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.

Ranunculaceae

Clematis buchananiana

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 503
Bhutan Pele-La 3000m, September

Description

Clematis buchananiana is a widespread climber of the Himalaya and montane Southeast Asia, ranging from Pakistan and Nepal through India, Bhutan and southern China to Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam; with over 1100 GBIF occurrences it is among the better-documented Asian clematids, the scattered records from Britain, New Zealand and the United States representing cultivation. It scrambles over shrubs, forest margins, hedgerows and roadside thickets in temperate and subtropical zones, broadly between 1500 and 3000 m, flowering late in the season. The photographed plant from the Pele-La in central Bhutan at 3000 m in September shows its characteristic autumn flowering at the upper edge of its altitudinal span.

It is a woody to herbaceous perennial climber with ribbed, often pubescent stems and opposite, pinnate leaves bearing broadly ovate to cordate, coarsely toothed leaflets. The flowers, borne in axillary cymose panicles, are pendulous and bell-shaped (campanulate), the four thick, yellow to greenish-yellow tepals being densely tomentose outside and reflexed or recurved at the tips; true petals are absent. As in all Clematis the showy structures are sepaloid, surrounding numerous stamens and carpels. The fruit is a head of achenes, each bearing a long, plumose, feathery style that aids wind dispersal.

The species belongs to Clematis section Connatae (the nodding, campanulate-flowered, woolly-tepalled Asian group), in which it is distinguished by leaf form and the dense indumentum of its tepals. Ecologically valuable as a late-season nectar source, it is a common and adaptable species across a vast range and is of no conservation concern.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, A Monograph of the Genus Clematis (Grey-Wilson)

Ranunculaceae

Clematis gouriana

by GP Jürgens

Roxb. ex DC.

Bhutan2012 1218
Bhutan Gom Kora 1850m, October
Bhutan2012 1216
Bhutan Gom Kora 1850m, October

Description

Clematis gouriana is a vigorous climbing vine with a broad tropical-Asian and Himalayan distribution, recorded from China, India, Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and many other countries, with a large dataset of around 2207 occurrences. It scrambles over shrubs, hedgerows, forest margins, thickets and roadside vegetation, predominantly in subtropical to warm-temperate hill country. The photographed plant from Gom Kora in eastern Bhutan at 1850 m, flowering in October, exemplifies its autumn blooming in low to mid-elevation forest borders.

It is a woody to semi-woody liana climbing by means of twining, clasping petioles. The leaves are opposite and pinnately compound, usually with three to five ovate, acuminate, entire or toothed leaflets borne on slender stalks. The inflorescences are large, much-branched axillary and terminal panicles of numerous small, fragrant flowers; lacking petals, each flower has four spreading, creamy-white, narrowly oblong sepals and a central tuft of many stamens and carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of compressed, pubescent achenes, each bearing a long, persistent, plumose feathery style that forms silvery seed-heads dispersed by wind.

Clematis gouriana, described by Roxburgh and DC., belongs to a complex of white-flowered, panicle-bearing climbers in section Clematis and is morphologically close to species such as C. grata. Its massed autumn flowering provides abundant late-season nectar for bees and other insects. Widespread, fast-growing and tolerant of disturbance, it can behave almost weedily along forest edges and is of no conservation concern.

Author: Roxb. ex DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Ranunculaceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan, Johnson's monograph Clematis: The Genus

Ranunculaceae

Clematis montana

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex DC.

Bhutan2014 36
Bhutan Sandrup 1000m, May
Bhutan2014 971
Bhutan Chele-La 3400m, May
Nepal 1994 66 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Jaljale Himal 2400m, April

Description

Clematis montana is a widespread Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan climber ranging from Pakistan and Kashmir eastward through Nepal, Bhutan and northern India into central and southwestern China and Myanmar. Reflecting its long history in horticulture, GBIF records exceed 6300 and include numerous cultivated and naturalised occurrences in Britain, continental Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia alongside its native Asian range. In the wild it grows over an exceptionally broad elevational span, scrambling through forest margins, scrub, hedgerows and over rock from warm temperate valleys to high subalpine slopes. The Bhutanese material imaged at Sandrup (1000 m) and Chele La (3400 m) and the East Nepal population on the Jaljale Himal (2400 m), all flowering April to May, illustrate its vernal, pre-monsoon blooming across this range.

It is a vigorous woody climber with slender, ridged, eventually brown stems and clambering by twining petioles. The leaves are opposite and ternate, the three leaflets ovate to lanceolate, irregularly toothed or lobed and often softly hairy. Flowers are borne singly or in fascicles from the axils of the previous year's growth, each large and showy with four (occasionally more) spreading, petaloid sepals that are white to pink and frequently fragrant; true petals are absent. The numerous stamens have yellow anthers. The fruit is an aggregate of achenes, each tipped by a long, persistent, plumose silky style aiding wind dispersal.

Within Clematis the species belongs to sect. Montanae of spring-flowering, ternate-leaved climbers, and is morphologically variable, with several named varieties and many garden cultivars selected for flower colour and size. It is an early-season nectar source and a robust coloniser of disturbed and edge habitats. It is common and not of conservation concern; its naturalisation beyond Asia underscores its competitive vigour and broad climatic tolerance.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson's Clematis the Genus (monograph)

Ranunculaceae

Clematis napaulensis

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 680
Bhutan Galephu 950m, September
Bhutan2012 681
Bhutan Galephu 950m, September

Description

Clematis napaulensis is a vigorous woody climber of the Himalaya and southwestern China, recorded by GBIF in some 197 occurrences from Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with scattered cultivated or naturalised records in Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, South Africa and New Zealand. It scrambles through forest margins, thickets, hedgerows and riverine scrub in the warm-temperate and subtropical belt, broadly between 900 and 2500 m. The photographed plant is from Bhutan at Galephu at 950 m in September, at the low, warm end of its range, where it begins its unusual winter flowering season as growth resumes after the monsoon.

The plant is a deciduous to semi-evergreen liana climbing by twining petioles. The leaves are opposite and pinnate, with ovate to lanceolate, entire or toothed leaflets. Distinctively, the species flowers in autumn and winter, bearing pendulous, axillary clusters of bell-shaped flowers; the four creamy to greenish-white sepals form a narrow campanulate bloom and curve back at the tips, while the numerous stamens have conspicuous reddish-purple filaments that protrude from the mouth. The fruit is a head of achenes each tipped with a long, silky, plumose style that aids wind dispersal.

Clematis (Ranunculaceae, tribe Anemoneae) lacks petals, its showy perianth being sepaline; C. napaulensis belongs to a group of winter-flowering Asian species valued in horticulture for blooming when little else is in flower. GBIF treats the name as accepted, the orthography napaulensis referring to Nepal. Widespread and adaptable across the southern Himalaya, it is of least concern and is cultivated internationally as an ornamental climber.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson monograph of Clematis

Ranunculaceae

Clematis tongluensis

by G & P Jürgens

(Bruehl) Tamura

BhutanPG2011 157 5
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Clematis tongluensis is a Himalayan climber recorded from Nepal, Bhutan, India, China and Myanmar, with additional cultivated or vouchered material noted from Canada; GBIF holds around 58 occurrences. It is a plant of temperate to subalpine forest, scrambling through shrubberies, over forest-edge thickets and along open slopes, generally between about 2700 and 3700 m. It was photographed at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m in June, where it climbs through rhododendron and conifer woodland margins, flowering at the onset of the summer monsoon.

The species is a woody to semi-woody climber with ribbed, somewhat pubescent stems that twine and clamber by means of the petioles. The leaves are ternate to pinnate, the leaflets ovate to lanceolate, acuminate and serrate, often thinly hairy. The flowers, borne singly or in few-flowered cymes, are nodding and broadly campanulate, lacking true petals; the four (rarely more) thick, spreading to recurved sepals are usually creamy-white to pale yellow, sometimes flushed purplish, with tomentose margins. Numerous stamens surround the carpels, and the fruit is a head of achenes each bearing a long, plumose persistent style.

Clematis tongluensis sits within the bell-flowered Sino-Himalayan groups of the genus, allied to the Montanae and related sections, and has at times been treated under or confused with the variable C. montana complex. Its nodding campanulate flowers and montane forest habitat are diagnostic. The species is fairly widely distributed and faces no recognised conservation threat, though it depends on the persistence of intact temperate broad-leaved and coniferous forest.

Author: (Bruehl) Tamura · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, A Revision of the Genus Clematis (Grey-Wilson), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Lamiaceae

Clerodendrum colebrookianum

by G & P Jürgens

Walp.

Bhutan2015 316
Bhutan Trongsa 1900m, October
Bhutan2012 751
Bhutan Zemgang 1200m, October
Bhutan2012 752
Bhutan Zemgang 1200m, October
Bhutan2015 149 scaled
Bhutan Zhemgang 800m, October

Description

Clerodendrum colebrookianum is a shrub of the Indo-Himalayan and Southeast Asian region, recorded from Nepal, NE India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, southern China and southward through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia; the GBIF dataset (299 occurrences) also includes outlying records. It is a plant of warm-temperate to subtropical broad-leaved forest, forest margins, secondary scrub and disturbed roadsides, frequently following human settlement. In Bhutan it has been collected across a broad altitudinal span, from around 800 m in Zhemgang up to about 1,900 m near Trongsa, with autumn (October) collections capturing it in flower and early fruit.

It is an erect shrub 1–3 m tall with quadrangular, finely pubescent young branchlets. The leaves are opposite, broadly ovate to cordate, 8–20 cm long, acuminate at the apex, entire or shallowly toothed, with a soft indumentum beneath and a strong odour when crushed. The inflorescence is a broad, terminal, flat-topped corymbose cyme; flowers are white, the calyx campanulate and 5-lobed, the corolla with a slender tube and five spreading lobes, and four long-exserted stamens and a bifid style projecting well beyond the limb. The fruit is a fleshy drupe splitting into four pyrenes seated on the persistent, reddening calyx.

Though GBIF flags the name as a synonym, the accepted name is Clerodendrum colebrookianum, here treated as correct. Formerly placed in Verbenaceae, the genus is now referred to Lamiaceae following molecular phylogenetic revision. The species is a well-known leafy vegetable and ethnomedicinal plant across NE India and adjacent regions, valued in folk treatment of hypertension, and is widespread and unthreatened.

Author: Walp. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Harley et al.: Labiatae in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants (2004)

Lamiaceae

Clerodendrum infortunatum

by GP Jürgens

L.

Nepal 97 545 P1067
Nepal Sabha-Khola 520m,May
Nepal 97 543 P1063

Nepal Sabha-Khola 520m, May

Description

Clerodendrum infortunatum is a common shrub of the lowland and foothill regions of tropical southern and southeastern Asia. GBIF records document a wide range across India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, China, Bhutan and Myanmar, with naturalised or cultivated occurrences in Brazil, Mexico, Singapore and elsewhere, amounting to over 2200 records. It is a plant of forest margins, clearings, wastelands, roadsides and disturbed secondary scrub, often forming dense thickets in the warm humid lowlands. The photographed material from the Sabha-Khola valley in Nepal at 520 m, flowering in May, is typical of its occurrence in the subtropical foothill belt, where it blooms in the pre-monsoon period.

It is an erect, soft-wooded shrub usually under 2 m, with quadrangular young stems and large, broadly ovate to cordate leaves that are opposite, softly pubescent and emit a characteristic unpleasant smell when crushed. The flowers are borne in large, lax, terminal panicled cymes; each has an inflated, often reddish calyx and a white to pinkish-tinged, salverform corolla with a slender tube and five spreading lobes, the four stamens and style long-exserted. The fruit is a fleshy drupe seated on the persistent, accrescent calyx, splitting at maturity into four nutlet-like pyrenes.

Formerly placed in the Verbenaceae, Clerodendrum is now treated within the Lamiaceae following molecular phylogenetic reclassification. C. infortunatum is well known in traditional medicine across South Asia, where its leaves and roots are used against fevers and skin and digestive ailments. Ecologically it is a pioneer of disturbed ground, its exserted flowers attracting butterflies and other long-tongued pollinators, and its drupes dispersed by birds.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China (Lamiaceae), Revision of Clerodendrum (Steane & Mabberley)

Liliaceae

Clintonia udensis

by G & P Jürgens

Trautv. & C.A.Mey.

Nepal 99 154 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3500m, June

Description

Clintonia udensis is a woodland perennial with a remarkably wide East Asian to Himalayan distribution, recorded from China, Japan, Russia (Far East), Korea, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan, with over 3800 GBIF occurrences across this temperate arc. It is a shade-loving plant of moist, humus-rich coniferous and mixed forests, fir and rhododendron understorey, bamboo thickets and damp shaded gullies, typically between about 2500 and 4000 m in the Himalaya. The plant photographed south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3500 m in June, flowering as the high forests emerge from winter, exemplifies its preference for cool, sheltered subalpine forest floors where deep leaf litter retains moisture.

The species arises from a short, creeping rhizome and produces a basal rosette of two to five broadly elliptic to oblong-obovate leaves that are conspicuously parallel-veined, entire and ciliate at the margin, sheathing at the base. A leafless scape rises above the foliage bearing a terminal raceme of a few nodding, campanulate flowers. The six white tepals are oblong and free, subtending six stamens with linear anthers, and the superior ovary matures into a fleshy, ellipsoid to ovoid berry that ripens from green to a deep blue-black, containing several seeds and crowned by the persistent style base.

Clintonia is a small Holarctic genus of about five species traditionally placed in the Liliaceae and treated by some authors within an expanded Convallariaceae or Uvulariaceae. C. udensis is the sole Asian representative and the only one with white flowers and a black berry, the remaining species being North American. Its disjunct amphi-Pacific generic distribution is a classic example of the East Asian–North American floristic link. The berries are dispersed by birds, and the species is widespread and common; it is of no particular conservation concern.

Author: Trautv. & C.A.Mey. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, A Monograph of the Genus Clintonia (Liliaceae)

Liliaceae

Clintonia udensis var. alpina

by GP Jürgens

(Kunth ex Baker) H.Hara

Bhutan2014 578
Bhutan Phobjika 3100m, May
Bhutan2014 827
Bhutan Thimphu 2450m, May

Description

Clintonia udensis var. alpina is a rhizomatous woodland herb of the temperate Himalaya and the mountains of East Asia. GBIF records (around 230 occurrences) span China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Korea and Japan, the species as a whole forming a classic Sino-Himalayan to East Asian arc. It is a plant of moist, shaded forest floors, growing among mosses beneath fir, hemlock and rhododendron, and along cool stream banks in the upper temperate and subalpine zones. The photographed plants came from Bhutan at Phobjika near 3100 m and above Thimphu at about 2450 m, both flowering in May, consistent with its habit of blooming as the snowmelt recedes.

The plant arises from a slender creeping rhizome and produces a basal rosette of two to five leaves. These are oblong-elliptic to obovate, entire, glabrous and somewhat fleshy, narrowed to a sheathing base. From the centre rises a leafless scape bearing a small umbel-like cluster of nodding, white, campanulate flowers; each has six free, oblong tepals, six stamens with versatile anthers, and a superior ovary topped by a short style. The fruit is a globose berry that ripens from green to a striking blue-black, borne erect on the lengthening pedicels, the contrast of dark fruit and green foliage being characteristic of the genus.

Clintonia is a small Northern Hemisphere genus of the Liliaceae traditionally placed near Medeola, with a disjunct distribution between eastern Asia and North America that makes it a textbook example of the boreal-temperate floristic link. The alpine variety represents the higher-elevation, smaller Himalayan expression of the wide-ranging C. udensis. The species is frequent in suitable forest and is of no conservation concern, its blue berries dispersed by birds.

Author: (Kunth ex Baker) H.Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Utech's taxonomic studies of Clintonia (Liliaceae)

Fabaceae

Codariocalyx motorius

by G & P Jürgens

H.Ohashi

Bhutan2015 585
Bhutan Punaka 1240m, October

Description

Codariocalyx motorius is a subshrub of the subtropical and tropical understorey, widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia and reaching the southern Himalayan foothills. GBIF records (some 1,418 occurrences) document it from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan, with naturalised or cultivated material in Japan, the United States and elsewhere. It favours open scrub, forest margins, grassy slopes and disturbed ground. The photographed plant grows at Punakha in western Bhutan at about 1,240 m, flowering in October, typical of the warm broadleaved zone below 1,500 m it occupies in the eastern Himalaya.

It is an erect perennial subshrub 0.6–1.5 m tall with woody-based, finely pubescent stems. The leaves are pinnately trifoliolate; the terminal leaflet is large, oblong-lanceolate and up to 8 cm long, flanked by two minute lateral leaflets that perform spontaneous rotatory movements in response to light and warmth. The inflorescence is a terminal or axillary raceme of small papilionaceous flowers, violet to purplish, with a striate standard. The fruit is a curved, several-jointed lomentum that breaks into one-seeded articles at maturity.

Long known as Desmodium gyrans, the species is famous as the "telegraph" or "dancing" plant, its motile lateral leaflets having attracted study from Darwin onwards. It is locally used in traditional medicine and is of no conservation concern given its wide range and tolerance of disturbance, though it is a characteristic indicator of seasonally dry monsoon forest in the Himalayan tracts.

Author: H.Ohashi · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 10, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Ohashi: Taxonomic Studies in Desmodium (Leguminosae)