Tag:

Bhutan

Flowers of Bhutan — 1326 plant species documented across the Bhutanese Himalaya, from dense broadleaf and conifer forests to alpine scrub and meadows. Bhutan’s largely intact wilderness shelters an exceptional diversity of orchids, rhododendrons, primulas and Himalayan poppies, many of them regional endemics. Each species page includes a botanical description, distribution, habitat and flowering time, with the original photograph and its recorded altitude and locality.

Berberidaceae

Berberis angulosa

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson

Bh09 146 P260
Bhutan Labana 4000m, June

Description

Berberis angulosa Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson is a deciduous, spiny shrub of the high Himalaya. GBIF (around 164 occurrences) confirms a core range across Nepal, southern China (Tibet), Bhutan and northern India, the remaining scattered records reflecting cultivated or herbarium material outside the native area. It is a plant of subalpine and alpine zones, growing on open slopes, among rocks, in shrubberies and at the upper forest margin, typically between 3,000 and 4,300 m. The specimen photographed at Labana in Bhutan at 4,000 m in June represents the species near the upper limit of its altitudinal range, flowering early in the short alpine season.

The shrub is low and densely branched, often less than a metre high, with terete to angled, reddish-brown young shoots and stout, usually three-parted spines derived from modified leaves. The foliage leaves are clustered in axillary fascicles, obovate to spathulate, entire or with a few spinulose-dentate margins, often glaucous beneath. The flowers are comparatively large for the genus, solitary or in few-flowered clusters, with the typical Berberis arrangement of sepals and petals in whorls of three and six stamens that respond to touch; they are yellow, sometimes flushed reddish outside. The fruit is an ellipsoid red berry, glaucous when young, containing few seeds.

Berberis angulosa is distinguished within the large and taxonomically difficult Sino-Himalayan Berberis assemblage by its relatively large, often solitary flowers and conspicuous berries. Like other species of the genus it is a host in the alternation of the wheat-rust fungus and is valued locally for its edible fruit and the yellow alkaloid berberine in its bark and wood. Its high-elevation, cold-adapted habit makes it a characteristic component of Himalayan alpine scrub communities.

Author: Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of China Vol. 19, GBIF, Ahrendt: Berberis and Mahonia, a taxonomic revision (1961)

Berberidaceae

Berberis aristata

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2014 866
Bhutan Chele-La 3000m, May

Description

Berberis aristata is a widespread Himalayan barberry native to Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan and China and now naturalised or cultivated far beyond, the very large dataset of c. 926 records including introductions in New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, South Africa and parts of Europe and North America. Within its native range it occupies open hill forest, scrub, forest margins, ravines and dry rocky slopes of the temperate Himalaya, broadly between about 1800 and 3500 m. The plant was photographed at Chele-La in Bhutan at 3000 m in May, a site characteristic of the species, flowering in spring on sunny, well-drained montane slopes.

It is a spiny, much-branched evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub up to about 3.5 m, the older bark yellowish-brown and the wood bright yellow. The nodes bear stout three-fid spines (modified leaves), in whose axils the true leaves are clustered in fascicles on short shoots; the leaves are obovate to elliptic, leathery, with spinulose-toothed margins. The flowers are golden-yellow, borne in pendulous or corymbose racemes, with the typical berberidaceous arrangement of sepaloid and petaloid whorls, six stamens with sensitive, irritable filaments, and a single carpel. The fruit is an ovoid bluish-black berry covered with a glaucous bloom.

Berberis (Berberidaceae) is a large genus distinguished from the related Mahonia by simple leaves and spiny stems, and B. aristata is among its most economically important Asiatic species. The yellow inner bark and roots are rich in the alkaloid berberine and yield "rasaut," used extensively in Ayurvedic and folk medicine, while the berries are edible. Widespread, ecologically tolerant and weedy where introduced, it is in no way threatened; rather, its medicinal harvesting and invasive potential abroad are the chief concerns associated with it.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Ahrendt monograph of Berberis and Mahonia

Berberidaceae

Berberis insignis

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Bhutan2014 336
Bhutan Tumching-La 2900m, May

Description

Berberis insignis is an evergreen barberry of the eastern Himalaya, native to Nepal, India, Bhutan and adjacent China, with its 161 georeferenced occurrences also reflecting cultivated material in Britain, the United States and elsewhere. It inhabits cool, moist temperate forest, shrubberies and shaded ravine margins, frequently in the rhododendron and oak belt. The specimen recorded at Tumching-La in Bhutan at 2900 m in May illustrates its occurrence in the upper temperate zone and its late-spring flowering, when the conspicuous yellow blossoms appear among the previous season's foliage.

Distinctively for the genus, B. insignis is a spineless or nearly spineless shrub, lacking the stout nodal thorns of most barberries. The leaves are large, leathery and lustrous, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, with strongly spinulose-toothed margins and a prominently reticulate venation, borne in tufts on short shoots. The flowers are golden-yellow, clustered in dense axillary fascicles; each flower has the typical berberidaceous arrangement of sepals and petals in whorls of three, with six stamens that respond to touch, and a single carpel. The fruit is an ellipsoid to oblong berry, ripening dark blue-black with a glaucous bloom.

Berberis is a large genus traditionally divided into spiny-leaved evergreen and deciduous groups; B. insignis is notable for combining bold evergreen foliage with the absence of stem spines, characters that have made it a recognised parent in horticulture. Within its native range it is locally frequent in undisturbed forest, and its broad eastern-Himalayan distribution indicates no immediate conservation concern.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The genus Berberis monograph (Ahrendt), Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton)

Berberidaceae

Berberis praecipua

by GP Jürgens

C.K.Schneid.

Bhutan2014 590
Bhutan Gogona 3000m, May
Bh2008 25 P43
Bhutan Paro 2300m, April

Description

Berberis praecipua is an eastern Himalayan barberry centred on Bhutan and adjacent India, Nepal and southern China, with about 39 occurrences (the additional records from Canada and Britain representing cultivated or herbarium material). It grows in temperate forest margins, open hillsides, scrub and clearings, typically between roughly 2300 and 3300 m. The photographed plants from Gogona at 3000 m (May) and Paro at 2300 m (April) in Bhutan illustrate its spring flowering across this montane belt, where it occupies sunny, well-drained slopes within and around mixed conifer and broad-leaved forest.

It is a deciduous, much-branched spiny shrub with terete, often reddish-brown young shoots armed with three-fid spines derived from modified leaves. The foliage leaves are clustered on short shoots in the axils of the spines, obovate to oblanceolate, with an entire to spinulose-toothed margin, glaucous beneath. The flowers are yellow, borne in pendulous racemes or fascicles, each with the typical Berberis arrangement of six sepals in two whorls, six petals each bearing two basal nectariferous glands, and six stamens with sensitive filaments and valvate anther dehiscence. The ovary is superior and unilocular, ripening into an ellipsoid to oblong berry that is red to purplish-black and often pruinose, containing few seeds.

Berberis is a large, taxonomically intricate genus in which the Himalayan deciduous species form a difficult complex separated on fruit, leaf and inflorescence characters; B. praecipua C.K.Schneid. is the accepted name. The bright flowers are insect-pollinated, with the touch-sensitive stamens promoting pollen transfer, while the fleshy berries are dispersed by birds (ornithochory). As a relatively localised eastern Himalayan endemic it has not been formally assessed but appears locally frequent within its range.

Author: C.K.Schneid. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Ahrendt Berberis and Mahonia: A Taxonomic Revision

Berberidaceae

Berberis virescens

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

Bh09 251 G419
Bhutan Wanghdi 1900m, June
Nepal 2009 12 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Sheno-Okrini 2200m, May

Description

Berberis virescens is a deciduous Himalayan barberry distributed through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and southern Tibet, the numerous additional GBIF country codes reflecting its long cultivation in botanic gardens of Europe, North America and East Asia. In the wild it occupies open slopes, forest edges, scrub and clearings in the temperate zone, generally between 2,500 and 3,500 m. The vouchered plants derive from Wangdue in Bhutan at about 1,900 m in June and from Sheno-Okrini in the Helambu of Nepal at around 2,200 m in May, within the lower part of its montane range where it flowers in late spring.

The species is a shrub up to about 2 m tall with reddish young shoots that become greenish, giving the epithet, and bearing simple, often three-parted spines at the nodes. The leaves are obovate to narrowly spathulate, thin-textured and clustered on short shoots, with entire or sparsely spinulose margins and a glaucous lower surface. The flowers are yellow, borne in few-flowered fascicles or short racemes, with the typical Berberis arrangement of six sepals, six petals and six stamens that snap inward on contact. The fruit is an ellipsoid to oblong berry, red ripening to blackish and often pruinose, containing a few seeds.

Berberis is a large, taxonomically intricate genus in which species are separated by spine, leaf, inflorescence and berry characters; B. virescens is recognised by its green twigs and red autumn fruit. Like its relatives it is an alternate host for rust fungi and a source of the alkaloid berberine. The species is widespread, hardy and frequently grown ornamentally, and is not considered to be of conservation concern.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 19 (Berberidaceae), Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Ahrendt: Berberis and Mahonia, A Taxonomic Revision

Rhamnaceae

Berchemia floribunda

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Brongn.

Nepal 97 582 P1121
Nepal Sabha-Khola 560m May

Description

Berchemia floribunda is a widely distributed scrambling shrub or woody climber of East and South Asia, recorded from China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Bhutan, with more than six thousand documented occurrences. It grows in forest margins, thickets, scrub and hedgerows from the lowlands into the lower montane zone, clambering over shrubs and small trees by means of its long flexuous branches. In Nepal it descends to warm subtropical foothills, as shown by the collection along the Sabha Khola at about 560 m in May, coinciding with its flowering season.

The plant is a deciduous liana with slender, glabrous, often zigzag branchlets. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, entire, acute to shortly acuminate at the apex and rounded at the base, with numerous fine, parallel, arching lateral veins that give the lamina a neatly pinnate-veined appearance. The inflorescence is a large, lax terminal panicle of many small flowers, the epithet floribunda referring to their abundance; each flower has five greenish to yellowish triangular petals, a five-lobed calyx and five stamens. The fruit is a small, narrowly ellipsoid drupe, green ripening through red to blue-black, seated on the persistent disk.

Berchemia belongs to the tribe Rhamneae within Rhamnaceae and comprises twining or scandent shrubs of Asia and the Americas distinguished by their many-veined leaves and small drupaceous fruits. The fleshy fruits are dispersed by frugivorous birds, while the climbing habit allows the plant to reach light at forest edges. Berchemia floribunda is locally common and economically minor, its tough stems used in basketry and its roots and fruits in folk medicine. Broadly distributed and tolerant of disturbed habitats, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: (Wall.) Brongn. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 12, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Medan & Schirarend treatment of Rhamnaceae

Saxifragaceae

Bergenia ciliata

by GP Jürgens

(Haw.) Sternb.

Sikkim2011 28
Sikkim Lachen 2800m, June
Nepal 97 303 G604
Nepal Honggaon 2360m May
Nepal 2001 463 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Gunda 1700m, May

Description

Bergenia ciliata (Haw.) Sternb. is a robust rosette-forming perennial widely distributed through the Himalaya from Pakistan and Afghanistan eastward across India, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan into south-west China. It is a characteristic plant of shaded, moist rock crevices, cliff ledges, stream banks and boulder-strewn slopes in the temperate forest belt, generally between about 1500 and 3000 m. The photographed gatherings span this range, from Gunda in the Gorkha region of Nepal at 1700 m and Honggaon at 2360 m up to Lachen in northern Sikkim at 2800 m, flowering in May and June. It favours cool, humid, semi-shaded microsites with seepage and good drainage, often forming extensive colonies on damp rock.

The plant arises from a stout, fleshy, creeping rhizome bearing the persistent remains of old leaf bases. The leaves are large, obovate to broadly elliptic, rounded and shortly toothed at the margin, and notably ciliate-hairy on both surfaces and margin (the basis of the epithet ciliata), distinguishing it from the glabrous-leaved B. purpurascens. The leafless scape carries a branched cymose panicle of showy flowers; the five petals are white to pale pink, broadly obovate, set off by a reddish calyx and conspicuous stamens, opening often before the new foliage is fully expanded. The fruit is a two-lobed capsule containing numerous small seeds.

Within Saxifragaceae the genus Bergenia is a small Asian group, and B. ciliata is one of its most widespread members, intergrading with relatives where ranges overlap. The thick rhizome ("pashanbhed") is important in Ayurvedic and folk medicine, valued for treating urinary calculi, which has led to heavy wild harvesting. Though not globally threatened, localised over-collection and habitat disturbance make sustainable management of this medicinally prized saxifrage a conservation concern.

Author: (Haw.) Sternb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, A Monograph of the Genus Bergenia (Yeo)

Saxifragaceae

Bergenia purpurascens

by GP Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) Engl.

Sikkim2011 288
Sikkim Yumthang 3600m, June
BhutanPG2011 606 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4500m June
Sikkim 2006 394 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Kishong 3700m, May

Description

Bergenia purpurascens is a robust perennial of the high Himalaya and adjacent mountains, native to China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, and represented in cultivation across Europe and North America, where naturalised or garden-derived records inflate its GBIF tally to nearly a thousand occurrences. In the wild it is a plant of the alpine and upper subalpine belt, growing on rocky slopes, cliff ledges, moist meadows and the margins of rhododendron scrub. Field records illustrate this altitudinal range well: Sikkim at Yumthang around 3600 m in June, the Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail near Warrtlang-La in Bhutan at some 4500 m in June, and Kishong in West Bengal at about 3700 m in May.

The plant arises from a stout, woody, creeping rhizome bearing a basal rosette of large, leathery, obovate to elliptic leaves; these are glabrous, with entire to obscurely toothed margins and prominent reticulate venation, frequently flushing deep red or purple in autumn and cold exposure. The flowering scape is erect, reddish and glandular, terminating in a dense, nodding cyme. The flowers are showy, with five purple-red to magenta petals, a campanulate calyx of fleshy, often purplish sepals, ten stamens, and a bicarpellate ovary. The fruit is a capsule splitting to release numerous small seeds.

Described by Engler on the basis of Hooker and Thomson's material, B. purpurascens is the principal high-elevation representative of the genus in the eastern Himalaya. Its rhizomes are used in local traditional medicine, and the species is a parent of numerous ornamental Bergenia hybrids. It remains common within its broad range and is not considered threatened.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) Engl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Pan's monograph of Bergenia

Betulaceae

Betula alnoides

by G & P Jürgens

Buch.-Ham.

Bhutan2014 432
Bhutan Yatong-La 2800m, May

Description

Betula alnoides Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don is a tall, fast-growing birch of the warm-temperate and subtropical mountains of southern and eastern Asia. Its distribution covers Nepal, northeast India, Bhutan, southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, with cultivated and trial occurrences recorded elsewhere. It is a light-demanding, often pioneering tree of moist broad-leaved and mixed montane forests, ravines and disturbed slopes, typically between about 1,000 and 2,800 m. The tree photographed at Yatong-La in Bhutan at 2,800 m in May sits near the upper edge of this band, within the humid mid-montane forest belt where the species frequently colonises gaps and forest margins.

The tree is deciduous and may reach 20–30 m, with smooth, brownish to reddish bark that exfoliates in thin papery sheets and bears conspicuous horizontal lenticels. The leaves are alternate, ovate-lanceolate with a long acuminate apex, doubly serrate margins and several pairs of straight lateral veins. As in all birches the plant is monoecious: the pendulous male catkins elongate at anthesis, while the smaller female catkins develop into slender, drooping, cylindrical infructescences that disintegrate to release small two-winged samaras adapted for wind dispersal.

Betula alnoides is the most important commercial birch of subtropical Asia, valued for its high-quality, reddish, fine-grained timber and increasingly grown in plantations and agroforestry across southern China and adjacent countries. Its rapid early growth and ability to fix sites make it useful in reforestation of degraded montane land. The species belongs to a group of subtropical birches distinct from the better-known temperate white birches, and although widely exploited it remains common and is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Buch.-Ham. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Ashburner & McAllister: The Genus Betula (2013)

Betulaceae

Betula utilis

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Nepal 95 182 P303 ergebnis
Nepal North of Rupien La 3200 m October

Description

Betula utilis, the Himalayan birch, is the characteristic tree of the upper subalpine forest belt throughout the Himalaya and into western China, native across China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan and Afghanistan; its roughly 6400 GBIF records combine wild Himalayan occurrences with cultivation in Britain, Germany, France and North America. It forms the treeline forests of the range, as recorded north of the Rupien La in Nepal at about 3200 m in October, typically between 3000 and 4000 m. There it forms pure stands or grows with rhododendron, fir and juniper on cool, moist north-facing slopes, marking the limit of arborescent vegetation.

The species is a deciduous tree, often gnarled near the treeline, with the famous smooth, papery, peeling bark ranging from white and pinkish to coppery or dark brown that exfoliates in horizontal sheets. The leaves are alternate, ovate, doubly serrate and acuminate, turning gold in autumn. As a wind-pollinated monoecious birch it bears separate male and female catkins; the pendulous male catkins shed pollen in spring, while the female catkins mature into cylindrical, disintegrating fruiting catkins releasing small, winged nutlets.

Betula utilis is taxonomically variable, divided into several subspecies and varieties differing in bark colour and leaf form, including the white-barked western populations grown horticulturally as var. jacquemontii. Ecologically it is a keystone of Himalayan treeline ecosystems, its bark long used as a writing material and in traditional medicine. As the treeline shifts under climatic warming and forests face grazing pressure, it is an important indicator species in studies of mountain ecosystem change.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Birches: The Genus Betula (Ashburner & McAllister)