Tag:

Alpine (>3500 m)

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)

Apiaceae

Cortia depressa

by G & P Jürgens

(D.Don) C.Norman

Nepal 99 273 ergebnis
West-Nepal Loccu 3800m, June

Description

Cortia depressa is a cushion-forming alpine umbellifer distributed from Nepal through Sikkim, Bhutan, and northeast India into upper Myanmar and southwestern China (Yunnan, Xizang). GBIF records 284 occurrences, indicating a moderately well-collected species. It is characteristic of high-altitude open habitats including alpine meadows, rocky screes, dry turf, and exposed ridgetops at elevations of 3,200–4,800 m. The species is well adapted to the extreme conditions of the alpine zone, where it tolerates intense solar radiation, frost, and wind exposure by maintaining an extremely compact growth form pressed close to the substrate.
Cortia depressa is a dwarf, depressed-caespitose, perennial herb arising from a stout, woody taproot. The entire plant is typically only 2–5 cm tall, forming dense rosettes or low mats. Leaves are pinnately or bipinnately dissected into small, crowded, linear segments, 1–3 cm long, with sheathing petiolar bases that are often purple-tinged and somewhat scarious. The inflorescence is a simple or compound umbel, sessile or on very short peduncles barely exceeding the foliage. Umbellules are compact, with minute, white to pinkish flowers, 1–2 mm across, each with five petals and five stamens. The involucral and involucellar bracts are conspicuous relative to the diminutive plant. The fruit is a compressed, ellipsoid cremocarp, 3–5 mm long, with prominent dorsal ridges and well-developed vittae.
The photographed specimen from Loccu in western Nepal at 3,800 m in June documents an early-monsoon flowering occurrence, consistent with the brief alpine growing season. Cortia is a small genus of five to eight species endemic to the Sino-Himalayan region, and C. depressa is the most widespread member. It is distinguished from the related C. lindleyi by its more strongly depressed habit and sessile to subsessile umbels. The species exemplifies morphological adaptations to alpine environments — dwarfism, dense pubescence, and compact rosette architecture — that minimize heat and water loss. It serves as an indicator species for well-preserved alpine turf communities across the Himalayas.

Author: (D.Don) C.Norman · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Nepal Checklist, Pimenov & Leonov: The Genera of Umbelliferae (1993)

Apiaceae

Cortiella hookeri

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) C.Norman

Sikkim2003 243 P334
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m, August

Description

Cortiella hookeri is a cushion-forming umbellifer of the high Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, distributed through Nepal, China, India and Bhutan; GBIF records 115 occurrences, concentrated in the alpine zone of this region. It grows on open stony slopes, gravelly alpine turf, screes and exposed ridges, typically above 4000 m where few flowering plants persist. The illustrated material was gathered in Sikkim at Dzongri at about 4100 m in August, a classic high-alpine station where the species flowers late in the short growing season among rock and short turf swept by monsoon cloud.

The plant is a low, compact perennial herb forming a flattened rosette or cushion from a stout, often woody taproot crowned by the fibrous remains of old leaf bases. Leaves are crowded, petiolate and pinnately to ternately dissected into small, firm, often crowded segments adapted to cold and wind. The inflorescence is a condensed, sessile or short-stalked compound umbel held close to the rosette, subtended by conspicuous bracts and bracteoles; the small flowers are white to pinkish, five-merous, with inflexed petals and an inferior ovary. The fruit is a dorsally somewhat compressed schizocarp splitting into two ribbed mericarps, the ribs and vittae providing key diagnostic characters.

Cortiella is a small genus of the Sino-Himalayan alpine flora, segregated within the carrot family on fruit anatomy and habit, with C. hookeri commemorating J. D. Hooker. POWO and GBIF accept the name. Its cushion habit and high-elevation niche exemplify the convergent growth forms that allow Apiaceae to colonise the harshest Tibetan alpine ground.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) C.Norman · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Umbelliferae of the Sino-Himalaya (Apiaceae monograph)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis calliantha

by GP Jürgens

D.G. Long.

BhutanPG2011 568 01
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Dem-Tso, 4600m July

Description

Corydalis calliantha is a high-alpine herb of the Eastern Himalaya, narrowly endemic to Bhutan, where it is the only territory from which it is documented (GBIF records derive exclusively from BT, with very few verified occurrences). It occupies the upper alpine and subnival belt, growing among moist screes, moraine debris and damp turf at the margins of glacial tarns. The collection illustrated here, gathered along the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail near Dem-Tso at about 4600 m in July, typifies its preference for cool, well-drained but seasonally irrigated substrates exposed only briefly during the short alpine summer.

It is a low, tufted, glabrous and somewhat glaucous perennial arising from a slender fleshy rootstock. The leaves are mostly basal, petiolate and several times finely divided into small obovate to oblong segments, giving a delicate, almost ferny appearance. Flowers are borne in short, few-flowered racemes; each zygomorphic flower has four petals, the outer upper petal produced backward into a slender, gently curved nectar spur, and is typically clear sky-blue to violet-blue, the colour to which the epithet calliantha ("beautiful-flowered") alludes. The fruit is a slender dehiscent capsule containing several small, shining black seeds, each often bearing a small elaiosome.

Within the large and taxonomically intricate genus Corydalis, this species belongs to the blue-flowered alpine assemblage centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, a group much studied by D.G. Long and collaborators in the Flora of Bhutan. Its restricted range and specialised subnival habitat make it of biogeographic interest and potentially vulnerable to climatic shifts affecting high-altitude snowmelt, although its remote terrain affords protection from direct disturbance.

Author: D.G. Long. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Liden & Zetterlund monograph of Corydalis

Papaveraceae

Corydalis cashmeriana

by G & P Jürgens

Royle

Nepal 99 132 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June
Garh 07 117 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3400m, June

Description

Corydalis cashmeriana is a celebrated blue-flowered alpine herb of the western and central Himalaya. GBIF records place it in Nepal, India, Bhutan and China, with around 130 occurrences reflecting its distribution through the high mountains from Kashmir eastward. It grows on moist alpine meadows, turfy slopes, the margins of melting snowbeds and damp rocky ground, generally between roughly 3000 and 4500 m, where cool, well-watered summer conditions prevail. The photographed plants from south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3800 m and from Meggu Kichatti in Garhwal, India, at 3400 m, both flowering in June, illustrate its early-summer blooming in the subalpine to alpine belt as the snow retreats.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb arising from small, clustered tubers, producing a few erect, leafy stems. The leaves are mostly basal and long-petiolate, the blades much-divided and glaucous, the ultimate segments small and obovate. The inflorescence is a short terminal raceme of few flowers; each flower is strongly zygomorphic, with four petals of which the outer upper one is prolonged backwards into a slender, gently curved spur, the whole of an intense sky-blue to deep azure. The fruit is a narrow, elongate capsule dehiscing to release shining black seeds bearing an elaiosome.

Corydalis is a very large genus of the Fumarioideae, here treated within the Papaveraceae, with its greatest diversity in the Sino-Himalayan region. The intensely blue-flowered alpine species, of which C. cashmeriana is the type of much horticultural interest, are notoriously challenging in cultivation. The seed elaiosome promotes dispersal by ants, while the spurred flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bumblebees probing for nectar held in the spur.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China (Papaveraceae, Fumarioideae), The Genus Corydalis (Lidén & Zetterlund)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis crispa

by GP Jürgens

Prain

Bhutan2012 307
Bhutan Shale-La, 4100m September

Description

Corydalis crispa is an eastern Himalayan fumitory restricted to China, Bhutan and India, with around 129 GBIF records. It is a high-altitude species of the alpine zone, growing on open stony slopes, screes, rock crevices and the gravelly margins of meadows. The cited material from Shele-La in Bhutan at about 4100 m, flowering in September, is representative of its occurrence near the upper limit of vascular plant growth, where it occupies well-drained, sunny but moist mineral soils and flowers late in the brief alpine summer as the monsoon eases.

The plant is a glabrous, somewhat glaucous herb arising from a slender rootstock, with erect to ascending, branched and often slightly flexuose stems. The leaves are alternate, two- to three-times divided into small, narrow, often crisped or finely dissected ultimate segments, giving rise to the epithet. The flowers are borne in lax terminal racemes; each is strongly zygomorphic with four petals in two whorls, the outer upper petal prolonged backward into a spur, and are typically blue to purplish-blue. The fruit is a slender, dehiscent capsule that opens to disperse small black seeds, frequently bearing an oil-rich elaiosome attractive to ants.

Described by Prain, C. crispa is one of many alpine blue-flowered Corydalis that diversified across the Sino-Himalayan high mountains, a centre of exceptional richness for the genus. Such species are closely tied to specialised scree and crevice microhabitats. The web link references a synonymous name, C. bowes-lyonii, reflecting nomenclatural realignment. As a narrow high-altitude endemic, its populations merit monitoring against climatic change affecting alpine habitats.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Liden & Zetterlund's monograph of Corydalis

Papaveraceae

Corydalis ecristata

by GP Jürgens

(Prain) D.G. Long

Sikkim2011 347
Sikkim Lada-La 4000m, June
BhutanPG2011 653
Bhutan Thitha-Tso, 4300m June
BhutanPG2011 652 1
Bhutan Thitha-Tso, 4300m June

Description

Corydalis ecristata is a small alpine herb of the higher Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, India, China and Bhutan (NP, IN, CN, BT), with about 58 recorded occurrences. It grows on open stony slopes, in screes, alpine turf, moraine and damp gravelly ground near snowmelt, characteristically in the high alpine to subnival zone, broadly between about 3800 and 4800 m. The gatherings cited come from Lada-La in Sikkim at 4000 m and from Thitha-Tso in Bhutan at 4300 m, both flowering in June, an elevation and early-summer season typical of the species, which colonises freshly exposed, well-drained debris in the brief window following the retreat of snow.

The plant is a small, glabrous, somewhat glaucous perennial herb arising from a slender tuber or rootstock. The leaves are mostly basal and finely divided, ternately to pinnately dissected into narrow ultimate segments, with long petioles. The flowers are few, borne in a short terminal raceme; each is strongly zygomorphic with four petals in two whorls, the outer upper petal prolonged backward into a nectar spur, the inner petals cohering over the stigma. As the epithet 'ecristata' indicates, the petals are crestless (lacking the dorsal wing or crest found in many congeners), the corolla blue to sky-blue, sometimes with darker markings. The fruit is a slender, dehiscent, few-seeded capsule.

Corydalis (subfamily Fumarioideae of the Papaveraceae, sometimes treated in Fumariaceae) attains exceptional diversity in the Sino-Himalayan alpine flora, where blue-flowered, tuberous species like C. ecristata are a conspicuous element of the high screes. The spurred, bilaterally symmetric flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees seeking the nectar held in the spur. As a specialist of high-altitude scree and moraine with a fairly restricted range, it is dependent on stable alpine conditions, though it is not at present regarded as threatened.

Author: (Prain) D.G. Long · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Corydalis (Liden & Zetterlund monograph)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis elegans 

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson

Nepal 99 483 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3700m, June

Description

Corydalis elegans is a slender alpine herb of the western Himalaya, known principally from India and Nepal, where its 22 documented occurrences reflect a restricted and rather local distribution. It is a plant of high-elevation habitats, growing on moist open slopes, among rocks, in damp shrubberies and along the margins of forest in the subalpine and alpine zones, where it flowers in the early summer after snowmelt. In west Nepal it ascends to considerable altitude, as shown by the collection along the Churta Khola at about 3700 m in June, a site typical of its cool, well-watered montane preference.

The plant is a glabrous, somewhat glaucous annual or short-lived herb with slender erect to ascending stems arising from a fine root system. The leaves are alternate, two- to three-pinnately dissected into small, narrow, oblong to obovate ultimate segments, giving a delicate, finely cut appearance. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme of few-to-several zygomorphic flowers; each flower is yellow, the outer of the four petals prolonged backward into a slender curved spur, the inner petals connivent over the stamens, which are united into two bundles of three. The fruit is a slender dehiscent capsule containing several small black seeds, typically bearing an elaiosome.

Corydalis, treated within Papaveraceae (sometimes segregated as Fumariaceae), is one of the largest genera of the Himalaya, with a great proliferation of species across the alpine belt. The spurred, nectariferous flowers are adapted to pollination by long-tongued bees, while the elaiosome-bearing seeds are dispersed by ants. As a narrowly distributed western Himalayan endemic known from few collections, C. elegans warrants attention as a potentially range-restricted species, its conservation tied to the stability of high-altitude habitats sensitive to grazing and climatic change.

Author: Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China Vol. 7, Lidén & Zetterlund monograph Corydalis (A Gardener's Guide)

Papaveraceae

Corydalis flaccida

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

BhutanPG2011 814 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3700m July
BhutanPG2011 813
Bhutan Chele-La, 3700m July

Description

Corydalis flaccida is a Himalayan herb distributed through China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with GBIF documenting 138 occurrences across this Sino-Himalayan arc. It grows in cool, moist montane to sub-alpine habitats, including forest margins, shrubberies, shaded banks, rocky slopes and stream-sides, broadly between 2700 and 4000 m. The photographed plant from the Chele-La pass in western Bhutan at about 3700 m, flowering in July, illustrates its monsoon-season blooming in humid high-pass environments where it grows among rocks and moist alpine scrub.

The species is an erect, somewhat lax, glabrous annual or short-lived perennial herb with brittle, often somewhat flaccid stems, as the epithet suggests. The leaves are alternate and two- to three-pinnately divided into small ovate to oblong segments, frequently glaucous beneath. Flowers are borne in elongating racemes subtended by leafy or dissected bracts; each zygomorphic flower has four petals in two whorls, the upper petal prolonged backward into a slender spur. The corolla is typically blue to purplish-blue, sometimes with darker tips, and the inner petals are apically connate over the stigma. The fruit is a slender, linear, dehiscent capsule containing several shiny black seeds, each usually bearing an oily elaiosome.

Described by Hooker and Thomson, the species belongs to the large, taxonomically complex genus Corydalis (Fumarioideae), notable in the Himalaya for its diversity of blue-flowered species. The elaiosome-bearing seeds promote myrmecochorous (ant-mediated) dispersal, while the spurred flowers are adapted for pollination by long-tongued bees. Like many Himalayan Corydalis it contains isoquinoline alkaloids of pharmacological interest. With a broad regional distribution it is not considered threatened, though its specialised high-elevation habitats are sensitive to land-use and climatic change.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Revision of the genus Corydalis (Lidén & Zetterlund)