Tag:

Alpine (>3500 m)

Asteraceae

Anaphalis royleana

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

Garw 2005 297 ergebnis
India Garhwal Patanathi 3750m, October
Garw 2005 50 ergebnis

Description

Anaphalis royleana is a high-montane to subalpine perennial widely distributed across the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China and Taiwan. With 482 georeferenced occurrences, it is one of the more frequently collected members of the genus, occupying open stony slopes, alpine meadows, grazed pastures and the margins of rhododendron and birch scrub. The species typically ranges between roughly 3000 and 4500 m; the plant photographed at Patanathi in Garhwal, India, at 3750 m in October exemplifies its preference for well-drained, sunny situations where it flowers and fruits late into the season.

The plant forms tufted clumps from a woody rootstock, with erect, simple, white-woolly (lanate) stems. The leaves are alternate, sessile and frequently decurrent, linear to oblong-lanceolate, entire-margined, and densely grey- to white-tomentose, the lower surface usually more persistently floccose than the upper. The capitula are small, numerous, and aggregated into dense terminal corymbs. Each head is subtended by several rows of dry, papery (scarious), pearly-white involucral bracts that give the genus its garden name; the florets are functionally unisexual, the central disc florets staminate and the marginal florets pistillate. The fruit is a small cylindrical cypsela crowned by a pappus of slender, barbellate bristles facilitating wind dispersal.

Anaphalis is a large Old World genus closely allied to Helichrysum and Gnaphalium within the tribe Gnaphalieae, characterised by its dioecious or subdioecious capitula. A. royleana belongs to a taxonomically intricate complex of Himalayan everlastings in which leaf indumentum and bract form provide the principal diagnostic characters. Its broad elevational and geographic amplitude, tolerance of grazing, and effective anemochory render it secure, and it is not considered threatened.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Anaphalis revisionary studies in Gnaphalieae

Asteraceae

Anaphalis triplinervis 

by GP Jürgens

Sims ex C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2015 408
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October
Garw 2005 296 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kunol 2900m, September

Description

Anaphalis triplinervis is a widespread Himalayan everlasting recorded natively from Nepal, India, China, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan, and widely grown in gardens (hence European and North American records); GBIF holds over 900 occurrences. It is a plant of open subalpine and alpine slopes, grassy meadows, forest clearings and stony banks, ranging from about 2000 to over 4000 m. The photographed material is from Tumching-La in Bhutan at 4000 m in October and from Kunol in Garhwal, India, at 2900 m in September, spanning the autumn flowering across the central and eastern Himalaya.

The species is a tufted perennial herb with creeping rhizomes and erect, white-woolly stems. The leaves are alternate, oblong to obovate-lanceolate, sessile and often somewhat decurrent, with the three prominent longitudinal nerves that give the epithet "triplinervis"; they are green and thinly cobwebby above and densely white-tomentose beneath. The capitula are small and crowded in dense terminal corymbs, each surrounded by spreading, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts that form the showy "flower"; the true florets are small and yellowish, the plants typically dioecious or functionally so. The fruit is a tiny cypsela with a pappus of barbellate bristles.

Anaphalis belongs to the tribe Gnaphalieae, the cudweeds, and A. triplinervis is among the most familiar Himalayan species, its persistent papery bracts making it a popular everlasting for drying. Abundant and ecologically tolerant of grazed and disturbed slopes, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Sims ex C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Revision of Asiatic Anaphalis (Gnaphalieae)

Asteraceae

Anaphalis xylorhiza

by G & P Jürgens

Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f.

Sikkim2003 260 P358
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m, July

Description

Anaphalis xylorhiza is a high-alpine pearly-everlasting of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 416 georeferenced occurrences indicating a fairly frequent species along the inner high ranges. It grows in alpine meadows, on stony slopes, screes and rocky ridges above the treeline, typically between roughly 3500 and 4800 m. The plant was photographed at Dzongri in Sikkim at 4000 m in July, a setting representative of its ecology, flowering at the height of the monsoon on open, well-drained, frequently grazed alpine ground.

As the epithet xylorhiza indicates, it is a perennial herb with a thick, woody rootstock from which arise low, white-woolly stems. The leaves are linear to narrowly oblong or spathulate, often crowded toward the base, grey-green and clothed in a dense persistent felt of appressed hairs on both surfaces, the bases sometimes decurrent. The capitula are small and aggregated into compact terminal corymbose clusters; each head is surrounded by dry, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts that give the genus its everlasting quality. The plants are essentially dioecious, with male and female heads on separate individuals, and the fruit is a minute cypsela bearing a pappus of slender bristles.

Anaphalis (tribe Gnaphalieae) is centred in Asia and is distinguished from the closely allied Antennaria and Helichrysum by its corymbose, scarious-bracted heads and its functionally dioecious breeding system; A. xylorhiza belongs to the woody-rooted, high-elevation Himalayan group. Its dense indumentum and persistent papery bracts are adaptations to cold, irradiation and desiccation in the alpine zone. Widespread and locally abundant, it is not considered threatened, although heavy summer grazing affects accessible populations.

Author: Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hooker Flora of British India (Asteraceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace globifera

by G & P Jürgens

Duby

BhutanPG2011 669 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Thitha-Tso, 4300m July
Sikkim2004 163 G276
Sikkim/India Singalila 4100m May
Nepal 99 138 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June

Description

Androsace globifera is a high-alpine cushion-forming perennial distributed along the central and eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF (103 occurrences) from Nepal, India, Bhutan and adjacent Tibetan China. It occupies open, often wind-exposed alpine turf, gravel slopes, moraine margins and the rocky surrounds of glacial tarns, typically between 3800 and 4500 m. The documented gatherings illustrate this range well: dense colonies were found beside Thitha-Tso on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at 4300 m in July, on the Singalila ridge of Sikkim at 4100 m in May, and south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3800 m in June, flowering as the snow recedes.

The plant forms compact, hemispherical cushions or low mats built from numerous crowded, columnar shoots clothed in persistent, imbricate, withered leaf-remains. The leaves are small, sessile, oblong to spathulate, and gathered into dense terminal rosettes, their margins ciliate with simple and branched hairs. Solitary, sessile or shortly pedicellate flowers nestle among the leaves; the calyx is campanulate and lobed to about the middle, and the rotate corolla is white to pink with a yellow throat, the five obovate lobes spreading from a short tube. The fruit is a small globose capsule that splits by five valves to release angular seeds.

A member of the cushion-forming androsaces, the species is diagnosed by its globular, tightly packed habit and short-tubed flowers. Ecologically it is a pioneer of frost-disturbed, well-drained substrates, the cushion architecture buffering temperature extremes and trapping wind-blown detritus. Though locally frequent and not currently threatened, such narrowly stenothermic alpines are sensitive to warming and shifting snow regimes.

Author: Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Smith & Lowe Androsace monograph (Genus Androsace)

Primulaceae

Androsace hookeriana

by GP Jürgens

Klatt

Sikkim2011 54
Sikkim Vista-valley 3800m, June
BhutanPG2011 784 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3800m June
Bh09 175 G200
Bhutan Labana, 4000m June

Description

Androsace hookeriana is an eastern Himalayan rock-jasmine recorded in GBIF from Nepal, China, Bhutan and India across 120 occurrences. It grows in moist alpine meadows, grassy slopes, seepage flushes and among rocks, generally between 3500 and 4300 m. The cited collections span Sikkim's Vista valley at about 3800 m, Chele-La in Bhutan at 3800 m, and Labana in Bhutan at 4000 m, all flowering in June, indicating an early-summer alpine species that exploits damp, freshly snow-freed turf. Named for the botanist J. D. Hooker, it is a characteristic component of high eastern Himalayan herbfields.

It is a small rosette-forming perennial, the basal leaves spathulate to oblanceolate, narrowed to the base, with a sparse to dense covering of fine hairs. From the rosette rises a slender, hairy scape a few centimetres to about 15 cm tall, bearing a terminal umbel of several flowers subtended by an involucre of narrow bracts; the pedicels are hairy. Each flower has a campanulate, hairy calyx divided to about the middle and a salverform white to pale pink corolla with a yellow or pinkish eye and five rounded lobes. The fruit is a small, valvate capsule containing a few angular seeds.

As a member of Androsace (Primulaceae), the species belongs to a genus of predominantly arctic-alpine herbs richly diversified across the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau. Its scapose, umbellate habit aligns it with the meadow-dwelling rosette species rather than the tight cushion-formers of higher scree. Pollination is by small dipterans and other insects drawn to the eye-ring, and seeds are dispersed by gravity and wind. It is locally frequent and of no recognised conservation concern.

Author: Klatt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith and Lowe Monograph of Androsace

Primulaceae

Androsace jacquemontii var. robusta 

by G & P Jürgens

(R.Knuth) Govaerts

Nepal 99 674 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Kagmara-La 4800m, July
Nepal 99 673 2 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Kagmara-La 4800m, July

Description

Androsace jacquemontii var. robusta is a high-alpine cushion plant of the western and central Himalaya and the Tibetan borderlands, recorded from China, India, Nepal and Pakistan among its roughly 212 documented occurrences. It is a denizen of the upper alpine zone, growing on stony slopes, fine moraine, gravelly flats and rock crevices where drainage is sharp and exposure severe. The photographed population at the Kagmara-La in West Nepal, at about 4800 m and flowering in July, is characteristic of its elevational ceiling, where the brief snow-free season concentrates flowering into the early summer weeks following snowmelt.

The plant forms dense, compact cushions or low mats built from numerous crowded rosettes of small, imbricate, linear to oblanceolate leaves, often somewhat fleshy and ciliate at the margins, an adaptation conserving heat and moisture in the windswept environment. From the rosettes arise short scapes bearing solitary flowers or small few-flowered umbels; each flower has a five-lobed campanulate calyx and a salverform corolla with a constricted throat marked by a yellow or pinkish eye, the spreading lobes usually pink to lilac or white. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves at the apex, the var. robusta distinguished by its more vigorous, larger habit relative to typical A. jacquemontii.

Androsace is the classic genus of Himalayan rock-jasmines within Primulaceae, and the cushion-forming alpines exemplify convergent adaptation to cold, high-radiation environments shared with Saxifraga and Arenaria. The recombination of this taxon, originally a Knuth name, by Govaerts reflects ongoing nomenclatural refinement of the infraspecific entities. Cushion plants of this kind are long-lived, slow-growing and act as nurse plants facilitating other seedlings; while not individually threatened given their remote habitat, they are recognised as sensitive sentinels of warming-driven change in high-mountain vegetation.

Author: (R.Knuth) Govaerts · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith and Lowe's monograph of Androsace (Primulaceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace lehmannii

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Duby

Nepal 99 304 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4200m, June
Nepal 99 802 ergebnis
West-Nepal Baga-La-Phedi 4500m, July
Sikkim2003 304 G425
Sikkim Saniti-Lake 4200m, August
BhutanPG2011 451 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrthang-Tso, 4400m July

Description

Androsace lehmannii Wall. ex Duby is a cushion-forming alpine of the high Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, with outlying records reported from further across temperate Asia. It is documented from West-Nepal at Kalmura (4200 m) and Baga-La-Phedi (4500 m), from Sikkim at Saniti Lake (4200 m) and from Bhutan along the Ludlow-Sherriff trail near Warrthang-Tso (4400 m), flowering from June to August. The species inhabits open alpine turf, rocky slopes, moraine and gravelly flats, typically between 4000 and 5000 m, where it forms low cushions adapted to wind exposure, intense radiation and a short, cool growing season. Its roughly 158 GBIF records mark it as a genuine high-alpine specialist.

The plant builds a dense, hemispherical cushion of crowded rosettes borne on branched, columnar shoots packed with the marcescent remains of old leaves. The living leaves are small, oblong to spathulate, entire, often ciliate-margined and frequently bearing whitish hairs that reduce water loss and radiation damage. Solitary, almost sessile flowers nestle among the leaves, each with a campanulate calyx and a salver-shaped, five-lobed corolla in white to pale pink, the throat marked by a contrasting yellow or pinkish eye. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves.

Androsace lehmannii belongs to the section of cushion androsaces (allied to sect. Aretia), a growth form that has evolved repeatedly in cold, high-mountain floras as a thermal and mechanical adaptation, the compact canopy trapping warmth and moisture within the cushion. Such plants are slow-growing, long-lived and pioneer-like on unstable substrates. Though not currently threatened, cushion androsaces are recognised as climate-sensitive sentinels, vulnerable to warming, altered snow cover and trampling along increasingly frequented high-altitude routes.

Author: Wall. ex Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Androsace monograph (Smith & Lowe)

Primulaceae

Androsace muscoidea

by G & P Jürgens

Duby

Nepal 99 591 ergebnis
West-Nepal Garpung-Khola 3300m, July
Nepal 99 605 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara Phedi 3900m, July

Description

Androsace muscoidea is a cushion-forming rock-jasmine widely distributed along the Himalaya and into the adjoining mountains of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal and China, with around 120 georeferenced records reflecting its frequency across the high ranges. It is a true alpine, growing on stony slopes, gravelly flats, moraines and in rock crevices of the subalpine and alpine zones, often where snow lies late. The photographed material from West Nepal, gathered at Garpung-Khola around 3300 m and at Kagmara Phedi near 3900 m in July, illustrates the broad altitudinal band over which the species flowers during the brief high-mountain summer.

The plant forms dense, moss-like cushions or low mats, the epithet muscoidea aptly evoking its moss-like habit. Numerous tightly packed rosettes are composed of small, narrowly oblong to spathulate, imbricate leaves that are often densely hairy and somewhat fleshy, giving the cushion a hoary, grey-green appearance. The flowers are solitary or borne few together on very short, hairy scapes scarcely exceeding the foliage; each has a campanulate calyx and a salver-shaped corolla of five spreading lobes, white to pink with a contrasting yellow to reddish eye at the throat. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves.

Androsace is a large genus of mostly arctic and alpine Primulaceae, and the compact, cushion species such as A. muscoidea represent classic adaptations to cold, wind-exposed, drought-prone high-altitude environments, the densely packed rosettes conserving heat and moisture. Variable across its range, the species has given rise to several named forms and varieties. It is not regarded as threatened given its wide distribution, though localised alpine populations are sensitive to grazing, trampling and the warming of Himalayan high-mountain habitats.

Author: Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China (Primulaceae), Smith & Lowe: The Genus Androsace (monograph)

Primulaceae

Androsace rhizomatosa

by GP Jürgens

Hand.-Mazz.

BhutanPG2011 362
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4400m June

Description

Androsace rhizomatosa is a high-alpine cushion plant of the eastern Himalaya, known in GBIF from a single Bhutanese record, an emphatic indication of its rarity and very restricted distribution. It is a plant of exposed alpine screes, rocky ridges, gravelly flushes and turf at the upper limits of vegetation. The collection at Jule-Tso in Bhutan at about 4400 m in June is consistent with the cold, windswept, well-drained high-alpine habitat the species occupies, flowering in early summer as the snow retreats from these stony slopes well above the treeline.

The species is a small perennial herb of the genus that, as its epithet rhizomatosa indicates, spreads by slender rhizomes or stolons to form loose mats or low cushions of leaf rosettes rather than tight hemispherical domes. The leaves are small, narrow and crowded into basal rosettes, often grey-green and clothed with fine hairs that reduce desiccation and ultraviolet damage. The flowers are borne singly or in small few-flowered umbels on short scapes; each has a salver-shaped corolla with five spreading lobes, white to pale pink with a contrasting yellow or pinkish eye at the constricted throat, and the stamens inserted within the corolla tube. The fruit is a small few-seeded capsule.

Androsace (Primulaceae) is a large Holarctic genus richly developed in the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, where rosette- and cushion-forming species are repeatedly adapted to cold, arid, high-irradiance alpine conditions; A. rhizomatosa belongs to the rhizomatous, mat-forming element rather than the dense-cushion section. Its compact growth conserves heat and moisture, and pollination is by alpine insects. Given that it is documented from essentially a single locality and confined to a fragile high-alpine niche, the species is of considerable conservation concern and merits dedicated field survey and assessment.

Author: Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Smith and Lowe Androsaces, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Primulaceae

Androsace strigillosa

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Sikkim2011 59
Sikkim Vista-valley 3800m, June

Description

Androsace strigillosa is a Himalayan rock-jasmine recorded in GBIF from Nepal, China, India and Bhutan across 294 occurrences. It is a plant of open subalpine and alpine slopes, meadows, forest clearings and rocky banks, generally between 3000 and 4200 m. The photographed individual was found in Sikkim's Vista valley at about 3800 m in June, when the early summer brings flowering on moist, well-drained turf shortly after snow-melt. Within the genus it is one of the taller, more robust species, favouring herb-rich grassland rather than extreme scree.

It is a rosette-forming perennial with a basal cluster of oblong-lanceolate to spathulate leaves narrowed to a winged base, the lamina toothed toward the apex and clothed, as the epithet implies, in a strigillose (short, stiff, appressed-bristly) indumentum. From the rosette arises a stout, hairy scape 10-30 cm tall terminating in an umbel of numerous flowers subtended by an involucre of bracts. Each flower has a campanulate, hairy calyx and a salverform pink to rose-purple corolla with a constricted, often yellow-eyed throat and five spreading lobes. The fruit is a small, few- to several-seeded globose capsule dehiscing by valves.

Androsace (Primulaceae) is a large genus of the northern temperate and arctic-alpine zones, well represented in the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, where cushion and rosette forms dominate. As a comparatively large-leaved, scapose species, A. strigillosa illustrates the meadow-dwelling end of the genus's ecological range. Pollination is by small insects attracted to the contrasting eye-ring, and seeds are gravity- and wind-dispersed. It is locally common and of no conservation concern.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith and Lowe Monograph of Androsace