Tag:

Alpine (>3500 m)

Iridaceae

Iris kemaonensis

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex D.Don

Nepal 99 299 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4200m, June
Nepal 99 298 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4200m, June
Garh 07 172 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3545m, June

Description

Iris kemaonensis is a dwarf alpine iris of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, distributed across Pakistan, Nepal, NW India, Bhutan and SW China, with 346 GBIF occurrences. It grows on open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, stony pastures and recently snow-freed ground in the upper subalpine to alpine zone. The cited collections from Kalmura in West Nepal at about 4,200 m and Kinkhola in Garhwal at 3,545 m, both in June, are characteristic of its early-summer flowering as snow melts on high turf, where it forms low scattered clumps.

It is a rhizomatous perennial with a short, stout, branching rhizome bearing fibrous remains of old leaves. The leaves are linear-ensiform, appearing with or shortly after the flowers and elongating considerably as the fruit ripens. The flowers are usually solitary and almost sessile at ground level, lilac to pale purple, mottled and spotted with deeper purple; the falls are obovate with a yellow or white beard along the median crest, the standards smaller and erect. The perianth tube is long and slender, raising the flower above the spathes. The fruit is a trigonous capsule, often borne on an elongating stalk emerging after anthesis.

The species belongs to Iris subgen. Pseudoregelia, the bearded, mottled-flowered, rhizomatous group centred on the Himalaya and Central Asia. GBIF records it as accepted. It is a charismatic, ground-hugging alpine bearing close ecological resemblance to other cushion-meadow geophytes, and remains widespread and unthreatened, though locally subject to grazing pressure.

Author: Wall. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Mathew: The Iris (1989)

Asteraceae

Jacobaea raphanifolia

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex DC.) B.Nord.

Sikkim2003 444 G617
Sikkim Chopta Valley 3900m August
Nepal 95 130 P222 ergebnis
Nepal south of Rupien La 3600m October
Bhutan2015 379
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October

Description

Jacobaea raphanifolia is a perennial herb of the high Himalaya and adjoining mountains of central Asia, recorded by GBIF (some 202 occurrences) from Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar, with scattered records reaching Kenya and South Africa that probably reflect cultivated or naturalised material. It is a plant of the upper subalpine and alpine zones, favouring moist meadows, streamsides, open scrub and damp rocky slopes. The species was photographed across a broad altitudinal band, in the Chopta Valley of Sikkim at about 3900 m in August, south of the Rupien La in Nepal at 3600 m in October, and on the Tumching La in Bhutan near 4000 m, a range centred between roughly 3500 and 4200 m.

It forms an erect, somewhat stout herb arising from a short, fibrous-rooted rhizome, with simple or branched leafy stems. The lower leaves are lyrate-pinnatifid to runcinate with a large terminal lobe, recalling a radish (raphanifolia), the margins toothed and the surfaces sparsely hairy; cauline leaves become smaller, sessile and often auriculate upwards. The capitula are radiate, several to many in a loose terminal corymb, subtended by a single row of narrow green phyllaries with a few short calyculate bracts. Ray florets are yellow, female and ligulate; the disc florets yellow, tubular and bisexual. The fruit is a ribbed, cylindrical cypsela crowned by a pappus of fine white capillary bristles.

The species belongs to a complex of montane ragworts segregated from Senecio into Jacobaea on molecular and morphological grounds. As a wide-ranging meadow herb of the alpine pastures it is locally common and of no conservation concern, though like many Senecioneae it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is generally avoided by grazing stock, a trait that may favour its persistence in heavily pastured high valleys.

Author: (Wall. ex DC.) B.Nord. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Nordenstam's revision of Jacobaea and the Senecioneae

Cupressaceae

Juniperus pseudosabina

by G & P Jürgens

Fisch. & C.A.Mey.

Sikkim2011 92
Sikkim Chopta-valley 4300m, June
Nepal1992 120 P170 ergebnis
Nepal Ghunsa 3400m March

Description

Juniperus pseudosabina is a coniferous shrub of the high mountains of Central Asia and the Himalaya, with GBIF documenting around 1678 occurrences across Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bhutan. It is a constituent of the upper subalpine and alpine zones, forming krummholz and prostrate thickets on stony slopes, rocky ridges, moraines and at the timberline. The photographed plants were recorded in Sikkim's Chopta valley at 4300 m in June and at Ghunsa in Nepal at 3400 m in March, illustrating its occupation of cold, exposed high-montane sites near and above the tree limit.

It is typically a low, spreading, mat-forming or procumbent shrub, occasionally a small tree, with reddish-brown shredding bark. The foliage is mostly squamiform (scale-like), with small, closely appressed, rhombic leaves bearing a conspicuous dorsal resin gland; needle-like juvenile leaves may persist on vigorous shoots. The species is usually dioecious; the pollen cones are small and terminal, while the seed cones are berry-like galbuli that ripen blue-black to purplish-black, are glaucous, and characteristically contain a single large seed.

GBIF accepts the name. Belonging to section Sabina, the multi-seeded and single-seeded savin junipers, J. pseudosabina is closely allied to several Himalayan and Central Asian junipers with which it has been taxonomically confused. Its galbuli are dispersed by birds, and the dwarfed, wind-pruned habit reflects adaptation to severe alpine exposure. Wide-ranging and locally abundant, it is assessed as of least concern.

Author: Fisch. & C.A.Mey. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Farjon monograph of Juniperus

Cupressaceae

Juniperus squamata

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don

Bh09 168 P297
Bhutan Labana 3600m May

Description

Juniperus squamata Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don is a variable, mostly prostrate to shrubby juniper of the Cupressaceae, native across the Himalaya and central and western China and recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar; with over 3,300 georeferenced records, many from cultivation in Europe, North America and Australasia, it is a widely grown ornamental as well as a wild montane species. In the wild it occupies high-altitude scrub, rocky alpine slopes, open conifer forest margins, ridges and exposed crests near and above the treeline. The photographed plant from Labana in Bhutan at about 3,600 m in May is typical of its subalpine to alpine station, where it often forms low spreading mats anchoring thin stony soils.

It is an evergreen shrub, frequently decumbent and mat-forming but sometimes erect and small-tree-like, with reddish-brown, flaking bark and ascending branchlet tips that are characteristically nodding. The foliage is entirely needle-like (acicular) and arranged in dense whorls of three, each leaf rigid, sharply pointed, concave and glaucous-white on the upper surface, giving the plant a frosted appearance. The species is usually dioecious; the seed cones are small, ovoid, ripening from green through reddish to glossy black, fleshy and berry-like, and contain a single seed.

Juniperus squamata belongs to section Juniperus, the needle-leaved junipers, and is morphologically variable across its range, having given rise to numerous horticultural cultivars selected for habit and foliage colour. As a slow-growing pioneer of harsh exposed sites it contributes to soil stabilisation at high elevation. The species is widespread and assessed as Least Concern, though local stands are affected by grazing and fuelwood collection.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Adams: Junipers of the World (2014)

Apiaceae

Keraymonia cortiformis

by GP Jürgens

Cauwet & S.B.Malla

Bhutan2012 244
Bhutan Shele-La, 3900m September

Description

Keraymonia cortiformis is a high-alpine umbellifer of the eastern Himalaya, restricted to Nepal, Bhutan and adjacent China, where GBIF records only about 30 occurrences, reflecting its narrow range and limited collection. It is a plant of the upper subalpine to alpine zone, growing on open stony slopes, screes, rock crevices and short alpine turf above the treeline, typically between roughly 3500 and 4500 m. The image from Shele-La in Bhutan at about 3900 m in September captures it in a characteristic exposed high-pass habitat, where late-season fruiting plants persist among cushion vegetation and frost-disturbed gravels.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb arising from a stout, often woody rootstock crowned by fibrous remains of old leaf bases. The stems are short, decumbent to ascending and few. Leaves are mostly basal, petiolate with sheathing bases, the blades one- to two-pinnate or ternately divided into small, crowded, oblong to cuneate segments, somewhat fleshy and glabrous to minutely scabrid. The inflorescence is a compact compound umbel with few short, unequal rays, subtended by bracts and bracteoles; flowers are small with white to pinkish petals. The fruit is an ovoid to oblong schizocarp, the mericarps dorsally compressed with prominent ribs and vittae characteristic of the genus.

Keraymonia is a small Himalayan genus segregated from broader concepts within the Apiaceae on fruit and habit characters; this species was described by Cauwet and S.B. Malla. Its cushion-forming, taprooted habit and reduced umbels are typical adaptations to cold, wind-exposed alpine environments with short growing seasons. Owing to its restricted distribution and small known population, it is of biogeographic interest as a high-elevation endemic, and warrants monitoring given the vulnerability of narrowly ranging alpine taxa to climatic warming.

Author: Cauwet & S.B.Malla · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China (Apiaceae), Pimenov & Leonov Genera of the Umbelliferae

Plantaginaceae

Lagotis kunawurensis

by GP Jürgens

(Royle ex Benth.) Rupr.

Sikkim2003 197 P275
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m 08.2003
Nepal 99 650 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 5000m, July
Nepal 99 648 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 5000m, July
Nepal 99 662 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 5000m, July
Garh 07 156 ergebnis
Garh 07 160 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3550m, June

Description

Lagotis kunawurensis is a low alpine herb of the high Himalaya, recorded by GBIF (about 116 occurrences) from Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bhutan, tracing the alpine belt from the western to the eastern part of the range. It is a plant of cold, open, high-elevation ground: short turf, stony slopes, moist alpine meadows, moraines and snow-flush margins, typically from 3500 m to well above 5000 m. The collections cited for the image span this full amplitude, from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 4100 m, to Kinkhola in Garhwal at 3550 m in June, up to the Kagmara-La in West Nepal at around 5000 m in July, the last representing one of the highest zones colonised by flowering plants in the region.

It is a small, fleshy, glabrous perennial arising from a stout rhizome or caudex with thickened roots. The leaves are mostly basal, long-petiolate, with ovate to oblong, somewhat succulent blades that are entire or shallowly crenate-toothed. The flowering stems are short and stout, the inflorescence a dense terminal spike or head of small bracteate flowers. The corolla is two-lipped (bilabiate), blue to violet or purplish, with the upper lip entire or notched and a lower lip of one to three lobes; there are typically two stamens. The fruit is a small drupe-like or two-seeded structure rather than the dry dehiscent capsule of many relatives, a feature distinctive of the genus.

Lagotis, with its concentration of species across the high mountains of Central Asia, the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau, is now placed in Plantaginaceae following the molecular dismantling of the old Scrophulariaceae. The cushion-like, fleshy habit, short stature and early flowering are classic adaptations to the brief, cold, wind-exposed alpine growing season. Several Lagotis species are used in Tibetan and Himalayan ethnomedicine. As a widespread high-elevation specialist L. kunawurensis is not of conservation concern, though such strictly alpine taxa are intrinsically vulnerable to the upslope compression of habitat under climate warming.

Author: (Royle ex Benth.) Rupr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Hong Monograph of the Subtribe Lagotidinae (Scrophulariaceae)

Phrymaceae

Lancea tibetica 

by G & P Jürgens

Hook. f. & Thomson

Nepal 99 681 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Pungmo-Khola 4700m, July

Description

Lancea tibetica Hook.f. & Thomson is a low, perennial herb of the high Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountains, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia and Pakistan. It is a true high-alpine plant of open turf, gravelly and sandy meadows, riverine flats and grazed grassland, generally between about 3,000 and 5,000 m. The July collection from the Pungmo Khola valley in west Nepal at 4,700 m exemplifies its preference for moist alpine swards close to the upper limit of vascular plant growth, where it grows in short, frost-prone vegetation alongside other cushion and rosette herbs of the Trans-Himalayan zone.

The plant is a small, nearly stemless perennial arising from a creeping rhizome and forming low tufts seldom more than a few centimetres tall. The leaves are crowded in a basal rosette, spathulate to oblanceolate, thick, entire or slightly toothed and glabrous. The conspicuous flowers are borne almost at ground level among the leaves; the corolla is deep violet-blue to purple, tubular below and expanded into a two-lipped limb, the lower lip three-lobed and the throat often paler or marked. The fruit is a fleshy, berry-like capsule containing numerous seeds, an unusual feature among its relatives.

Formerly placed in Scrophulariaceae, Lancea is now classified in Phrymaceae following molecular phylogenetic studies, forming with the related Mazus a distinctive Asian lineage. The genus comprises only two species, making L. tibetica of considerable systematic interest as a characteristic endemic of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau flora. Well adapted to cold, high-altitude grassland, it serves as an indicator of intact alpine meadow ecosystems increasingly affected by grazing pressure and climate change.

Author: Hook. f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Nepal, Beardsley & Olmstead: Phylogeny of Phrymaceae (American Journal of Botany)

Pinaceae

Larix griffithii

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

Bhutan2014 610
Bhutan Phobjika 2810, May
Bh2008 266 P418
Bhutan Tumchinching-La 3760m, April

Description

Larix griffithii, the Sikkim or Himalayan larch, is a deciduous conifer of the eastern Himalaya, native to China (Xizang), Bhutan, India (Sikkim) and Nepal; GBIF lists 525 occurrences, including many cultivated specimens in temperate arboreta abroad. In the wild it forms open montane to subalpine forests, often near the treeline on rocky slopes and moraines, generally between about 2800 and 4100 m. The trees illustrated were photographed in Bhutan at Phobjika (2810 m) in May and at the Tumchinching-La pass (3760 m) in April, the latter near its upper altitudinal limit.

It is a medium-sized deciduous tree with a conical crown and long, often pendulous branchlets. The soft, needle-like leaves are borne singly on long shoots and in dense rosette-like clusters on short, knob-like spur shoots; they are bright green, flushing in spring and turning golden-yellow before falling in autumn, an unusual habit among Himalayan conifers. The pendulous seed cones are oblong-cylindrical with conspicuous, exserted, often reflexed bracts that exceed the seed scales, a key diagnostic character; the winged seeds are wind-dispersed when the cones open.

Larix griffithii belongs to Pinaceae and is the principal larch of the eastern Himalaya, characteristically associated with Abies, Picea and rhododendron scrub at the upper forest limit. Its long-exserted cone bracts readily distinguish it from other larches. The wood is used locally for timber and fuel, and the tree's graceful weeping form has led to its cultivation in temperate collections, accounting for the wide scatter of records. Restricted in natural range but locally frequent, it faces pressure from logging, fire and grazing in the fragile treeline ecotone.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Conifers of the World, Farjon A Handbook of the World's Conifers

Asteraceae

Leontopodium brachyactis

by G & P Jürgens

Gand.

Sikkim2003 428 P595
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4100m August
Garw 2005 158 ergebnis
India Garhwal valley of flowers 3550m, October

Description

Leontopodium brachyactis is a high-alpine edelweiss of the Sino-Himalayan and Central Asian uplands, recorded from India, Pakistan, Nepal and China, with scattered occurrences extending west into Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Russia; the c. 92 georeferenced collections trace a distribution centred on the inner Himalaya and Tibetan margins. It inhabits open alpine turf, stony slopes, moraines and grazed meadows above the treeline, typically between 3500 and 4500 m. The species was photographed in the Sikkim Chopta Valley at 4100 m in August and in the Garhwal Valley of Flowers at 3550 m in October, sites representative of its preference for cold, well-drained, seasonally snow-covered ground.

It is a low, tufted, woolly perennial herb arising from a branched woody caudex, the stems erect to ascending and densely white-lanate. The leaves are linear to oblanceolate, entire, grey-green above and clothed beneath in a felt of appressed hairs that reflects intense montane irradiance. The capitula are small, several to many, aggregated into a dense terminal glomerule and subtended by a stellate ruff of leaf-like, densely tomentose floral bracts forming the characteristic edelweiss "star." The heads are heterogamous and disciform, with whitish corollas; the fruit is a small ribbed cypsela bearing a pappus of barbellate bristles.

The genus Leontopodium (tribe Gnaphalieae) is taxonomically intricate, its species delimited by indumentum, bract arrangement and capitulum structure, and L. brachyactis belongs to the compact-headed Himalayan element. Its dense white tomentum is a classic adaptation to alpine cold, desiccating winds and ultraviolet exposure. Though locally frequent across a wide range and not presently considered threatened, populations in accessible valleys face pressure from heavy summer grazing and increasing tourism in the Himalayan flower meadows.

Author: Gand. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Handel-Mazzetti revision of Leontopodium

Asteraceae

Leontopodium himalayanum

by GP Jürgens

DC.

BhutanPG2011 507
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Shashuna, 4000m June
Nepal 99 528 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3800m, June

Description

Leontopodium himalayanum is the characteristic Himalayan edelweiss, distributed across China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar (CN, NP, IN, BT, PK, MM), with about 437 GBIF occurrences mapping a broad but strictly montane range along the chain. It occupies alpine and subalpine meadows, open grassy and stony slopes, screes and rocky banks, generally above the forest limit. The photographed plants were recorded on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at Shashuna in Bhutan at 4000 m and at the Churta-Khola in West Nepal at 3800 m, both in June, flowering early in the high-mountain season on exposed turf.

It is a tufted perennial herb growing from a short branched rhizome, producing several erect or ascending flowering stems 5–30 cm tall, the herbage greyish with a dense appressed white tomentum. The leaves are linear, linear-lanceolate or oblong-spathulate, sessile, woolly especially beneath. The inflorescence is crowned by a spreading rosette of lanceolate floral bracts much more densely white-lanate than the foliage, forming the radiating star that distinguishes the edelweiss. Several small subglobose capitula are clustered at the centre of this ruff; the heads bear yellowish tubular florets and are functionally subdioecious. The fruit is a minute cypsela tipped with a pappus of slender, barbellate to subplumose bristles facilitating wind dispersal.

Within Leontopodium (tribe Gnaphalieae) the Himalayan species form a closely allied group differentiated chiefly by indumentum density and bract proportions, and L. himalayanum (described by DC.) is the most widespread representative across the range. Its conspicuous woolly star is a classic alpine adaptation buffering the reproductive organs against ultraviolet exposure, cold and water loss. The species is common and not regarded as threatened, although picking and collection have locally reduced populations near trekking routes.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Leontopodium monograph (Handel-Mazzetti, revision of the genus)