 m in August, during the monsoon flowering season, where it grows among dwarf rhododendron scrub and damp alpine turf in the upper subalpine to alpine zone.

The species is an erect to ascending perennial herb arising from a thickened root, with simple or sparingly branched stems bearing small, scattered, ovate to lanceolate leaves. The flowers are solitary and terminal, nodding, with a broadly campanulate corolla that is pale blue to greyish-blue or violet and conspicuously marked internally with darker veins or blotches. The five corolla lobes are short and the throat often bears coloured patterning; the fruit is a capsule subtended by the persistent calyx lobes and releasing numerous minute seeds at maturity.

Codonopsis (Campanulaceae) is well diversified in the Sino-Himalayan alpine flora, and as the epithet foetens indicates, this species emits a strong, unpleasant odour when the foliage is bruised, a trait shared with several relatives and thought to deter herbivores while attracting particular insect visitors. The pendent bell-shaped flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees. Restricted to high alpine habitats, C. foetens is not formally assessed as threatened but is dependent on intact alpine vegetation and is potentially sensitive to grazing pressure and climate-driven shifts in the alpine belt.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hong Monograph of the Genus Codonopsis

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis gracilis

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim 2006 485 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 484 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ruigi-Chu 1850m, May

Description

Codonopsis gracilis is a slender twining herb distributed across the eastern Himalaya and into mainland Southeast Asia and southern China. Its range extends from Nepal, Bhutan, and northeastern India (Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya) through Myanmar and Vietnam to southern China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou). GBIF records 72 occurrences across these countries. The species grows in margins of subtropical and warm temperate broadleaved forests, thickets, hedgerows, and along streams, at elevations of 1,200–2,800 m. The photograph from Ruigi-Chu in West Bengal at 1,850 m, taken in May, shows the species at a mid-elevation site in the Sikkim-Darjeeling region during the early monsoon flowering period.
The plant is a perennial twining herb arising from a slender, fusiform or cylindrical root. Stems are slender, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, extensively twining through surrounding vegetation, reaching 1–3 m. Leaves are alternate or opposite on lower stems, ovate to broadly ovate, 2–5 cm long, with crenate to serrate margins, sparsely hairy above, paler beneath. Flowers are solitary, axillary, pendulous on slender pedicels. The calyx lobes are five, lanceolate to ovate, spreading. The corolla is broadly campanulate, 15–25 mm long, pale blue to lilac with darker purple veins and markings inside, particularly prominent reticulate venation in the throat. Stamens five, free; the ovary is semi-inferior. The fruit is a broadly conical capsule, dehiscing by apical valves.
Codonopsis gracilis is distinguished from congeners by its relatively small, delicate habit and slender roots, lacking the thick, fleshy taproots prized in traditional medicine that characterize species such as C. pilosula and C. tangshen. The genus Codonopsis comprises approximately 40 species centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, and molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed its placement within Campanulaceae sensu lato. C. gracilis is not currently considered threatened and remains locally frequent in forest margins across its wide range.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Hong & Lammers: Campanulaceae in Flora of China Vol. 19, Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis inflata

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

Bhutan2012 672
Bhutan Tserang 1000m, September
Bhutan2012 675
Bhutan Tserang 1000m, September

Description

Codonopsis inflata is a herbaceous twining perennial of the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar. It grows in forest margins, thickets, scrub and among tall herbs on shaded slopes and stream banks in the subtropical to lower temperate belt, generally between about 1000 and 2500 m, scrambling over surrounding vegetation. The photographed plant comes from Tserang in Bhutan at around 1000 m, flowering in September. With around 107 georeferenced records it is a moderately documented Himalayan bellflower relative, characteristic of the humid, vegetated lower montane zone where its slender climbing stems are supported by neighbouring shrubs and herbs.

It arises from a fleshy, often swollen rootstock and produces slender, twining, glabrous stems that exude latex when cut and emit the characteristic foetid odour of the genus. The leaves are alternate or subopposite, ovate to lanceolate, with entire to shallowly toothed margins and slender petioles. The flowers are solitary and nodding on long pedicels; the calyx has five lobes adnate to the lower part of the ovary, and the corolla is broadly campanulate to somewhat inflated, pale greenish, yellowish or bluish and usually marked within by darker veins or blotches. There are five stamens, and the inferior to half-inferior ovary ripens into a capsule that dehisces to release numerous small seeds.

Codonopsis is a large Sino-Himalayan genus, several species of which are valued in traditional Chinese and Himalayan medicine, the fleshy roots (dang shen) used as tonics; C. inflata shares this ethnobotanical use. Its taxonomy is complicated by variation in corolla form and by close affinity to allied Himalayan species. As a fairly widespread plant of vegetated montane habitats it is of least conservation concern.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Lammers monograph of Campanulaceae (Codonopsis)

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis subsimplex

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 439 P610 2
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4000m August
Sikkim2003 424 P590
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4250m August

Description

Codonopsis subsimplex is an alpine herb of the eastern Himalaya, distributed across Nepal, India (Sikkim), Bhutan and adjacent China, with about 101 georeferenced records in GBIF. It grows in high-elevation meadows, scrub margins, rock crevices and stony alpine slopes, typically within the belt between about 3500 and 4500 m. The plants illustrated were photographed in Sikkim's Chopta Valley at 4000 and 4250 m in August, at the height of the monsoon flowering season, where it occurs among dwarf shrubs and damp turf in the upper alpine zone.

The species is a slender perennial herb arising from a thickened, fleshy rootstock, with stems that are erect to weakly ascending and, as the epithet suggests, little branched. The leaves are small, alternate or scattered, ovate to lanceolate, and shortly petiolate to nearly sessile. The flowers are solitary and terminal, nodding on slender pedicels, with a broadly campanulate corolla typically pale bluish, greenish or purple-tinged and often marked internally with darker veining or coloured spots. The five corolla lobes are shallow; the fruit is a capsule crowned by the persistent calyx, dehiscing to release numerous small seeds.

Codonopsis (Campanulaceae) is a genus of the temperate and alpine Asian flora well represented in the Himalaya, several members of which are characterised by a distinctive foetid odour when bruised. Pollination is largely by bumblebees attracted to the pendent bell-shaped flowers. The fleshy roots of various Codonopsis species are valued in regional herbal medicine. C. subsimplex is restricted to high alpine habitats and, while not formally assessed as threatened, depends on intact alpine pasture and is sensitive to overgrazing and climatic warming.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hong Monograph of the Genus Codonopsis

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis thalictrifolia

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Sikkim2003 122 P163
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August
Sikkim2003 265 P364
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August
Sikkim2003 266 P367
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August

Description

Codonopsis thalictrifolia is a Sino-Himalayan alpine herb of the bellflower family, GBIF recording about 217 occurrences from Nepal, China, India and Bhutan. It is a plant of the upper subalpine and alpine zones, growing in open turf, among dwarf rhododendron scrub, on stony slopes, moraine and moist rock ledges generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The population photographed at Dzongri in western Sikkim at 3950 m, flowering in August during the late monsoon, is characteristic of its occurrence in cool, humid, high-elevation meadow and shrub habitats where it blooms toward the end of the short alpine summer.

It is a slender, glabrous, somewhat glaucous perennial herb arising from a fleshy rootstock, the stems erect to ascending and often weakly clambering through surrounding vegetation. The leaves are small and finely divided or pinnately lobed, recalling the foliage of a meadow-rue (Thalictrum), from which the epithet derives. The flowers are solitary and nodding on slender pedicels; the corolla is broadly campanulate, pale blue to greenish or violet-tinged and frequently marked within by darker veining, with five short lobes, five stamens and an inferior to half-inferior ovary. The fruit is a capsule dehiscing to release numerous small seeds.

Described by Wallich, C. thalictrifolia belongs to the genus Codonopsis (Campanulaceae), the bonnet-bellflowers, several of which emit the group's characteristic foetid odour when bruised. It is locally frequent and not regarded as threatened, though tied to intact alpine turf and scrub. Ecologically its nodding, bell-shaped flowers are adapted to pollination by bumblebees and other robust alpine insects, and it is valued horticulturally as a delicate plant of the high mountains.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Codonopsis (Lammers/Hong monograph)

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis viridis

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2012 1191
Bhutan Tashiyangtse 2000m, October
Bhutan2012 1193
Bhutan Tashiyangtse 2000m, October
Nepal 95 118 P206 ergebnis
Nepal south of Rupina La 3400m October
Nepal 95 119 P207 ergebnis
Nepal south of Rupina La 3400m October

Description

Codonopsis viridis is a Himalayan twining or scrambling perennial distributed along the central and eastern ranges from Nepal through northern India, Sikkim and Bhutan into south-western China, with 162 GBIF records concentrated in this Sino-Himalayan belt. It grows in shrubberies, forest margins, hedgerows and disturbed banks across a wide montane elevation span, from warm-temperate slopes to the subalpine zone. The cited collections illustrate this amplitude: from Tashiyangtse in eastern Bhutan at 2000 m to a higher site south of the Rupina La in Nepal at 3400 m, both flowering in October at the close of the monsoon.

It is a herbaceous climber with slender, twining stems emerging from a tuberous or fleshy rootstock, the foliage and roots emitting the characteristic acrid Codonopsis odour. The leaves are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, alternate or scattered along the stem, thin-textured and entire to obscurely toothed. The flowers are solitary and terminal or borne on slender lateral branches, broadly campanulate to cup-shaped, the corolla greenish to greenish-yellow, often faintly veined or tinged within, with five short spreading lobes. The fruit is a turbinate capsule with a flattened apex, dehiscing to release numerous small seeds.

Codonopsis is a large Asian genus centred on the Himalaya and China, and C. viridis is distinguished within it by its greenish corolla and climbing habit. Like its congeners, it is visited by bees and flies and several species are harvested as substitutes for the tonic root "dang shen". The species is widespread and locally frequent across its range and is not regarded as of conservation concern.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lammers monograph of Campanulaceae (Codonopsis)