Fabaceae

Fabaceae

Erythrina stricta

Fabaceae

Albizia lebbeck

Fabaceae

Hylodesmum laxum

Fabaceae

Cadrastis delavayi

Fabaceae

Fabaceae

Biancaea decapetala

by GP Jürgens

(Roth) O.Deg.

Bhutan2012 401
Bhutan Wangdi 2700m, September

Description

Biancaea decapetala (formerly Caesalpinia decapetala), the Mysore thorn, is a vigorous scrambling shrub native to tropical and subtropical Asia but now widely naturalised across the tropics; its 9040 GBIF occurrences span China, India and much of Asia together with Africa, Australia, the Americas and Pacific islands, reflecting an extensive introduced range. In its native Himalayan setting it grows in thickets, forest margins, riverbanks, scrub and waste ground from the lowlands to about 2700 m. The collection figured, from Wangdi in Bhutan at 2700 m in September, represents the upper subtropical edge of its range, where it forms dense thorny tangles on warm, disturbed valley slopes.

It is a robust, scandent shrub or liana with long arching woody branches armed with numerous stout, recurved prickles and a rusty-brown indumentum on young growth. The leaves are large, alternate and bipinnate, with several pairs of pinnae each bearing many small oblong leaflets. The inflorescence is an erect, elongate terminal raceme of showy flowers; the corolla is bright yellow with five slightly unequal petals (the epithet alluding to ten perianth parts), and the ten free stamens have hairy, reddish filaments. The fruit is a flattened, woody, oblong pod, beaked at the apex and indehiscent or tardily splitting, containing several seeds.

The genus on the source page is given as Caesalpinia; molecular and morphological studies have segregated this species into Biancaea (Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae), the combination accepted by POWO. Used regionally for impenetrable hedges and in traditional medicine, the species is an aggressive coloniser and a serious invasive weed in South Africa, Australia and elsewhere, smothering native vegetation; it is consequently a biosecurity and conservation concern well beyond its native Asian range.

Author: (Roth) O.Deg. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Legumes of the World (Caesalpinioideae)

Fabaceae

Butea buteiformis

by GP Jürgens

(Voigt) Grierson

Bhutan2014 146
Bhutan Trashigang 1900m, May
Nepal 2001 229 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Tullikot 1750m, May

Description

Butea buteiformis is a small tree or scandent shrub of the subtropical and warm-temperate broad-leaved forests of the eastern and central Himalaya, ranging through Nepal, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, with some 220 georeferenced collections documenting a continuous arc along the southern Himalayan front. It occupies forest margins, ravines and secondary thickets, typically between about 1000 and 2200 m. The photographed plants were recorded at Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1900 m and at Tullikot in the Gorkha district of central Nepal at 1750 m, both flowering in May, a season coinciding with the pre-monsoon flush in these mid-montane belts.

The species is a deciduous, often climbing legume with twining or trailing branches and stout, lenticellate stems. The leaves are pinnately trifoliolate, the leaflets broadly ovate to rhombic, coriaceous, with the lateral pair distinctly oblique and a prominent reticulate venation; young growth is silky-pubescent. The inflorescences are dense axillary or terminal racemes bearing showy papilionaceous flowers; the calyx is campanulate and silky-tomentose, and the corolla is bright orange to scarlet, the standard recurved and the keel strongly curved, as is characteristic of bird-pollinated Butea. The fruit is a flattened, indehiscent, samaroid pod, thickened and seed-bearing toward the apex.

Butea is a small palaeotropical genus allied to Spatholobus and Meizotropis within the tribe Phaseoleae; B. buteiformis is distinguished from the lowland B. monosperma by its montane habit, smaller stature and more slender, often climbing form. The vivid ornithophilous flowers are visited by sunbirds and other nectarivores. Though not assessed as threatened and locally frequent, populations face forest clearance along accessible mid-elevation slopes.

Author: (Voigt) Grierson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Legumes of the World (Lewis et al.)

Fabaceae

Cajanus mollis

by GP Jürgens

(Benth.) Maesen

Bhutan2012 406
Bhutan Wangdi 2700m, September

Description

Cajanus mollis (Benth.) Maesen is a trailing or twining legume distributed through the Himalaya and southern and southeastern Asia; GBIF records (about 161 occurrences) span India, Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Pakistan. It grows in open scrub, grassland, forest margins, hedgerows and disturbed slopes at lower and middle elevations, scrambling over surrounding vegetation. The plant photographed near Wangdi in Bhutan at 2700 m in September, flowering and fruiting late in the warm season, sits at the upper part of its altitudinal range in the warm-temperate hill belt, where open, sunny, well-drained slopes suit its sprawling habit.

It is a perennial herb or subshrub with slender, prostrate to climbing stems clothed in soft spreading hairs. The leaves are pinnately trifoliolate, the leaflets obovate to elliptic and densely softly pubescent, gland-dotted beneath, and subtended by small stipules. The flowers are papilionaceous, borne in short axillary racemes; the corolla is yellow, the standard often reddish- or purplish-veined on the outer face, with the keel enclosing the diadelphous stamens. The calyx is campanulate and hairy. The fruit is a flattened, oblong, pubescent pod constricted between the seeds and bearing oblique depressions on the valves, dehiscing to release several small seeds.

The taxon, formerly placed in the segregate genus Atylosia, was transferred to Cajanus by Van der Maesen, who united Atylosia with Cajanus on morphological grounds; it is one of the wild relatives of the cultivated pigeonpea, Cajanus cajan, and is therefore of interest as a genetic resource for crop improvement and disease resistance. As a nitrogen-fixing legume it enriches soil on disturbed ground. Widespread and adaptable, it is of least conservation concern across its broad Asian range.

Author: (Benth.) Maesen · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Van der Maesen revision of Cajanus, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Fabaceae

Cajanus scarabaeoides

by G & P Jürgens

(L.) Graham ex Wall.

Bhutan2012 821
Bhutan Trongsa 2050m, October
Bhutan2012 822
Bhutan Trongsa 2050m, October

Description

Cajanus scarabaeoides is a widely distributed twining legume of the Old World tropics and subtropics, recorded by GBIF from more than two dozen territories spanning the Indian subcontinent, China, Taiwan, mainland and insular Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea), Japan, Australia, the western Indian Ocean islands (Madagascar, Réunion, Mayotte) and parts of West Africa, with over 4,200 georeferenced occurrences attesting to its commonness as a weedy scrambler. In the Himalayan portion of its range it ascends well into the hills, as the photographed plant from Trongsa in central Bhutan at about 2,050 m elevation in October illustrates. It typically grows in open grasslands, scrub, forest margins, fallow fields, roadsides and other disturbed sunny situations, flowering and fruiting through the post-monsoon dry season; as a nitrogen-fixing pioneer it colonises poor soils readily and is often a component of degraded secondary vegetation.

The species is a slender, trailing or twining perennial herb to subshrub with prostrate to climbing stems clothed in spreading silky or brownish hairs. The leaves are pinnately trifoliolate, the leaflets oblong-elliptic to obovate, the terminal one largest, gland-dotted beneath and silky-pubescent on both surfaces, with small stipels and persistent stipules. The flowers are borne in short axillary racemes; the corolla is papilionaceous and yellow, the standard frequently marked with reddish or purplish veining on the back, and the calyx is campanulate with narrow lobes. The fruit is a flattened, oblong, brownish-pubescent pod constricted between the seeds and conspicuously transversely depressed, dehiscing to release several small dark seeds.

Cajanus scarabaeoides belongs to the tribe Phaseoleae (subtribe Cajaninae) and is taxonomically significant as one of the closest wild relatives of the cultivated pigeon pea, Cajanus cajan, sharing the characteristic resinous glandular dots that distinguish the genus. As a hardy, drought-tolerant wild crop relative it is valued in plant breeding as a source of genes for pest resistance and stress tolerance, and it serves locally as fodder and a green-manure cover crop. Its enormous natural range, ecological adaptability and frequency leave it of least conservation concern, though wild germplasm is increasingly recognised for its importance to food-security research.

Author: (L.) Graham ex Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 10, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, van der Maesen monograph on Cajanus and Atylosia (Wageningen Agricultural University Papers)

Fabaceae

Campylotropis speciosa 

by G & P Jürgens

(Royle ex Schindl.) Schindl.

Garw 2005 263 ergebnis
India Garwahl Kunol 2500m, September
Garw 2005 262 ergebnis scaled
Garw 2005 263 ergebnis scaled
India Garhwal Sitel 1900m, September

Description

Campylotropis speciosa is a Sino-Himalayan shrub distributed across the warm-temperate and subtropical belts of the southern Himalaya and adjacent China, with verified records from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. The roughly 294 occurrences trace a continuous arc along the outer ranges. In the Garhwal Himalaya it occupies open hill slopes, forest margins and scrub at around 1900-2500 m, as documented by collections from Kunol (2500 m) and Sitel (1900 m) flowering in September. It favours sunny, well-drained rocky ground and is typically a component of secondary scrub and degraded oak forest.

It forms an erect, much-branched shrub to about 2 m, with ridged, finely pubescent young branchlets. The leaves are pinnately trifoliolate; leaflets are elliptic to obovate, the terminal one largest, rounded or emarginate at the apex and mucronate, glabrescent above and appressed-pubescent beneath, the stipules subulate and persistent. The showy flowers are borne in elongate, lax terminal and axillary racemes, each pedicel articulate and bearing a single papilionaceous corolla; the standard is broad and reddish-purple to violet, the keel incurved. The fruit is a small, flattened, indehiscent, one-seeded legume with a reticulate-veined surface.

The genus Campylotropis, allied to Lespedeza within tribe Desmodieae, is distinguished by its articulate pedicels and one-seeded pods. C. speciosa is among the more ornamental Himalayan species, valued for its long racemes. As a leguminous pioneer it aids nitrogen enrichment and slope stabilisation on disturbed ground; though not assessed as threatened, its dependence on open habitats makes it sensitive to forest succession and grazing.

Author: (Royle ex Schindl.) Schindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Iokawa & Ohashi revision of Campylotropis

Fabaceae

Caryota urens

by GP Jürgens

L.

Bhutan2015 261
Bhutan Zhemgang 1000m, October

Description

Caryota urens, the fishtail or jaggery palm, is a solitary tropical palm native to the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and South-East Asia, with around 5517 occurrence records spanning both its native range and many countries where it is widely cultivated. It grows in moist tropical and subtropical forest, secondary woodland, river valleys and around villages, predominantly in the lowland to lower-montane zone. The photographed plant from Zhemgang in southern Bhutan at 1000 m, recorded in October, sits at the upper-elevation edge of its warm, humid habitat.

It is a tall, single-stemmed palm with a stout, ringed grey trunk reaching well over ten metres. The leaves are very large, bipinnate—unusual among palms—with the ultimate segments wedge-shaped and jaggedly toothed at the apex, resembling a fish's tail and giving the common name. The plant is monocarpic and hapaxanthic: after years of vegetative growth it flowers once, producing a sequence of massive pendulous inflorescences from the upper nodes downward, bearing cream to purplish unisexual flowers. The fruit is a globose red to purplish-black berry containing irritant calcium-oxalate raphides, whence the epithet urens ("stinging").

Despite the source labelling it Fabaceae, Caryota urens belongs to the palm family, Arecaceae, subfamily Coryphoideae, tribe Caryoteae. It is of considerable economic value: the sugary sap tapped from the inflorescences yields jaggery, palm wine and vinegar, while the trunk furnishes sago-like starch and the leaf sheaths a strong fibre (kittul). Widely planted and broadly distributed, it is not considered threatened.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Arecaceae), Flora of Bhutan, Genera Palmarum (Dransfield et al.), Govaerts & Dransfield World Checklist of Palms

Fabaceae

Chesneya nubigena

by G & P Jürgens

(D.Don) Ali

Nepal 99 312 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4300m, June

Description

Chesneya nubigena (D.Don) Ali is a prostrate alpine legume of the Himalaya and Hindu Kush, represented by some 318 records concentrated in Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan and adjacent China, with scattered extralimital reports. It is a plant of high open ground: stony alpine slopes, gravelly flats, moraines and the margins of grazed pastures, generally between about 3500 and 4800 m. The individual photographed at Kalmura in West Nepal at 4300 m in June illustrates its occupation of cold, well-drained, often wind-exposed substrates where it grows close-pressed to the ground amid sparse turf.

The species forms a low, mat-forming to shortly tufted perennial from a deep woody rootstock and branched caudex. The leaves are imparipinnate with several pairs of small, oblong to obovate leaflets, often somewhat pubescent and frequently spine-tipped on persistent rachides. The flowers are large relative to the plant and borne singly or few together on short axillary peduncles; the papilionaceous corolla is yellow to reddish or purple-tinged, the standard broad and the keel obtuse. The calyx is tubular and obliquely toothed, and the fruit is an oblong, sessile to shortly stipitate, more or less inflated legume, hairy and several-seeded.

Chesneya is a small genus of central and high Asia closely allied to Astragalus and Gueldenstaedtia, and C. nubigena has been treated under various combinations reflecting its taxonomic history. Its cushion-like habit, deep roots and silky indumentum are classic adaptations to the cold, arid, high-radiation conditions of the inner Himalayan ranges, where it also fixes atmospheric nitrogen. Widespread if local, it is not regarded as threatened, though heavy grazing pressure in alpine pastures can locally reduce populations.

Author: (D.Don) Ali · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, revision of Chesneya and allied Astragaleae

Fabaceae

Cladrastis delavayi

by G & P Jürgens

(Franch.) Prain

Bhutan2014 67 ergebnis
Bhutan Tashigang 1500m, May
Bhutan2014 68 ergebnis
Bhutan Tashigang 1500m, May

Description

Cladrastis delavayi is a deciduous tree native to southern China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi) and the eastern Himalayan foothills, with records extending into Bhutan. The species occurs in warm-temperate to subtropical broadleaved forests, forest margins, and river valleys at elevations of 1,000–2,500 m, often growing on calcareous substrates. It has been documented from the Tashigang district in eastern Bhutan at 1,500 m, where it flowers in May before the onset of the summer monsoon, representing the western limit of its distribution in the Himalayan region.
Cladrastis delavayi is a medium-sized tree reaching 8–20 m in height, with a smooth, greyish bark. The leaves are alternate, imparipinnately compound, 15–30 cm long, with 9–13 leaflets that are ovate to elliptic, 4–10 cm long, papery in texture, glabrous above and sparsely pubescent beneath. The inflorescence is a terminal, erect panicle 15–30 cm long, bearing numerous papilionaceous flowers. The flowers are white to pale pink, approximately 1.5–2 cm long, fragrant, with a broadly campanulate calyx. The standard petal is reflexed and suborbicular. The fruit is a linear-oblong, flattened legume 5–10 cm long, indehiscent or tardily dehiscent, containing 1–4 seeds.
Originally described by Franchet as Sophora delavayi from material collected by Delavay in Yunnan and later transferred to Cladrastis by Prain, this species belongs to the small tribe Cladrastideae, which has a notable disjunct distribution between East Asia and eastern North America. With over 570 occurrence records in GBIF, C. delavayi is moderately well collected, though many records originate from cultivated specimens in botanical gardens in Europe, North America, and Japan. The presence of this species in Bhutan underscores the floristic affinity between eastern Bhutan and the Sino-Himalayan phytogeographic region. The tree is valued ornamentally for its attractive flowering and autumn foliage.

Author: (Franch.) Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 10, Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1 (1987), Duley & Vincent: Cladrastis (Leguminosae) Revisited (2003)

Fabaceae

Codariocalyx motorius

by G & P Jürgens

H.Ohashi

Bhutan2015 585
Bhutan Punaka 1240m, October

Description

Codariocalyx motorius is a subshrub of the subtropical and tropical understorey, widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia and reaching the southern Himalayan foothills. GBIF records (some 1,418 occurrences) document it from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan, with naturalised or cultivated material in Japan, the United States and elsewhere. It favours open scrub, forest margins, grassy slopes and disturbed ground. The photographed plant grows at Punakha in western Bhutan at about 1,240 m, flowering in October, typical of the warm broadleaved zone below 1,500 m it occupies in the eastern Himalaya.

It is an erect perennial subshrub 0.6–1.5 m tall with woody-based, finely pubescent stems. The leaves are pinnately trifoliolate; the terminal leaflet is large, oblong-lanceolate and up to 8 cm long, flanked by two minute lateral leaflets that perform spontaneous rotatory movements in response to light and warmth. The inflorescence is a terminal or axillary raceme of small papilionaceous flowers, violet to purplish, with a striate standard. The fruit is a curved, several-jointed lomentum that breaks into one-seeded articles at maturity.

Long known as Desmodium gyrans, the species is famous as the "telegraph" or "dancing" plant, its motile lateral leaflets having attracted study from Darwin onwards. It is locally used in traditional medicine and is of no conservation concern given its wide range and tolerance of disturbance, though it is a characteristic indicator of seasonally dry monsoon forest in the Himalayan tracts.

Author: H.Ohashi · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 10, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Ohashi: Taxonomic Studies in Desmodium (Leguminosae)

Fabaceae

Crotalaria albida

by G & P Jürgens

B.Heyne ex Roth

Nepal 2009 120 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Melanehe Pul 1080, May

Description

Crotalaria albida is one of the most widespread Asian rattlepods, ranging from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh eastward through China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Malesia to the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia, with naturalised records in Sri Lanka and the United States; over 2100 GBIF occurrences attest to this amplitude. In the Himalaya it favours open grassy hillsides, dry banks, pine-forest margins and disturbed roadsides on well-drained, often acidic soils. The plant photographed near Melamchi Pul in the Helambu region of central Nepal, at about 1080 m in May, typifies its preference for warm, low to mid-montane slopes between roughly 300 and 2300 m.

It is a slender, erect to ascending perennial herb or subshrub 30-90 cm tall, the wiry stems clothed in appressed silvery hairs. The leaves are simple, unifoliolate, oblong to oblanceolate and shortly petiolate, paler and pubescent beneath. The inflorescence is a slender terminal raceme of small papilionaceous flowers; the standard is pale yellow, often veined reddish-brown, and the keel is incurved and beaked. The calyx is bilabiate and hairy. As in the genus, the fruit is a short, inflated, glabrescent legume in which the loosened seeds rattle when dry.

The epithet albida alludes to the whitish, silky indumentum. Crotalaria is a large pantropical genus, and many species, including this one, contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids that render them toxic to livestock, though the plant is used locally in folk medicine. Its nitrogen-fixing root nodules enrich degraded slopes, and the species behaves as a pioneer colonist of disturbed ground, accounting for its extensive distribution and naturalisation.

Author: B.Heyne ex Roth · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Flora of British India, Le Roux monograph of Crotalaria