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Autumn

Caryophyllaceae

Arenaria edgeworthiana

by GP Jürgens

Majumdar

Bhutan2012 301
Bhutan Shale-La, 4100m September

Description

Arenaria edgeworthiana is a Himalayan sandwort recorded from Nepal, China, Bhutan and India, with around 96 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. In the GBIF backbone the name is treated as a synonym; here Arenaria edgeworthiana is taken as the accepted name for the taxon. It occupies open, well-drained alpine habitats, including stony slopes, rock crevices, gravelly flats and short turf above the treeline, generally between roughly 3500 and 4500 m. The illustrated material was gathered at Shale-La in Bhutan at about 4100 m in September, a typical high-alpine station where this small mat-forming herb grows among scattered cushion plants on exposed ridges.

The plant is a low, tufted or cushion-forming perennial with slender, much-branched stems arising from a woody base. The leaves are small, opposite, sessile and narrowly linear to subulate, often somewhat rigid and crowded, giving the shoots a moss-like or imbricate appearance. The flowers are solitary or few in lax cymes, white, with five free sepals and five entire petals; the stamens are typically ten and the styles usually three, characters that place the plant securely within Arenaria sensu lato. The fruit is a small capsule dehiscing by valves and releasing several minute seeds.

The genus Arenaria has been repeatedly recircumscribed, with many Himalayan cushion species transferred among segregate genera such as Eremogone, which accounts for the synonymy reflected in databases. Plants of this group are well adapted to severe high-mountain conditions, their dense compact habit conserving heat and moisture. No formal conservation assessment applies, but like other restricted alpine endemics it depends on stable, undisturbed high-elevation habitat.

Author: Majumdar · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, McNeill revision of Arenaria

Caryophyllaceae

Arenaria festucoides 

by G & P Jürgens

Benth.

Garw 2005 333 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bagubasa 4150m, September

Description

Arenaria festucoides Benth. is a tufted alpine sandwort of the Caryophyllaceae, distributed through the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau in India, Nepal, Pakistan and SW China, with around 126 georeferenced records concentrated along the high Sino-Himalayan ranges. It is a plant of open, well-drained habitats: stony alpine meadows, gravel flats, fine scree and grassy slopes above the treeline, where it forms low patches among rocks. The photographed population from Bagubasa in the Garhwal Himalaya at about 4,150 m in September lies squarely within its typical high-alpine elevational range, where it flowers and fruits late in the short mountain summer. In GBIF the name is treated as a synonym, but the accepted name is likewise rendered Arenaria festucoides, so it stands as the valid designation here.

The species is a densely caespitose perennial forming firm cushions or mats from a branched woody caudex. The leaves are crowded, narrowly linear to subulate and rigid, grass-like (hence the epithet festucoides), often pungent-tipped and somewhat keeled. The small flowers are borne singly or in few-flowered cymes on short pedicels; the five free sepals are lanceolate and acute, exceeded by the five entire white petals. There are typically ten stamens and three styles, the ovary maturing into a small ovoid capsule that dehisces by valves to release several minute seeds.

Arenaria is a large and taxonomically complex genus, and several segregate genera (Eremogone, Odontostemma) have been carved from its Himalayan members, so generic placement of this and allied species has shifted in recent treatments. The compact cushion habit, reduced leaf surface and deep caudex are classic adaptations to wind exposure, drought and frost at high elevation. The species is widespread across its range and not regarded as threatened.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 6, Flora of Pakistan, GBIF, McNeill: Taxonomic studies in the Alsinoideae (1962)

Caryophyllaceae

Arenaria forrestii

by GP Jürgens

Diels

Nepal 95 384 P683 ergebnis
Nepal Bahanjyang 3800m, October
Nepal 95 385 P684 ergebnis
Nepal Bahanjyang 3800m, October

Description

Arenaria forrestii is a high-alpine cushion plant of the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, Bhutan, India and Nepal across some 164 GBIF occurrences. The photographed plant was found at Bahanjyang in Nepal at about 3800 m in October, a typical setting for a species inhabiting open alpine turf, stony slopes, gravelly screes and rocky crevices, generally between 3500 and 4800 m. It forms low compact mats on exposed, well-drained substrates where the cushion habit conserves moisture and buffers against wind, frost and intense montane insolation.

The plant is a densely caespitose perennial forming tight cushions or mats from a branched, somewhat woody caudex and slender rhizomatous base. The leaves are small, sessile, linear to subulate, opposite, rigid and often imbricate, the older bases persisting. Flowering stems are short and few-flowered; the flowers are solitary or in small cymes, with five free, often dark-veined sepals and five white, entire petals exceeding the calyx. The fruit is a small ovoid capsule dehiscing by teeth and releasing several minute reniform seeds.

GBIF treats the recorded name as a synonym, with Arenaria forrestii as the accepted name. The species belongs to the speciose genus Arenaria (sandworts), well represented among Himalayan cushion-forming alpines that contribute to the distinctive scree and meadow communities of the high passes. Such cushion plants act as nurse structures, modifying their microhabitat and facilitating other alpine species. No conservation concern is recognised, populations being widespread though confined to specialised high-elevation habitats.

Author: Diels · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, McNeill – Monograph of Arenaria (Caryophyllaceae)

Convolvulaceae

Argyreia wallichii

by GP Jürgens

Choisy

Bhutan2012 1233
Bhutan Tashigang 1900m, October

Description

Argyreia wallichii is an Indo-Himalayan and Southeast Asian woody climber distributed through China, northeastern India, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, with GBIF recording about 219 occurrences. It is a plant of warm subtropical to lower montane forest and its margins, the illustrated material coming from Tashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1900 m, flowering in October. It scrambles over shrubs, hedges and trees along forest edges, clearings, roadsides and stream banks on moist, fertile soils in the foothill and lower hill zone, behaving as a vigorous liana in disturbed and secondary vegetation.

The species is a large twining perennial vine with stout stems clothed, like the foliage, in dense silvery or rusty appressed hairs. The leaves are alternate, long-petiolate, broadly ovate to suborbicular with a deeply cordate base and acuminate apex, dark green above and conspicuously silvery-tomentose beneath. The showy flowers are borne in dense, head-like axillary cymes subtended by large, persistent, leafy bracts; the funnelform (infundibular) corolla is rosy-pink to purple with a darker throat, and the five stamens are inserted within the tube. The fruit is a small, berry-like indehiscent capsule, more or less enclosed by the enlarged, persistent and often coloured calyx, attractive to birds.

Argyreia (the woolly morning glories, allied to Ipomoea within Convolvulaceae) is a palaeotropical genus centred on Asia, distinguished by its frequently fleshy or berry-like fruits and persistent bracts. A. wallichii is widespread and locally common, not regarded as threatened, and is of ethnobotanical note in the region; like other members of the family it is pollinated chiefly by bees and larger insects visiting its open funnel-shaped corollas.

Author: Choisy · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India (Hooker), Staples revision of Asian Argyreia (Convolvulaceae)

Asteraceae

Artemesia bhutanica

by G & P Jürgens

Griersson & Spring.

Bhutan2015 310 ergebnis
Bhutan Trongsa 1800m, October
Bhutan2015 311 ergebnis
Bhutan Trongsa 1800m, October

Description

Artemisia bhutanica is a perennial herbaceous species endemic or near-endemic to Bhutan, where it inhabits warm-temperate and subtropical forest margins, roadsides, and disturbed slopes at elevations of approximately 1,200–2,500 m. The species is recorded from the central valleys of Bhutan, including the Trongsa district at around 1,800 m, where it has been photographed flowering in October. With only nine occurrence records documented in GBIF, all confined to Bhutan, the species appears to have a highly restricted distribution and is one of the lesser-known members of this large, cosmopolitan genus in the eastern Himalayan region.
The plant forms erect to ascending, somewhat woody-based stems 40–100 cm tall, branching in the upper portion. The leaves are alternate, deeply pinnatisect to bipinnatisect, with narrowly linear to filiform segments, greyish-green above and more densely tomentose beneath with appressed T-shaped trichomes characteristic of the genus. The capitula are small, nodding, ovoid to subglobose, 2–3 mm in diameter, arranged in lax, paniculate synflorescences. Each capitulum contains few tubular florets; the outer florets are pistillate and the inner ones bisexual. The involucral bracts are imbricate, scarious-margined. Achenes are minute, obovoid, and glabrous.
Artemisia bhutanica was described by Grierson and Springate in the Flora of Bhutan and represents part of the considerable Artemisia diversity in the eastern Himalayas. Its taxonomic placement within the genus requires further molecular study, as morphological boundaries among eastern Himalayan Artemisia species can be unclear. Given its extremely limited documented range and low number of collections, A. bhutanica may warrant conservation assessment, particularly as road construction and land-use change continue to alter warm-temperate habitats in Bhutan's central valleys.

Author: Griersson & Spring. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2 (2001)

Asteraceae

Artemisia austroyunnanensis

by GP Jürgens

Ling & Y.R.Ling

Bhutan2015 310
Bhutan Trongsa 2000m, October

Description

Artemisia austroyunnanensis Ling & Y.R.Ling is a Sino-Himalayan and South-East Asian wormwood distributed from south-western China (notably southern Yunnan, whence the epithet) through Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan, with about 70 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows on dry slopes, forest margins, roadsides, riverbanks and disturbed ground in warm-temperate to lower montane country. The plant recorded at Trongsa at 2000 m in October is consistent with its occurrence in the mid-elevation valleys of the Bhutan Himalaya, flowering toward the close of the growing season.

It is an aromatic perennial herb or subshrub with erect, ribbed and branching stems clothed, like the foliage, in a fine grey or whitish tomentum. The leaves are alternate, once or twice pinnatifid into narrow, often lobed segments, with the lower surface more densely tomentose than the upper. The minute, nodding capitula are numerous and crowded in elongate, paniculate inflorescences; each ovoid to subglobose head has imbricate, woolly-margined phyllaries and is disciform, with outer female florets surrounding inner bisexual disc florets, all wind-pollinated and lacking rays. The fruit is a small, smooth, ellipsoid cypsela without a pappus.

Artemisia is among the largest genera of Asteraceae, and A. austroyunnanensis sits within the subgenus Artemisia of anemophilous, capitulum-clustered species. Its delimitation rests on indumentum, leaf dissection and capitulum structure within a difficult species complex. A regionally distributed plant of disturbed and seasonally dry habitats, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Ling & Y.R.Ling · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Ling taxonomic studies of Artemisia

Orchideaceae

Arundina graminifolia

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Hochr.

Bhutan2012 523
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 2400m, September
Bhutan2015 247
Bhutan Zhemgang 1000m, October

Description

Arundina graminifolia, commonly known as the bamboo orchid, is a robust terrestrial species with a remarkably wide distribution from the Himalayas (Nepal, India, Bhutan) through Southeast Asia to southern China, the Malay Archipelago, and the Pacific Islands. It has become naturalised in parts of tropical America, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. In the Himalayas, it grows on exposed banks, road cuttings, landslide scars, and open grasslands at 200–2,800 m elevation, favoring well-drained, acidic soils with good light exposure.

The plant forms dense clumps of erect, reed-like stems 60–150 cm tall, bearing linear-lanceolate, grass-like leaves 10–20 cm long that are arranged distichously. Flowers are produced terminally, 5–8 cm across, resembling small Cattleya blooms: the sepals and petals are white to pale pink, while the lip is deep rose-purple with a tubular base and a broad, ruffled apical lobe. Flowers open successively over an extended period, with individual blooms lasting only 2–3 days. In the eastern Himalayas, flowering peaks from August to November.

Arundina graminifolia is one of very few orchids that thrives as a pioneer species on disturbed ground. Its wide ecological amplitude and capacity for rapid colonisation are facilitated by its production of numerous wind-dispersed seeds. The species exhibits considerable morphological variation across its vast range, and several subspecific taxa have been proposed.

Author: (D.Don) Hochr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Seidenfaden: The Orchids of Indochina (1992)

Asteraceae

Aster ageratoides

by GP Jürgens

Turcz.

Bhutan2012 866
Bhutan Jakar 2200m, October

Description

Aster ageratoides Turcz. is a widespread and variable East Asian aster ranging through China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with more than 14,000 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF and an increasing presence as an introduction in parts of Europe and North America. It occupies forest margins, grassy slopes, thickets, streamsides and roadside banks across a broad altitudinal range. The plant recorded at Jakar at 2200 m in October is typical of its late-season flowering in the mid-elevation temperate zone of the Bhutan Himalaya.

It is a rhizomatous perennial herb with erect, often branched stems that are scabrid to pubescent. The leaves are alternate, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, with a serrate to coarsely toothed margin, three more or less prominent main veins, and a rough surface; the lower leaves are petiolate and the upper ones become sessile. The capitula are arranged in a lax corymbose array; each radiate head has an involucre of imbricate, graduated phyllaries, a single series of white to pale violet or purplish ray florets, and numerous yellow disc florets. The fruit is a compressed, hairy cypsela crowned by a pappus of reddish bristles.

A.ageratoides is notoriously polymorphic, and numerous subspecies, varieties and forms have been described across its range based on leaf shape, indumentum and head size. Modern molecular systematics has reorganised the broad genus Aster, but this Asian species is retained in Aster sensu stricto. Common and ecologically flexible, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Turcz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Nesom systematic studies of Astereae

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