Tag:

Alpine (>3500 m)

Primulaceae

Primula gambeliana

by GP Jürgens

G.Watt

BhutanPG2011 268
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4000m June

Description

Primula gambeliana G.Watt is an eastern Himalayan alpine primula recorded from India (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), Nepal, Bhutan and south-western China, with about 66 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows on cool, humus-rich and mossy ground, on shaded rock ledges, beneath dwarf rhododendron and along the upper forest edge into the lower alpine zone, generally between roughly 3000 and 4300 m. The collection from Jule-Tso at 4000 m in June reflects its preference for damp, sheltered high-altitude sites flushed by snowmelt early in the growing season.

It is a tufted perennial herb forming a rosette from a short rhizome. The leaves are obovate to spatulate, abruptly contracted into a broadly winged petiole, with an irregularly toothed margin and an efarinose, somewhat fleshy texture. The slender scape rises above the foliage bearing an umbel of several nodding, funnel-shaped flowers; the corolla is rose-purple to violet with a paler or yellowish throat, the lobes spreading and emarginate, and the calyx is campanulate and divided to about the middle. The flowers are heterostylous, and the fruit is a capsule about equalling the calyx that releases numerous small seeds.

P. gambeliana belongs to section Petiolares, a large and taxonomically complex eastern-Himalayan group of woodland and alpine primulas distinguished by their winged petioles and early flowering. Within this section it is recognised by its leaf form and flower colour. As a localised petiolarid of cool, moist high-elevation habitat it depends on intact moss and humus layers; it carries no formal threat status but is potentially sensitive to habitat disturbance.

Author: G.Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Smith & Fletcher monograph of Primula

Primulaceae

Primula glabra

by GP Jürgens

Klatt

Bhutan2014 920
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Bhutan2014 1014
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Bh2008 570 P857
Bhutan Chele-La, 3950m June

Description

Primula glabra is a dwarf alpine primrose of the eastern Himalaya, distributed through China (south-eastern Tibet), Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with GBIF logging 196 occurrences across this Sino-Himalayan zone. It is a plant of high alpine turf, moist meadows, rocky slopes, snowmelt flushes and damp gravelly ground above the treeline, broadly between 3800 and 4500 m. The photographed plants from the Chele-La pass in western Bhutan, at 3950-4000 m flowering in May and June, exemplify its preference for cold, open, snow-influenced alpine sites where it blooms among rocks and short turf as the snow melts in early summer.

The species is a small, glabrous (hence the epithet), tufted perennial herb, lacking the farinose (mealy) coating found in many alpine primulas. The leaves form a basal rosette and are oblanceolate to spathulate, entire to finely toothed, narrowing into an indistinct petiole. Flowers are borne in a compact terminal umbel atop a short scape, or sometimes nearly sessile among the leaves. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a salverform corolla, typically pink to purplish or violet with a contrasting paler or yellowish eye, the limb spreading into five notched lobes. The species is heterostylous, producing pin and thrum flowers. The fruit is a small capsule dehiscing to release numerous minute seeds.

Described by Klatt, the species belongs to the vast genus Primula, within the alpine sections (allied to section Minutissimae or related dwarf cushion groups) that radiated extensively across the high Sino-Himalaya. Its heterostylous breeding system promotes outcrossing by long-tongued alpine insects. As a specialist of high, snow-fed alpine habitats it is potentially vulnerable to climatic warming and upslope habitat compression, though its broad regional range currently buffers it; it remains formally unassessed.

Author: Klatt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Primula in Cultivation and the Wild (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula glandulifera 

by G & P Jürgens

Balf.f. & W.W.Sm.

Nepal 99 669 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Kagmara-La 4900m, July

Description

Primula glandulifera is a high-alpine primrose of the western Himalaya, known from Nepal and India, with GBIF recording 31 occurrences. It inhabits damp alpine turf, moist gravelly slopes, streamsides and the margins of late snowbeds well above the treeline. The photographed plant grows on the Kagmara La in West Nepal at about 4900 m, flowering in July, an exacting high-elevation setting where short summers, intense radiation and cold, wet substrates govern plant life.

The species is a small perennial herb forming a basal rosette of leaves, often glandular as the epithet glandulifera indicates, the lamina oblong to spathulate and frequently bearing farina or glandular hairs. The flowering scape is slender, bearing one to several flowers in a terminal umbel above a whorl of bracts. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a salverform corolla, typically violet to purple with a contrasting eye, the limb of five notched lobes; the species is heterostylous, and the fruit is a small capsule.

The taxon is accepted and was described by Balfour and W.W. Smith, prolific authors on Asiatic Primula. It belongs to one of the genus's many Himalayan sections, a group whose species boundaries rest on farina, indumentum and floral detail. As a narrow-range, very high-altitude orophyte it is biogeographically significant and potentially sensitive to climate-driven upward shifts of the alpine zone, meriting monitoring of its restricted populations.

Author: Balf.f. & W.W.Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Richards' monograph Primula, Smith & Fletcher's studies of Asiatic Primula

Primulaceae

Primula gracilipes

by GP Jürgens

Craib

Bh2008 240 G378
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3600m April
Bh2008 241 P379
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3600m April
Sikkim2004 132 G230
Sikkim/India Singalila 3200m April

Description

Primula gracilipes is a spring-flowering primrose of the eastern Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, Sikkim and the rest of India, Bhutan and adjacent China, with additional material in European collections such as Austria and Japan. Its roughly 198 georeferenced records trace a band along the moist eastern Himalayan ranges. It grows on damp, mossy banks, in open subalpine forest, on rock ledges and along stream margins at roughly 2700-4000 m, flowering very early as the snow recedes. The collections cited above, from Tumching-La in Bhutan at 3600 m and from Singalila on the Sikkim-India border at 3200 m, both in April, are typical of its early-season alpine display.

It is a small rosette-forming perennial with leaves that are at first short and enlarge after flowering, the blades obovate to oblong, crenate to dentate and somewhat farinose or efarinose. The flowers appear almost stemless among the developing leaves on slender pedicels (gracilipes meaning "slender-stalked"), arising from a much-shortened scape so that the inflorescence is nearly sessile. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a flat, rose-pink to mauve-purple corolla with a yellow or greenish eye and notched lobes; the species is heterostylous, with pin and thrum flowers. The fruit is a small capsule shorter than or about equalling the calyx.

Primula gracilipes belongs to section Petiolares, a large and taxonomically difficult eastern Himalayan group characterised by early flowering on a short scape and rosettes that expand after anthesis. Heterostyly promotes outcrossing by long-tongued spring insects active at the snowline. It is prized in alpine horticulture but can be challenging in cultivation. While not formally assessed, its early-flowering habit and dependence on cool, humid subalpine sites make it sensitive to changes in snow cover and montane climate.

Author: Craib · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, The Genus Primula (Richards) monograph

Primulaceae

Primula griffithii

by GP Jürgens

Pax

Bhutan2014 904
Bhutan Chele-La 3900m April
Bh2008 579 G868
BH2008 578 P867
Bhutan Chele-La 3900m April
Bh2008 585 G875
Bhutan Chele-La 3900m April
Bh2008 586 P876
Bhutan Chele-La 3900m April

Description

Primula griffithii is an eastern Himalayan primrose centred on Bhutan and adjacent northern India, the 48 GBIF occurrences indicating a narrow distribution, with additional records reflecting cultivated material in Japan. It is a plant of cool, moist subalpine and alpine habitats: damp meadows, mossy banks, open Rhododendron scrub and forest margins, generally between 3300 and 4200 m. The illustrated plant was photographed at Chele-La in Bhutan at 3900 m in April, when the species flowers early in the season as the snow recedes from the high passes of the western Bhutanese ranges.

It is a perennial herb forming rosettes of oblong to obovate leaves that are crenate to denticulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, and frequently dusted, like the scape and calyx, with pale farina. The slender erect scape carries a terminal umbel of several flowers. The corolla is a rich violet to deep purple-blue with a contrasting paler or yellow eye, its limb of five obcordate, notched lobes set on a slender tube; the species is heterostylous, producing distinct pin and thrum forms that promote outcrossing. The fruit is a small capsule subequal to or slightly exceeding the persistent calyx.

The species is placed in Primula section Petiolares, the farinose, rosette-forming Sino-Himalayan primroses, within which it is allied to the petiolarid group typified by P. petiolaris. Its early flowering and high-rainfall subalpine habitat make it dependent on reliable snow-melt and humid mountain air, while its distyly necessitates insect pollination. Being a narrowly distributed eastern Himalayan near-endemic with a restricted altitudinal band, it is intrinsically vulnerable to habitat disturbance and warming; although not formally Red-Listed, it is of conservation note and esteemed by alpine-plant growers.

Author: Pax · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Richards: Primula, Flora of China

Primulaceae

Primula hookeri

by G & P Jürgens

G.Watt

Sikkim 2006 387 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Kishong 3600m, May

Description

Primula hookeri is a diminutive alpine primrose of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar. It is a plant of high alpine meadows, mossy banks, rhododendron scrub margins and moist turf near the treeline and above, typically between about 3300 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from Kishong in West Bengal, India, at around 3600 m and flowering in May, is characteristic of its early-season blooming soon after snowmelt in cool, humid, high-montane meadow where moisture from melting snow and abundant atmospheric humidity sustain the small rosettes.

The species is a small, tufted perennial forming neat basal rosettes. The leaves are obovate to spathulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, crenate to denticulate, glabrous or nearly so, and lack the conspicuous farina of many Himalayan primulas. The flowers are typically solitary or few on short scapes, sometimes nearly sessile among the leaves; the corolla is white to pale lilac with a yellow eye, salverform, with an elongated tube and spreading, notched lobes. The fruit is a small capsule shorter than or about equalling the persistent calyx, releasing numerous minute seeds.

The epithet honours Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, whose mid-nineteenth-century Sikkim explorations transformed knowledge of Himalayan Primula. The species belongs to the small-flowered section Minutissimae (the dwarf alpine primulas), a group of cushion- and turf-forming high-elevation specialists. Like many narrowly montane primulas it is heterostylous, promoting outcrossing. Restricted to fragile high-alpine habitats, such species are potentially sensitive to grazing and warming-induced upslope vegetation shifts, though P. hookeri is not presently regarded as threatened.

Author: G.Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, The Genus Primula (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula involucrata

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Duby

Nepal 99 492 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3850m, June
Garh 07 418 ergebnis
Garh 07 419 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3900m, June

Description

Primula involucrata Wall. ex Duby is a perennial of the high Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan plateau, ranging through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and western China, with disjunct populations extending into Central Asia. The species is documented from West-Nepal at Churta-Khola near 3850 m and from the Garhwal Himalaya at Khiar Kutti around 3900 m, both flowering in June. It is a plant of damp alpine and subalpine meadows, marshy stream margins, seepage slopes and the moist turf bordering glacial pools, typically between 3000 and 4500 m, where snowmelt sustains saturated soils through the brief growing season. The very high GBIF occurrence count chiefly reflects records aggregated under the broadly circumscribed genus Primula rather than this taxon alone.

The plant forms a small, glabrous rosette of long-petiolate, elliptic to ovate-oblong leaves with entire or finely crenulate margins, often faintly farinose beneath. A slender, leafless scape rises to 10–25 cm and bears a terminal umbel of few to several flowers subtended by a conspicuous involucre of lanceolate bracts, from which the epithet derives. The flowers are sweetly fragrant, with a tubular calyx and a white to pale lilac or pinkish corolla marked by a yellow eye, the limb divided into five emarginate, spreading lobes. The fruit is a small cylindrical capsule dehiscing by apical valves and releasing numerous minute seeds.

Primula involucrata belongs to section Aleuritia (the farinose primulas), a group centred on the Sino-Himalayan and arctic-alpine zones and characterised by farina, heterostyly and umbellate inflorescences. Its preference for wet, base-rich alpine flushes makes it a useful indicator of stable hydrological conditions. Though locally common across its wide montane range and not currently of conservation concern, populations are vulnerable to grazing pressure, trampling and the drying of high-altitude wetlands under a warming climate.

Author: Wall. ex Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Primula (Richards, monograph of the genus)

Primulaceae

Primula macrophylla

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

BhutanPG2011 572 1
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Miluthang, 4350m July
BhutanPG2011 660 01
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Thitha-Tso, 4350m July
Garh 07 389 ergebnis
Garh 07 506 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3950m, June

Description

Primula macrophylla is a widespread high-alpine primrose ranging across the Himalaya and adjacent mountain systems, with GBIF records spanning India, Nepal, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan among other territories and approaching a thousand documented occurrences. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, growing on open rocky slopes, screes, moist alpine turf, glacial moraines and damp gravelly flats near snowmelt. It typically occupies elevations of roughly 3500-5000 m; the populations from the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at Miluthang and Thitha-Tso (about 4350 m, July) and from Garhwal at Khiar Kutti (3950 m, June) exemplify its preference for cool, well-drained sites flowering through the early monsoon.

P. macrophylla is a robust, farinose perennial herb forming a stout rosette from a short rhizome. The leaves are large and elongate, oblanceolate to lanceolate, narrowed to a broad petiolar base, the lower surface densely covered with yellowish or whitish farina (mealy powder) and the margin entire to finely denticulate. The stout scape, also mealy, bears a dense terminal umbel of numerous flowers subtended by linear bracts. The flowers are heterostylous with a tubular calyx and a salverform purple to violet-purple corolla marked by a contrasting yellowish or whitish eye, the lobes notched at the apex. The fruit is a cylindrical capsule about equalling or exceeding the calyx and containing many small seeds.

The species belongs to Primula section Crystallophlomis (formerly Nivales), the great assemblage of farinose, large-flowered alpine primroses of the high Asian mountains, and is morphologically variable across its vast range, with several infraspecific taxa recognised by various authors. Its broad distribution and abundance suggest it is not of conservation concern, although high-elevation populations are inherently exposed to climate-driven shifts in snow cover and to localised grazing.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, The Genus Primula (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula macrophylla var. moorcroftiana 

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex Klatt) W.W. Sm. & H.R. Fletcher

Nepal 99 616 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4300m, July
Nepal 99 617 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4300m, July

Description

Primula macrophylla var. moorcroftiana is a high-alpine perennial distributed across the western and central Himalaya and adjoining Central Asian ranges, with GBIF documenting some 172 occurrences from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China (Tibet). It inhabits open alpine meadows, moist screes, grazed turf and the margins of snowmelt flushes, typically between 3500 and 5000 m. The photographed plant was recorded at the Kagmara-La in West Nepal at 4300 m in July, a phenology typical of the taxon, which flowers as the snow recedes on cool, humus-rich substrates kept moist through the early monsoon.

The plant forms a stout rosette arising from a short rhizome clothed in persistent leaf-bases and farinose remains. The leaves are large for the genus, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, entire to obscurely toothed, tapering gradually to a winged petiole and frequently coated beneath with white or yellowish farina. The scape is erect and conspicuously mealy, bearing a dense terminal umbel of several heterostylous flowers. The corolla is funnelform with a slender tube exceeding the campanulate calyx, the limb violet to purple with a paler or yellow eye and notched lobes. The fruit is a cylindrical capsule dehiscing by apical valves to release numerous small angular seeds.

Placed in Primula sect. Crystallophlomis (the nivalis alliance), the variety moorcroftiana is distinguished from typical P. macrophylla by its larger, more farinose foliage and robust habit. GBIF retains the name as accepted. As a snowbed and meadow specialist, it is sensitive to altered snow-lie and intensified summer grazing, though its broad transmontane range buffers it against immediate threat.

Author: (Wall. ex Klatt) W.W. Sm. & H.R. Fletcher · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith & Fletcher monograph of Primula

Primulaceae

Primula megalocarpa

by GP Jürgens

H.Hara

BhutanPG2011 637 01
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Laden-Tso, 4300m July

Description

Primula megalocarpa H.Hara is a high-alpine primula of the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, Bhutan, northern India and south-western China, with around 109 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It inhabits open alpine turf, moist rocky slopes, moraine and the margins of late-lying snowbeds, generally between about 3800 and 4800 m. The collection cited from the Ludlow-Sherriff trail at Laden-Tso at 4300 m in July is typical of its ecology, flowering as the snow retreats in habitats kept cool and damp by glacial meltwater and frequent cloud.

It is a small farinose perennial forming a compact rosette from a slender rootstock. The leaves are obovate to oblanceolate, narrowed to a winged base, with a finely toothed margin and a white- or yellow-farinose lower surface. Short scapes carry one to few violet to purple, flat-faced flowers; the corolla lobes are obcordate and notched, surrounding a farinose eye, and the calyx is farinose and lobed to about the middle. As the epithet megalocarpa implies, the species is notable for its conspicuously enlarged capsule, which is ovoid and considerably exceeds the calyx at maturity, a feature that readily separates it from related dwarf alpine species.

The enlarged fruit places it among the small-flowered cushion-forming primulas of section Minutissimae and allied groups, where it is distinguished chiefly by capsule size and farina distribution. Like many nival primulas it is tied to a narrow alpine belt and dependent on reliable snow cover, making such species sensitive indicators of shifting snowlines. No conservation status has been published, but its high-altitude niche warrants monitoring.

Author: H.Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Smith & Fletcher monograph of Primula