Tag:

Alpine (>3500 m)

Brassicaceae

Draba gracillima

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Bh09 156 G278
Bhutan Labana 4130m, June

Description

Draba gracillima is a slender alpine whitlow-grass of the Himalaya, distributed across the Indian Himalaya, Nepal, south-central China (Xizang) and Bhutan, with around one hundred and twenty-six GBIF records reflecting a continuous high-mountain range. It occupies alpine meadows, stony slopes, rock ledges, screes and crevices above the treeline, generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from Labana in Bhutan at 4130 m, flowering in June, typifies its early-summer flowering and its preference for the open, well-drained mineral soils of the upper alpine zone.

The species is a slender, tufted perennial arising from a branched caudex and forming small basal rosettes of leaves, the lamina narrowly oblanceolate to spathulate and clothed, as is typical of Draba, in simple, forked and stellate hairs. The flowering stems are filiform and few-leaved, giving the plant its delicate, gracile appearance. The inflorescence is a lax raceme of small flowers with four free yellow (fading whitish) petals in the cruciferous arrangement and six tetradynamous stamens. The fruit is a small, flattened, lanceolate to elliptic silicula on a slender pedicel, dehiscing to release several seeds per locule.

Draba gracillima is an accepted species of the large genus Draba (Brassicaceae, tribe Arabideae), one of the most species-rich and taxonomically intricate genera of arctic and alpine regions, characterised by variable trichome morphology of diagnostic value. Its cushion-forming caudex, dense indumentum and short silicula are adaptations to cold, wind-exposed, high-radiation alpine habitats. The species is widespread and not regarded as threatened, although its specialised high-altitude niche is sensitive to climate-driven range shifts.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Jordal & Al-Shehbaz revision of Draba (Brassicaceae monograph)

Brassicaceae

Draba oariocarpa

by GP Jürgens

O.E.Schulz

BhutanPG2011 656
Bhutan Thitha-Tso 4360m, July

Description

Draba oariocarpa is a high-alpine crucifer of the eastern Himalaya, known principally from Bhutan and adjoining areas, where GBIF holds only a single occurrence record, reflecting both its narrow distribution and its remote habitat. It is a plant of open alpine screes, stony slopes, moraines and frost-disturbed gravels of the upper alpine and subnival zones, generally above 4000 m. The photograph from the Thitha Tso in Bhutan at about 4360 m in July shows the species flowering in the brief high-summer window in its harsh, exposed lakeside scree habitat.

The plant is a small, tufted or cushion-forming perennial arising from a branched caudex topped by rosettes of leaves. The leaves are small, oblong to spathulate, entire or nearly so, and clothed in the stellate and simple hairs characteristic of the genus, giving a greyish, roughened texture. From the rosettes arise short, leafless or few-leaved scapes bearing a compact raceme of small flowers; these have four sepals and four yellow (sometimes fading whitish) petals in the cruciform arrangement typical of the Brassicaceae, with six stamens. The fruit, alluded to in the epithet oariocarpa (egg-fruited), is a small, ovate to elliptic, somewhat flattened silicula containing several seeds.

Draba is a very large, predominantly arctic-alpine genus of the Brassicaceae, taxonomically intricate owing to widespread polyploidy, apomixis and minor morphological differentiation, so that many narrowly defined species and synonyms have been described from the Himalaya and Tibet. The dwarf cushion habit and dense indumentum are classic adaptations to the cold, desiccating and intensely irradiated subnival environment. Given its apparently very restricted range and few documented collections, D. oariocarpa is poorly known and warrants further field assessment of its distribution and status.

Author: O.E.Schulz · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Al-Shehbaz's systematic studies of Draba and the Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae

Draba tibetica

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2004 139 P241
Sikkim/India Singalila 3800m April

Description

Draba tibetica is a cushion- to mat-forming alpine crucifer with a wide distribution across the Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau and the mountains of Central Asia. GBIF records around 173 occurrences spanning India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Nepal. It colonises stony alpine turf, rock ledges, fellfield and the gravelly margins of seasonal snowmelt, generally between 3500 and 5000 m. The illustrated population was found along the Singalila ridge of Sikkim, India, at 3800 m in April, flowering early as the higher slopes begin to thaw on well-drained, base-rich substrates.

The plant develops a woody, much-branched caudex bearing dense rosettes of small, oblanceolate to spathulate leaves clothed in stellate and simple hairs that give a greyish indumentum. Erect, leafless or few-leaved scapes rise above the foliage carrying short racemes of small flowers. The four petals are yellow, fading paler with age, exceeding the hairy sepals; the six tetradynamous stamens surround a superior ovary. The fruit is a flattened, ovate to elliptic silicula, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, held on ascending pedicels and splitting to release numerous minute seeds in two rows.

Draba (Brassicaceae) is a large, taxonomically intricate genus centred on arctic and alpine habitats, and D. tibetica belongs to the yellow-flowered Himalayan-Tibetan assemblage where cushion habit and indumentum vary clinally, complicating delimitation. GBIF treats the name as accepted. As a hardy pioneer of unstable high-altitude ground it is locally common and faces no recognised conservation concern across its extensive range.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Al-Shehbaz revisions of Draba (Brassicaceae)

Lamiaceae

Dracocephalum wallichii

by GP Jürgens

Sealy

BhutanPG2011 790 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3800m July
BhutanPG2011 791 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3800m July

Description

Dracocephalum wallichii is a Himalayan dragonhead recorded from India, China (Xizang), Nepal and Bhutan, with GBIF holding around 175 occurrences across the high eastern and central ranges. It is a plant of the alpine zone, growing on open stony slopes, gravelly meadows, scree and grassy banks typically between about 3500 and 4500 m. The photographed material from the Chele-La in western Bhutan at 3800 m, flowering in July, is characteristic: at this high pass the species blooms in the brief summer window after snowmelt, exploiting well-drained, sunny ground among the alpine turf and rock where competition from taller vegetation is limited.

It is a perennial herb with a woody rootstock giving rise to several erect or ascending quadrangular stems. The leaves are opposite, oblong to narrowly ovate, the margin crenate to incised, and often somewhat aromatic, as is general in the genus. The inflorescence is a dense, head-like to interrupted terminal spike of verticillasters subtended by conspicuous, often spine-toothed and ciliate floral bracts that are a notable feature of the species. Each flower has a tubular, two-lipped calyx and a strongly two-lipped corolla coloured blue to violet-purple, the hooded upper lip arching over the four didynamous stamens and the lower lip spreading and three-lobed as a landing platform for bees. The fruit comprises four smooth nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

The species was described by Sealy and honours Nathaniel Wallich, an early collector of Himalayan plants. Dracocephalum is a genus of the temperate northern hemisphere centred on central Asia, well represented in alpine and steppe habitats; D. wallichii is one of its few truly Himalayan-alpine members and is distinguished by its bracteal armature and dense spike. Pollinated chiefly by bumblebees, it is a typical short-season alpine perennial, and being widespread in remote high terrain it is of no immediate conservation concern.

Author: Sealy · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Budantsev revision of the genus Dracocephalum

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

Lamiaceae

Elsholtzia fruticosa

by GP Jürgens

Rehder

Bhutan2015 463
  Bhutan Jakar 2100m, October
Bhutan2012 104
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September
Garw 2005 203 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Pana 2750m, September
Bhutan2015 607
Bhutan Gasa 1950m, October

Description

Elsholtzia fruticosa is a widespread shrubby mint of the Himalaya and south-western China, recorded by GBIF (1928 occurrences) from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Malaysia and Myanmar. It is a plant of open, disturbed and sunny situations, colonising forest margins, scrub, roadsides, terraced field edges, river banks and clearings, broadly between 1500 and 3600 m. The cited collections span a wide elevational and seasonal range, from Bhutan's Gasa (1950 m) and Jakar (2100 m), through Garhwal in India (Pana, 2750 m), up to the Shele-La pass at 3600 m, flowering from September into October, reflecting its autumn-blooming habit across the central and eastern Himalaya.

The species is an aromatic, much-branched shrub or subshrub reaching 1-3 m, with quadrangular, pubescent stems woody at the base. The opposite leaves are lanceolate to elliptic, serrate, pinnately veined, often greyish-tomentose beneath and dotted with aromatic glands. The small flowers are crowded into dense, cylindrical, spike-like terminal and axillary thyrses, frequently secund, with the whitish to pale-yellow flowers turned to one side of the axis. Each flower has a campanulate calyx and a bilabiate corolla; the four stamens are exserted, giving the inflorescence a feathery aspect. The fruit comprises four small, smooth nutlets (mericarps) enclosed within the persistent calyx.

Described under the combination by Rehder, the species belongs to genus Elsholtzia (subfamily Nepetoideae, tribe Elsholtzieae), a group of aromatic herbs and shrubs centred on temperate Asia. Its essential-oil-rich foliage is used in local traditional medicine and as a minor source of nectar for late-season pollinators. As a vigorous, pioneer-like colonist of disturbed ground with a very broad range, it is of least conservation concern and is locally abundant rather than rare.

Author: Rehder · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, A Revision of the Genus Elsholtzia (Lamiaceae)

Lamiaceae

Elsholtzia strobilifera

by GP Jürgens

Benth.

Bhutan2012 306
Bhutan Shele-La 4100m, October
Bhutan2012 915
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October

Description

Elsholtzia strobilifera is a high-montane to alpine herb widely distributed across the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Myanmar, China and Taiwan, with some 493 georeferenced occurrences documented in GBIF. It is a plant of open stony slopes, grazed alpine meadows, screes and forest margins, typically between 3000 and 4300 m. The collections illustrated here, from the Bhutanese passes Shele-La at 4100 m and Tumching-La at 4000 m in October, exemplify its characteristic late-season flowering at the upper limits of vegetation, where it often forms part of dwarf-herb communities on disturbed and well-drained substrates.

It is an annual or short-lived herb, usually 5-30 cm tall, with erect or ascending, often purplish, quadrangular stems that are puberulent and frequently branched from the base. The leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, shortly petiolate, with crenate-serrate margins and gland-dotted surfaces emitting an aromatic scent when bruised. The inflorescence is a dense, ovoid to shortly cylindrical terminal spike of crowded verticillasters, the conspicuous broad floral bracts giving the cone-like appearance reflected in the epithet. Each tubular, bilabiate corolla is pale violet to pinkish, two-lipped and exserted-stamened; the fruit comprises four smooth, ellipsoid nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

The genus Elsholtzia (Lamiaceae, subfamily Nepetoideae) comprises aromatic herbs and subshrubs centred on eastern Asia, several yielding essential oils. E. strobilifera is among the most cold-tolerant members, ascending higher than most congeners. Its capacity to colonise grazed and physically disturbed alpine ground confers ecological resilience, and it is not regarded as threatened given its broad range and abundance, though high-altitude populations are sensitive to changing grazing regimes and warming treelines.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, A Revision of the Genus Elsholtzia (Lamiaceae)

Ephedraceae

Ephedra gerardiana var. sikkimensis

by GP Jürgens

Stapf.

BhutanPG2011 338
Bhutan Jule-Tso 4250m, June
Bhutan2014 937
Bhutan Chele-La 4100m, May
Sikkim2003 522 P727
Sikkim Yume Samdong 4700m August

Description

Ephedra gerardiana var. sikkimensis is a high-alpine gymnosperm shrublet of the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau margins, recorded from China, Bhutan, India and Nepal, with the species complex widely held in cultivation across Europe and North America. It is a plant of dry, exposed, stony alpine slopes, gravel flats, moraine and rocky pasture in the arid trans-Himalayan and high-alpine zone, characteristically between about 3500 and 5000 m. The cited collections from Jule-Tso (4250 m) and Chele-La (4100 m) in Bhutan and Yume Samdong in Sikkim at 4700 m exemplify its occurrence at the very upper limits of vascular plant growth, on wind-swept, well-drained, frost-exposed ground.

The plant is a low, densely tufted, mat-forming or cushion shrublet with slender, jointed, longitudinally grooved green branchlets that perform photosynthesis, the true leaves reduced to small connate scales at the nodes. Like all Ephedra it is dioecious and non-flowering: pollen is borne in small ovoid male strobili, while the female cones, after fertilisation, develop fleshy red, berry-like seed cones enclosing one or two seeds, an adaptation to bird dispersal in an otherwise austere environment.

The epithet sikkimensis denotes the type region in the eastern Himalaya, var. sikkimensis being a high-elevation segregate of the polymorphic E. gerardiana. Members of this genus are notable sources of ephedrine alkaloids and have a long history of medicinal and ritual use. As pioneers of stabilised scree and moraine, these dwarf shrubs are ecologically important in fragile alpine systems; though not currently threatened, harvesting and climate-driven habitat shifts warrant monitoring.

Author: Stapf. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, A Monograph of the Genus Ephedra (Stapf)

Ephedraceae

Ephedra intermedia

by G & P Jürgens

Schrenk & C.A.Mey.

Nepal 99 527 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3800m, June

Description

Ephedra intermedia Schrenk & C.A.Mey. is a gymnospermous, ephedroid shrub of the Ephedraceae, widely distributed across the arid mountains and steppes of Central Asia, ranging from China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan to the dry trans-Himalayan valleys of India and Nepal (GBIF: c. 1,587 occurrences). It is a xerophyte of stony slopes, dry riverbeds, gravelly steppe and arid montane scrub. The photographed plant from Churta-Khola in west Nepal at about 3,800 m, recorded in June, illustrates its occurrence in the high, dry inner-Himalayan rain-shadow zone.

The plant is a densely branched, erect to spreading shrub up to about 1 m tall, with rigid, jointed, longitudinally grooved green stems that carry out photosynthesis; the leaves are reduced to small membranous scales fused into sheaths at the nodes. As a gnetophyte it is non-flowering: the reproductive structures are unisexual cones, the plants generally dioecious. Male cones are clustered with stamens bearing pollen sacs, while the female cones, after fertilisation, develop fleshy red bracts surrounding the ovule, forming a berry-like, fleshy false fruit that is bird-dispersed.

Ephedra is the sole genus of Ephedraceae and one of three living genera of the Gnetales, of considerable interest in seed-plant phylogeny. Species of the genus, including E. intermedia, are a traditional source of the alkaloid ephedrine and have a long history of medicinal use ("ma huang"). The species is widespread and of least conservation concern, though it is locally harvested.

Author: Schrenk & C.A.Mey. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Freitag & Maier-Stolte: Ephedraceae monograph

Ephedraceae

Ephedra pachyclada 

by G & P Jürgens

Boiss.

Nepal 99 836 ergebnis
Nepal Baga-La Phedi 4000m, July
Nepal 99 840 ergebnis
Nepal Baga-La Phedi 4000m, July

Description

Ephedra pachyclada Boiss. is a xerophytic, gymnospermous shrub of the Ephedraceae ranging from the eastern Mediterranean and Arabia through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the western and central Himalaya. Its records extend across Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and into India and Nepal. The species is adapted to arid and semi-arid, sun-exposed habitats: dry rocky slopes, gravelly fans, cliff ledges and the stony soils of cold high-mountain deserts and the trans-Himalayan rain shadow. It occurs over a wide altitudinal span, and the population at Baga-La Phedi in Nepal, photographed at 4,000 m in July, exemplifies its occurrence in the cold, dry alpine zone.

The plant is a densely branched, often cushion-like or rigidly erect shrub with stout, jointed, longitudinally grooved green stems that perform photosynthesis in place of the reduced, scale-like leaves, which are paired and connate into small sheaths at the nodes. Like all Ephedra it is dioecious and wind- or insect-pollinated; the male cones bear clustered microsporangia, while the female cones produce ovules whose enveloping bracts become fleshy and red, forming a berry-like, succulent seed cone that aids in dispersal by birds.

Ephedra pachyclada is a taxonomically variable species, divided into several subspecies and forming part of a complex of robust Asian ephedras whose delimitation remains debated. The genus is renowned as a source of the alkaloids ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, giving it a long history of medicinal use, and several Asian species have been subject to harvesting pressure. As a hardy stabiliser of dry, eroding mountain slopes the species also has ecological value in fragile high-altitude desert ecosystems.

Author: Boiss. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora Iranica, Freitag & Maier-Stolte: Revision of Ephedra in the Old World