Tag:

Alpine (>3500 m)

Araceae

Arisaema elephas

by G & P Jürgens

Buchet

BhutanPG2011 134
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Arisaema elephas is a tuberous perennial aroid of the eastern Himalaya and the Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded from China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with around 426 occurrences in GBIF. It grows in moist subalpine and alpine habitats, in open coniferous and Rhododendron forest, scrub, grassy slopes and meadow margins, generally between about 2700 and 4300 m. The photographed plant was collected in Bhutan at Tsochenchen at 3550 m in June, an elevation and cool, humid montane setting characteristic of the species, which emerges and flowers early in the growing season after snowmelt.

The plant arises from a depressed-globose tuber and typically produces a single leaf divided into three leaflets, the lateral leaflets often markedly asymmetric, with entire to undulate margins. The inflorescence is a spathe enclosing the spadix; the spathe tube is greenish and the limb dark purple to blackish, and the spadix is prolonged into a long, slender, downward-curving appendix that recalls an elephant's trunk, hence the epithet elephas. As in most Arisaema the plants are often functionally dioecious, sex expression shifting with tuber size and vigour. The fruit is a dense club-shaped infructescence of red berries.

Arisaema is a large genus centred on the Himalaya and East Asia, notable for its sequential hermaphroditism (size-dependent sex change) and for pollination by fungus gnats and other small flies attracted into the spathe chamber. Arisaema elephas is a distinctive and well-marked species of the A. elephas group, recognised by its long pendent spadix appendix. It is widespread within its montane range and not currently considered threatened, though alpine populations are sensitive to grazing and habitat disturbance.

Author: Buchet · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Arisaema (Gusman & Gusman)

Araceae

Arisaema jacquemontii

by GP Jürgens

Blume

Sikkim2003 240 P330
Sikkim Dzongri 3920m, August
Sikkim2003 387 P547
Sikkim Dzongri 3920m, August

Description

Arisaema jacquemontii is a slender alpine cobra-lily widely distributed across the Himalaya, ranging from Afghanistan and Pakistan eastward through northern India, Nepal and Bhutan into south-western China. GBIF records some 568 occurrences, the core lying in India, Nepal, China, Pakistan and Bhutan, with additional cultivated or vouchered material reported from Britain, Belgium and Canada. The species inhabits subalpine and alpine meadows, open forest margins, shrubberies and moist grassy slopes, generally between about 2400 and 4500 m. The plant shown was photographed in Sikkim near Dzongri at 3920 m in August, a high pasture setting typical of its summer flowering on the eastern Himalayan ridges.

The plant grows from a depressed, subglobose tuber and produces usually a single pedately divided leaf with five to eleven elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate leaflets borne on a green, sometimes faintly mottled petiole sheathed at the base. The inflorescence is a spathe with a green tube and an erect to slightly arched, narrowly acuminate limb striped green and white. The spadix bears a slender, cylindrical, greenish appendix shorter than the spathe; the species is dioecious, with sterile or fertile zones of minute unisexual flowers concealed within the tube. The fruit is a dense club-shaped infructescence of orange-red berries each containing few seeds.

Arisaema, the largest genus of the Araceae in temperate Asia, exhibits remarkable sexual lability, individual tubers shifting between male and female expression with size and resource status. A. jacquemontii belongs to the section characterised by green, unmottled spathes and is among the most widespread and hardy Himalayan species, frequently grown by alpine gardeners. It is not considered threatened, though high-altitude collection and grazing locally affect populations.

Author: Blume · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Arisaema: A Monograph for Botanists and Nature Lovers, Aroids: Plants of the Arum Family

Boraginaceae

Arnebia benthamii

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex G.Don) I.M.Johnst.

Nepal 99 91 ergebnis
West-Nepal Bhulbhule 3500m, June
Nepal 99 92 ergebnis
West-Nepal Bhulbhule 3500m, June

Description

Arnebia benthamii is a stout alpine herb of the western and central Himalaya, distributed through India, Pakistan and Nepal, with GBIF recording roughly 167 occurrences. It inhabits open alpine meadows, grassy and rocky slopes, and stabilised scree in the subalpine and alpine zones, typically from 3000 to 4200 m. The photographed plant grew in West Nepal near Bhulbhule at 3500 m in June, when the species comes into flower as the snow recedes, forming conspicuous erect spikes among the early-summer alpine sward.

The plant is a robust, densely hispid perennial arising from a thick woody rootstock that yields a purple dye. The stems are erect, unbranched and bristly, clothed with sessile, oblong to lanceolate, rough-hairy leaves. The inflorescence is a dense, elongate, cylindrical thyrse of crowded scorpioid cymes subtended by leafy bracts. The flowers are tubular-funnelform, the corolla bluish-purple to violet (drying darker), five-lobed with a hairy throat; the calyx is deeply five-parted and bristly. There are five included stamens and a deeply four-lobed ovary, the gynobasic style producing four hard nutlets at maturity.

The species is referable to genus Arnebia (subfamily Boraginoideae). It is of considerable ethnobotanical importance: the dye-yielding roots, known regionally as "Kahzaban" or "gaozaban," are widely used in Unani and folk medicine, driving substantial wild harvesting. This pressure, combined with grazing and a slow-maturing perennial habit, has caused local declines, and the species is regarded as conservation-sensitive in parts of the western Himalaya, prompting calls for sustainable collection and cultivation.

Author: (Wall. ex G.Don) I.M.Johnst. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton)

Asteraceae

Aster albescens

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Wall. ex Hand.-Mazz.

Sikkim2003 379 G532
Sikkim Tista valley 3600m August
Garw 2005 38 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 3200m, September

Description

Aster albescens is a variable shrubby aster widespread through the Himalaya and into China, Myanmar and East Asia, with 1,298 GBIF occurrences from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Japan, Korea and Myanmar. It grows on forest margins, open slopes, shrubberies and stream banks in the upper temperate to subalpine zone, broadly between about 2000 and 4000 m. The images derive from Sikkim's Tista valley at 3600 m in August and from the Valley of Flowers in Garhwal, India, at 3200 m in September, monsoon-watered slopes where this late-summer flowerer is a frequent component of the shrub layer.

Unusually for an aster, it is a woody shrub or subshrub up to about 1-2 m, with erect, branched, often whitish-tomentose stems. The leaves are alternate, ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, shortly petiolate, with serrate to entire margins and a characteristically pale, white-felted lower surface (whence albescens), the upper surface greener and thinly hairy. The capitula are numerous and small, arranged in dense terminal corymbose panicles; each head bears few short white, pinkish or pale purple ray florets around a disc of yellow florets. The cypselae are compressed and pubescent, with a pappus of reddish to brownish barbellate bristles.

Described as Diplopappus albescens by de Candolle and transferred to Aster by Wallich ex Handel-Mazzetti, the species is highly polymorphic and has spawned numerous infraspecific taxa across its range. Its shrubby habit places it among the woody Himalayan-Sino asters retained in Aster sensu lato. Common and ecologically resilient across a broad area, it is not considered threatened.

Author: (DC.) Wall. ex Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Asteraceae of the Himalaya

Asteraceae

Aster diplostephioides

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Benth. ex C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2012 248
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 4000m September

Description

Aster diplostephioides is a striking alpine daisy of the high Himalaya and Tibetan borderlands, recorded by GBIF (322 occurrences) from China, India, Nepal and Bhutan. It inhabits open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, stony pastures and stream margins, typically between about 3000 and 4500 m. The plant illustrated was photographed in Bhutan's Haa (Haar) Valley at 4000 m in September, a high subalpine-to-alpine zone where short summers and intense insolation favour large-headed, single-flowered composites that bloom into the post-monsoon period.

It is a perennial herb arising from a stout, woody rhizome, producing erect, simple, glandular-hairy stems usually to 30-50 cm. The leaves are alternate, oblanceolate to spathulate, entire, somewhat clasping above, and clothed in spreading hairs. Each stem bears a single large, solitary capitulum subtended by herbaceous, often purple-tinged phyllaries in two or three rows. The numerous narrow ray florets are blue to violet-purple and conspicuously long, surrounding a central disc of yellow florets that turns orange-purple with age. The cypselae are flattened and hairy, bearing a pappus of unequal barbellate bristles.

The species was described as Heterochaeta diplostephioides by de Candolle and transferred to Aster by Bentham ex C.B. Clarke. Although molecular work has redistributed much of the former broad Aster, the high-elevation Himalayan asters such as this remain referable to Aster sensu stricto. Its conspicuous solitary heads make it a notable component of Himalayan alpine meadows. It is widespread within its montane range and not regarded as threatened, though alpine habitats face pressure from grazing intensification and climate warming.

Author: (DC.) Benth. ex C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Asteraceae of the Himalaya

Asteraceae

Aster falconeri

by G & P Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) Hutch.

Nepal 99 93 ergebnis
West-Nepal Bhulbhule 3600m, June
Nepal 99 258 ergebnis
West-Nepal Loccu 3155m, June
Nepal 99 122 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3500m, June

Description

Aster falconeri is a high-alpine herb of the north-western and western Himalaya, recorded from India, Pakistan and Nepal, with some 147 georeferenced collections documenting a relatively narrow but well-sampled range. It occupies open turf, moist alpine meadows, grazed grassland and the margins of seepages and snowmelt flushes, typically between about 3100 and 4000 m. The photographed populations from West Nepal—Bhulbhule at 3600 m, Loccu at 3155 m and the slopes south of Rara Lake at 3500 m, all flowering in June—are characteristic of its early-summer phenology, the plants emerging and blooming soon after the snowpack recedes.

It is a perennial forming low tufts from a short rootstock, the stems erect to ascending, simple, glandular-hairy and bearing reduced cauline leaves. Basal and lower leaves are oblanceolate to spathulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, entire or obscurely toothed and somewhat hairy. The solitary terminal capitula are radiate, subtended by an involucre of subequal, herbaceous, often purple-tinged phyllaries; the ray florets are ligulate and blue to violet, surrounding a disc of yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a compressed, hairy cypsela crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles aiding wind dispersal.

First described as a member of Erigeron by C. B. Clarke and transferred by Hutchinson, the taxon is treated under the name Aster falconeri, regarded as the accepted name notwithstanding its synonym status in the source dataset. As with many Sino-Himalayan asters, generic limits between Aster and Erigeron have shifted repeatedly with morphological and molecular reappraisal. Though not formally assessed for conservation, its restriction to montane pastures exposes it to heavy grazing pressure across the western ranges.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) Hutch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan, Grierson's revision of Himalayan Aster (Asteraceae)

Asteraceae

Aster himalaicus

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2012 53
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 55
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 292
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September
Sikkim2003 138 P186
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August

Description

Aster himalaicus is an alpine aster of the eastern and central Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, China, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Pakistan (NP, CN, BT, IN, MM, PK), with around 277 GBIF occurrences indicating a genuinely high-mountain, comparatively restricted range. It grows in alpine meadows, on grassy and stony slopes, moist turf and the margins of dwarf-rhododendron scrub above the treeline. The photographed populations occur on the Shele-La in Bhutan at 4000–4100 m in September and at Dzongri in Sikkim at 3950 m in August, flowering through the late monsoon on open alpine grassland. Note that under GBIF this name carries SYNONYM status, though the accepted name is likewise given as Aster himalaicus.

It is a low perennial herb with a short, woody rhizome bearing solitary or few erect, simple stems usually 5–20 cm tall, more or less hispid with spreading hairs. The leaves are mostly basal and lower-cauline, obovate to oblanceolate or spathulate, tapering to a winged petiole, with entire ciliate margins and sparse hairs. The capitula are large and solitary, terminal and radiate, subtended by an involucre of several series of narrow, often purple-tinged, hairy phyllaries. The ray florets are conspicuous, ligulate and blue-violet to purple, encircling a disc of numerous yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy cypsela crowned by a pappus of fine barbellate bristles in one or two series.

Aster sensu lato in the Himalaya has been much reorganised, several alpine taxa having been segregated into genera such as Aster s.str. of the tribe Astereae; the synonymy attached to this binomial reflects that ongoing taxonomic flux. The large solitary heads borne on dwarf stems are characteristic of cushion-forming alpine asters adapted to short, cool growing seasons. The species is not assessed as threatened, but its dependence on high alpine turf renders it locally vulnerable to grazing pressure and climatic shifts.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Asteraceae monograph (Grierson, revision of Himalayan Aster)

Asteraceae

Aster souliei

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

BhutanPG2011 475
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4450m June

Description

Aster souliei is an alpine aster centred on the Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded principally from China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar (CN, BT, MM, IN), with around 549 GBIF occurrences reflecting a range concentrated in the high mountains of the eastern Himalaya and south-west China; scattered records elsewhere (US) represent cultivation. It grows in alpine meadows, on grassy and rocky slopes, screes and open turf above the treeline, where it forms low mats. The photographed plant occurred on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at the Warrtlang-La in Bhutan at 4450 m in June, flowering early in the season at considerable altitude on exposed alpine grassland.

It is a dwarf, mat- or tuft-forming perennial herb arising from a short, thick rhizome, with very short or almost stemless flowering scapes, the whole plant rarely exceeding 5–15 cm. The leaves are chiefly in a basal rosette, spathulate to obovate or oblanceolate, narrowed into a winged petiole, with entire, often ciliate margins and sparsely hairy surfaces. The capitula are large and solitary, terminal and radiate, subtended by an involucre of several series of narrow, frequently purple-flushed and hairy phyllaries. The ray florets are numerous, ligulate and deep blue-violet to purple, surrounding a central disc of yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a compressed, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of fine, barbellate, reddish to whitish bristles.

Described by Franchet from the Sino-Himalayan borderlands, A. souliei belongs to the cushion- and rosette-forming alpine asters of the tribe Astereae that have undergone repeated taxonomic revision in the region. Its near-stemless habit and disproportionately large violet heads are adaptations to the short, cold growing season at high elevation, maximising display to scarce pollinators. Widespread within its montane belt, it is not considered threatened, though like other high-alpine specialists it may be sensitive to warming-driven habitat contraction.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Asteraceae monograph (Grierson, revision of Himalayan Aster)

Asteraceae

Aster stracheyi

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 345
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4400m June
Nepal 99 530 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3750m, June

Description

Aster stracheyi is a dwarf, mat-forming alpine daisy of the high Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan and China, with around 202 GBIF occurrences. In GBIF the name is returned with synonym status, the accepted name nonetheless being Aster stracheyi, under which it is here treated. It is a plant of high alpine turf, screes, gravelly flats and stony slopes well above the treeline, typically between about 3700 and 5000 m. The photographed plants are from Jule-Tso in Bhutan at 4400 m and from Churta-Khola in west Nepal at 3750 m, both flowering in June at the start of the high-alpine season.

The species is a low, cushion- to mat-forming perennial herb spreading by slender creeping rhizomes or stolons, the short flowering stems clothed in small, crowded leaves. The leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, entire, somewhat fleshy and often ciliate, forming dense basal tufts. The capitula are solitary and almost sessile among the leaves, radiate, with a single series of narrow lilac to pale purple ray florets surrounding a compact disc of yellow tubular florets; the involucre is hemispherical with herbaceous, often purple-tinged phyllaries. The fruit is a flattened, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of barbellate bristles.

Aster in the broad sense is a large and much-revised genus of the tribe Astereae, and A. stracheyi, named for Richard Strachey, exemplifies the cushion-forming high-elevation asters of the Sino-Himalaya, an adaptation to cold and exposure. Restricted to remote alpine ground, it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Revision of Himalayan Aster (Astereae)

Asteraceae

Aster vestitus

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Bhutan2012 114
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September
Bhutan2012 115
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September

Description

Aster vestitus is a Sino-Himalayan composite distributed through China, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand, with cultivated material accounting for the British GBIF records; some 247 occurrences are aggregated overall. It is a plant of open subalpine and alpine slopes, forest margins, scrub and grassy banks, generally in the upper montane to alpine zone. The specimen figured was recorded at Shele-La in Bhutan at about 3,600 m in September, when the species comes into flower toward the end of the growing season, its asters providing late-season colour on the high meadows.

It is an erect perennial herb with stems and foliage more or less clothed in a soft, woolly or villous indumentum, as the epithet vestitus (clothed) implies. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate to oblong, sessile or shortly petiolate, the margins entire to obscurely toothed and the surfaces pubescent. The capitula are radiate and borne in a loose corymbose arrangement; the involucral bracts are imbricate in several series. Each head bears an outer ring of pistillate ray florets with violet to pale purple ligules surrounding numerous yellow, tubular, bisexual disc florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy achene (cypsela) crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Aster in the broad sense is a large genus undergoing taxonomic recircumscription, with many Asiatic species now distributed among segregate genera; A. vestitus belongs to the predominantly Sino-Himalayan assemblage of woolly-stemmed alpine asters. The radiate capitula are insect-pollinated, while the pappus-bearing cypselas are dispersed anemochorously. Widespread and locally frequent across its montane range, the species is of no particular conservation concern.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson's revisionary studies of Himalayan Aster (Compositae)