Didymocarpinae

Didymocarpinae

Didymocarpus oblongus

Didymocarpinae

Aeschynanthus bracteatus

Didymocarpinae

Loxostigma kurzii

Didymocarpinae

Didymocarpus punduanus var. pulchrus

Didymocarpinae

Didymocarpinae

Aeschynanthus parviflorus

by GP Jürgens

Spreng.

Nepal 1994 226 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Mewa-Khola 1900m April 
Nepal 1994 218 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Mewa-Khola 1900m April 
Sikkim 2006 301 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chaana 1750m, May

Description

Aeschynanthus parviflorus is an epiphytic gesneriad widely distributed through the eastern Himalaya and into Southeast Asia, with GBIF records from Nepal, northeast India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and southern China (additional codes represent herbaria and cultivation). It grows as an epiphyte or lithophyte on mossy trunks, branches and shaded rocks in humid broad-leaved evergreen and subtropical forest, mainly between 1,000 and 2,200 m. The featured collections come from the Mewa Khola in eastern Nepal at about 1,900 m in April and from Chaana in West Bengal at around 1,750 m in May, within its core mid-montane belt.

The plant has pendent to scrambling, somewhat fleshy stems rooting at the nodes and bearing opposite, coriaceous, elliptic to lanceolate leaves with entire margins and an acuminate apex. The flowers are clustered in the leaf axils or at the branch tips; the calyx is short and cupular, and the corolla is a curved, narrowly tubular structure, red to orange-red, with small spreading lobes, suited to nectarivorous bird and insect pollination. The fruit is a long, slender, two-valved capsule releasing numerous minute seeds, each furnished with a tuft of fine hairs that aids wind dispersal in the canopy.

The species is treated within Gesneriaceae (subtribe Didymocarpinae, genus Aeschynanthus), a large Asian genus of canopy epiphytes whose long-tubed flowers exemplify ornithophily in the Old World tropics. Aeschynanthus parviflorus is common and not regarded as threatened, but as a canopy specialist it depends on intact humid forest and declines where mid-elevation forest is fragmented or logged.

Author: Spreng. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18 (Gesneriaceae), Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Mendum et al.: Revision of Aeschynanthus (Gesneriaceae)

Didymocarpinae

Didymocarpus aurantiacus

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Sikkim2003 22 G26
Sikkim Rathong-Chu 1200 m, August

Description

Didymocarpus aurantiacus is an eastern Himalayan gesneriad recorded from India, Nepal and Bhutan, with around 33 occurrences concentrated in the wet, monsoon-drenched subtropical to lower temperate belt of Sikkim, Darjeeling and adjacent regions. It is a lithophyte and epipetric herb growing on shaded, moss-covered rocks, cliff faces and damp ravine walls within evergreen broad-leaved forest, typically between roughly 1000 and 2000 m. The illustrated material from the Rathong-Chu valley in Sikkim at 1200 m, flowering in August, reflects its main flowering during the rainy season, when the humid rock habitats it favours are kept constantly moist by mist and seepage.

It is a small perennial herb with a short rhizomatous base and crowded, opposite or subrosulate leaves. The lamina is ovate to elliptic, with a crenate-serrate margin, an acute to acuminate apex and a thinly hairy surface, the venation impressed above and prominent beneath. The inflorescence is an axillary cyme borne on a slender peduncle. The flowers have a tubular, lobed calyx and a tubular, somewhat ventricose corolla that is orange to orange-yellow (as the epithet aurantiacus indicates), two-lipped with a shorter upper and spreading lower lip. There are two fertile stamens with cohering anthers and staminodes; the gynoecium develops into the elongate, septicidal, two-valved capsule characteristic of the genus.

The input places this taxon under "Didymocarpinae", which is the subtribe within tribe Trichosporeae of the Gesneriaceae rather than a family; the species is correctly accommodated in the genus Didymocarpus. The name D. aurantiacus C.B.Clarke is accepted. As a narrow-ranged rock specialist tied to perhumid forest, it is dependent on intact, shaded microhabitats and is therefore potentially sensitive to deforestation and habitat drying, though it has not been formally assessed.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Weber Gesneriaceae of the World (monograph), Clarke Commelynaceae et Cyrtandreae Bengalenses

Didymocarpinae

Didymocarpus podocarpus

by G & P Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

BhutanPG2011 78 ergebnis 1
Bhutan Menchuang, 2800m June

Description

Didymocarpus podocarpus is an eastern Himalayan gesneriad recorded from Nepal (NP), India (IN) and Bhutan (BT), with 59 GBIF occurrences reflecting its relatively localised montane distribution. It is a lithophyte and epiphyte of shaded, humid temperate forest, growing on moss-covered rocks, cliff faces and tree trunks where atmospheric humidity is high, typically in the 2000-3000 m belt. The illustrated material was gathered at Menchuang in Bhutan at about 2800 m in June, during the early monsoon when the genus comes into flower.

It is a perennial herb with a short rhizomatous base and erect to ascending stems bearing opposite or whorled leaves clustered toward the apex. The leaf blades are ovate to elliptic, crenate-serrate at the margin, and often somewhat fleshy with sparse hairs. The inflorescence is an axillary cyme of several flowers; the calyx is tubular and shortly lobed, while the corolla is tubular and two-lipped with a spreading limb in shades of purple to violet. Only two stamens are fertile, a diagnostic feature of Didymocarpus, the anthers cohering in pairs. The fruit is a slender, elongate, podocarpic (long-pointed) capsule that dehisces to release numerous minute seeds, the epithet alluding to this fruit form.

Didymocarpus is a large Asian genus centred on the Sino-Himalayan and Southeast Asian region, traditionally placed in subtribe Didymocarpinae of Gesneriaceae, the rank cited here verbatim as the family field. Many species are narrow-range rock specialists vulnerable to habitat disturbance, and several Himalayan taxa, including this one, are of biogeographic interest as components of the moist broadleaf forest gesneriad flora.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, The Gesneriaceae of the Indian subcontinent, Monograph of the genus Didymocarpus (Weber & Burtt)

Didymocarpinae

Henckelia bifolia

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) A.Dietr.

Bhutan2015 203
Bhutan Zhemgang 1000m, October

Description

Henckelia bifolia is a Himalayan gesneriad recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, with about 124 georeferenced occurrences indicating a distribution along the humid southern Himalayan and northeast Indian foothills. It is a plant of warm, shaded, moist habitats: it grows on dripping rock faces, shaded banks, ravines and the floor and margins of subtropical broadleaved forest, generally at lower montane elevations, broadly from about 800 to 1800 m. The illustrated material was gathered at Zhemgang in Bhutan at 1000 m in October, a low, humid forested setting typical of the species, which flowers toward the close of the monsoon season.

It is a small perennial herb, often nearly stemless, with the leaves few and basal; as the epithet bifolia implies, the plant frequently develops a pair of opposite, sometimes markedly unequal leaves that are ovate, soft-textured, crenate to toothed and pubescent. The flowers are borne on slender axillary peduncles in few-flowered cymes; the corolla is zygomorphic, tubular and bilabiate, pale violet to bluish-lilac, with a short erect upper lip and a larger spreading three-lobed lower lip. Two stamens are fertile, and the superior ovary matures into the straight, narrowly cylindrical capsule diagnostic of Henckelia.

Henckelia (Gesneriaceae) was recircumscribed in the molecular reclassification of the didymocarpoid gesneriads, absorbing many species previously placed in Didymocarpus and Chirita; the name listed here as the family, Didymocarpinae, is in fact the subtribe to which Henckelia belongs, and the species properly sits in Gesneriaceae. The genus is characterised by its straight undivided capsules and bilabiate flowers. As a humid-forest understorey herb of restricted, fragmented habitats, H. bifolia depends on intact low-montane forest, and although not formally assessed it is potentially vulnerable to deforestation.

Author: (D.Don) A.Dietr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, A Revised Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon, Weber & Möller revision of Henckelia (Gesneriaceae)

Didymocarpinae

Henckelia calva

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) D.J. Middleton & Mich. Müller

Sikkim2003 59 P79
Sikkim above Yoksam 2750m August
Sikkim2003 60 G80
Sikkim Yoksam 1800m, August

Description

Henckelia calva (C.B.Clarke) D.J.Middleton & Mich.Müller is a perennial herb of the Gesneriaceae (the input subtribe name Didymocarpinae notwithstanding), distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjacent ranges. GBIF (a sparse 12 occurrences) records it from northern India, Bhutan and Myanmar, where it grows on shaded, moss-covered rocks, damp banks and forest understorey in humid broad-leaved and evergreen forest. The two Sikkim records at Yoksam, at 1,800 m and 2,750 m, both in August during the monsoon, indicate a montane preference broadly between 1,500 and 3,000 m, where high atmospheric humidity supports its growth.

The plant is a soft, more or less rhizomatous herb. Leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, often somewhat fleshy, with a crenate to serrate margin and a relatively sparse indumentum (the epithet "calva", meaning bald or glabrescent, alludes to this comparatively smooth surface). The inflorescences are axillary cymes bearing showy zygomorphic flowers; the corolla is tubular and bilabiate, white to pale violet or bluish, the throat sometimes marked with yellow. There are two fertile stamens with cohering anthers, and the ovary is superior, maturing into the elongate, narrowly cylindrical, twisted capsule characteristic of Henckelia, which splits to release numerous minute seeds.

The species was transferred from Didymocarpus to a recircumscribed Henckelia following molecular phylogenetic studies of Old World Gesneriaceae by Middleton, Möller and collaborators, a reclassification that reshaped generic limits in the subtribe Didymocarpinae. As a narrow-range, hygrophilous understorey herb of the eastern Himalaya, it is intrinsically vulnerable to forest disturbance and habitat loss, and its few documented occurrences underline the need for continued field survey of the region's Gesneriaceae.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) D.J. Middleton & Mich. Müller · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of China Vol. 18, GBIF, Weber & Burtt: Remarks on the classification of Gesneriaceae

Didymocarpinae

Henckelia pumila

by GP Jürgens

D.Don A.Dietr.

Sikkim2003 23 G27
Sikkim Rathong-Chu 1200m, August
Garw 2005 214 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Simkarok 2680m, September
Bhutan2015 89
Bhutan Galephug 600m, October

Description

Henckelia pumila is a small gesneriad of the eastern and central Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Burma, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand and Vietnam, with close to 600 occurrences in GBIF. It is a plant of shaded, humid habitats, growing on moist rock faces, mossy boulders, stream banks and shaded earth cuttings within evergreen broad-leaved and subtropical hill forest. Its wide altitudinal amplitude is reflected in the collection localities given for the illustrated material, ranging from the Rathong Chu in Sikkim at 1200 m in August and Galephug in Bhutan at only 600 m in October up to Simkarok in Indian Garhwal at 2680 m in September, indicating tolerance of both warm subtropical and cool temperate forest understorey.

The plant is a small perennial or facultatively annual herb with a short, often weak stem and crowded, opposite or subopposite leaves that are ovate to elliptic, crenate-serrate and softly hairy, frequently somewhat fleshy and unequal in a pair. The flowers are borne singly or in few-flowered cymes on slender peduncles from the leaf axils. The corolla is tubular and weakly two-lipped, white to pale lilac or bluish, often with a yellow throat or coloured markings, with the lower lip the more spreading. There are two fertile stamens with coherent anthers, and the ovary is superior, developing into the slender, elongate, twisted or straight loculicidal capsule typical of the genus.

The family is given as Didymocarpinae on the source page, the subtribal name within the Gesneriaceae to which Henckelia belongs; the species is correctly a member of the Gesneriaceae. The genus Henckelia has been substantially recircumscribed following molecular study, with numerous Asiatic didymocarpoid species transferred into and out of it, and H. pumila sits within this Sino-Himalayan radiation of rock-dwelling gesneriads. Its capacity to colonise moist shaded rock and its broad elevational range make it locally frequent, and it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: D.Don A.Dietr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, A Revision of the Genus Henckelia (Gesneriaceae)

Didymocarpinae

Henckelia urticifolia

by GP Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) A.Dietr

Bhutan2012 646
Bhutan Tserang 1600m, September
Sikkim2003 348 W489
Sikkim above Yoksam 1880m August

Description

Henckelia urticifolia is a Himalayan gesneriad ranging through Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, the c. 212 georeferenced records concentrated along the humid southern Himalayan front. It is a plant of shaded, moist understorey habitats: it grows on damp banks, mossy rock faces, ravines and the margins of broadleaved and subtropical forest, generally between about 1200 and 2200 m. The illustrated material was gathered at Tserang in Bhutan at 1600 m in September and above Yoksam in Sikkim at 1880 m in August, locations typical of its preference for cool, dripping, sheltered sites that retain monsoon moisture.

It is a perennial herb with an erect to ascending, often softly hairy stem. As the epithet suggests, the leaves are nettle-like (urticifolia): opposite, ovate, coarsely toothed, thin-textured and pubescent, with prominent venation. The flowers are borne in axillary cymes; the calyx is five-parted and the corolla zygomorphic, tubular and bilabiate with a short two-lobed upper lip and a larger spreading three-lobed lower lip, pale violet to bluish-mauve, often with darker guidelines and a paler throat. There are two fertile stamens with cohering anthers, and the ovary is superior. The fruit is the characteristic elongate, narrowly cylindrical capsule of the genus.

Henckelia (Gesneriaceae) was recircumscribed in the molecular reclassification of the Old World didymocarpoid gesneriads, with many Asiatic species formerly placed in Didymocarpus and Chirita transferred to it; the supra-generic placement in subtribe Didymocarpinae reflects that scheme, so the family name given here, though listed as the subtribal name, properly resolves to Gesneriaceae. The genus is defined by its straight, undivided capsules and bilabiate corolla. Forest-dwelling and locally common, the species is not presently considered threatened, but it depends on intact humid forest cover.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) A.Dietr · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Weber & Möller revision of Henckelia (Gesneriaceae)

Didymocarpinae

Lysionotus pubescens

by G & P Jürgens

C.B. Clarke

Bhutan2012 996
Bhutan Thritangebe 1000m, October

Description

Lysionotus pubescens is an epiphytic or lithophytic gesneriad of the humid subtropical to lower montane forests of the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma, recorded from China, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Its 75 georeferenced occurrences trace a belt of warm, moist evergreen forest where it grows perched on mossy tree trunks, branches and shaded rock faces. The plant photographed at Thritangebe in Bhutan at 1000 m in October reflects its preference for the warm, low-elevation forest zone, flowering in the post-monsoon period when humidity remains high beneath the canopy.

The plant is a small woody-based perennial with pendent or ascending stems bearing leaves in whorls of three or more, or sometimes opposite. The leaves are leathery, elliptic to oblong, with a toothed (serrate to crenate) margin, and as the epithet indicates the herbage is finely pubescent. The flowers are borne in short axillary cymes; the corolla is tubular and distinctly two-lipped (bilabiate), white to pale pink or pale violet, often with yellow or purple markings in the throat, with two fertile stamens. The diagnostic fruit is a long, slender, linear capsule that dehisces to release numerous minute seeds bearing fine appendages.

Lysionotus belongs to subtribe Didymocarpinae of the Gesneriaceae, the family group cited here, and is distinguished within it by its long siliqua-like capsule and frequently whorled leaves. The genus is centred on the Sino-Himalayan and Indo-Chinese region and is well represented in China. As an epiphyte dependent on intact humid forest, L. pubescens is locally common where suitable habitat persists but is sensitive to forest clearance.

Author: C.B. Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Gesneriaceae of the Old World monograph (Weber), Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton)