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.

Asteraceae

Allardia stoliczkai

by G & P Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Nepal 99 659 ergebnis
Nepal Kagmara-La 5120m, July
Nepal 99 660 ergebnis
Nepal Kagmara-La 5120m, July

Description

Allardia stoliczkai is a dwarf, cushion-forming composite of the high alpine and subnival zones of the western and central Himalaya and the adjacent Tibetan Plateau. GBIF records cluster across Pakistan and Tajikistan, with the broader distribution embracing Ladakh, northern India, western Tibet and Nepal; the photographed individual was collected on the Kagmara-La in western Nepal at about 5,120 m in July, near the upper limit of vascular plant life. It colonises stony alpine turf, glacial moraine, scree and frost-heaved fellfield on calcareous and schistose substrates, typically between 4,000 and 5,500 m, where it endures intense insolation, desiccating winds and a brief growing season.

The plant forms a compact, often silvery rosette arising from a stout, woody, branching taproot and short rhizome. The leaves are crowded, pinnatisect to bipinnatisect with narrow oblong lobes, and densely clothed in white woolly to silky tomentum that reduces transpiration and reflects ultraviolet radiation. The flower heads are solitary, sessile or nearly so, comparatively large and discoid to radiate, with an involucre of woolly, dark-margined phyllaries; the corollas are typically pinkish-purple to rose. The fruit is a small ribbed cypsela crowned by a short pappus of scales.

The taxon, long placed in Waldheimia, is now generally referred to Allardia, and the relatively few GBIF occurrences reflect both genuine rarity and the inaccessibility of its subnival habitat rather than threat. Its tight cushion architecture exemplifies convergent adaptation to cold deserts of High Asia. While not formally assessed as threatened, such narrowly restricted, slow-growing alpine endemics are sensitive to climate warming and the upslope contraction of suitable ground.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China Vol. 20-21 (Asteraceae), Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2

Amaryllidaceae

Allium fasciculatum

by G & P Jürgens

Rendle

Nepal 99 888 ergebnis
West-Nepal Suli-Khola 2900m, July

Description

Allium fasciculatum is a Himalayan onion ranging across the central and eastern Himalaya into the south-eastern Tibetan plateau, with GBIF records from China, Nepal, India, Afghanistan and Bhutan and around 325 documented occurrences. It is a plant of open temperate to subalpine slopes, grassy meadows, rocky pastures and forest clearings, generally between about 2,400 and 3,600 m. The plant photographed at Suli Khola in West Nepal at 2,900 m, flowering in July, exemplifies its midsummer anthesis in the moist, monsoon-fed grasslands of the central Himalaya where it often grows among other alpine herbs.

The plant is a bulbous perennial with clustered, narrowly conical to cylindrical bulbs attached to a short rhizome, the outer tunics membranous to fibrous. The leaves are few, basal, linear and flat to channelled, usually shorter than the scape. The inflorescence is a terminal umbel of densely to loosely fascicled flowers borne on a slender solid scape and subtended by a membranous spathe; the small flowers have six free, white to pale pinkish or greenish tepals, exserted or included stamens, and a superior ovary. The fruit is a small loculicidal capsule producing black angular seeds.

The species belongs to Allium, now placed in an expanded Amaryllidaceae (subfamily Allioideae) following molecular systematic revisions that subsumed the former Alliaceae. Within the genus it falls among the Himalayan rhizomatous-bulbed alliums whose delimitation remains partly unresolved. Like many wild alliums it is gathered locally as a flavouring and pot-herb. It is not considered threatened, being widespread and tolerant of grazed montane grassland.

Author: Rendle · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Stearn: A Synopsis of the Asiatic species of Allium

Amaryllidaceae

Allium prattii

by GP Jürgens

C.H.Wright

Sikkim2003 206 P288
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m, August

Description

Allium prattii is a widespread alpine onion of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, distributed across China, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Mongolia, and is among the better-documented species in this set with nearly 1500 georeferenced records in GBIF. It grows in subalpine and alpine meadows, forest clearings, scrub and damp grassy slopes, generally between about 2500 and 4500 m. The plant illustrated was photographed at Dzongri in Sikkim at 4000 m in August, a characteristic high-alpine setting where it flowers during the summer monsoon.

The species is a bulbous perennial with a narrowly cylindrical to ovoid bulb sheathed in fibrous to membranous tunics. It typically bears two flat, lanceolate to elliptic basal leaves that are shorter than to about equalling the scape. The leafless flowering stem is erect and terete, bearing a terminal, more or less hemispherical umbel subtended by a persistent papery spathe. The flowers are stellate to campanulate, with six purplish-red, rose to lilac tepals, exserted stamens and a superior ovary; the fruit is a small loculicidal capsule containing black seeds.

Allium prattii is placed in Allium (Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae), a very large genus whose Himalayan and Central Asian members form a notable centre of diversity. Like several relatives it is edible, gathered locally as a wild vegetable and seasoning, and grazed by livestock. Its broad geographic and altitudinal range and large population base make it secure overall, and it is not regarded as threatened, though particular alpine stands are subject to heavy collection and grazing pressure in well-frequented high-pasture areas.

Author: C.H.Wright · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Stearn Monograph of the Genus Allium

Alliaceae

Allium wallichii

by GP Jürgens

Kunth

Bhutan2012 30
Bhutan Chele-La 3400m, September

Description

Allium wallichii is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan onion widely distributed through SW China, Nepal, NE India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan, GBIF recording around 1,300 occurrences (with cultivated records reaching Europe). It is a plant of the subalpine and alpine zone, growing in open meadows, grassy slopes, forest clearings and damp pastures, generally between about 2,300 and 4,800 m. The photographed plant from Chele-La in western Bhutan at 3,400 m (September) is characteristic, flowering in the late-monsoon period when the high meadows are at their richest.

It is a perennial herb arising from a slender, oblique rhizome bearing a poorly developed, narrowly conic bulb. The leaves are basal, several, narrowly linear to lorate and flat or shallowly keeled, sheathing the lower part of the triangular or angled scape. The inflorescence is a terminal, many-flowered umbel that is hemispherical to globose and lacks bulbils; the flowers are stellate, with six spreading purple to reddish-purple (rarely whitish) tepals, exserted stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is a small loculicidal capsule.

The family is given verbatim as Alliaceae, the segregate now generally subsumed within Amaryllidaceae subfamily Allioideae. Allium wallichii is gathered as a wild vegetable and flavouring (jimbu and related condiments) across the Himalaya and is used medicinally, which together with grazing places local pressure on accessible populations. The species is morphologically variable across its wide range, and its rhizomatous, non-bulbous habit and flat leaves distinguish it within the alpine Himalayan alliums; it is not currently regarded as globally threatened.

Author: Kunth · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Stearn: The Genus Allium in the Himalaya

Betulaceae

Alnus nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Bhutan2012 1150
Bhutan Tashiyangtse 1750m, October
Nepal 1994 159 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Mewa-Khola
1800m, April

Description

Alnus nepalensis D.Don, the Nepalese alder, is a deciduous tree of the Betulaceae distributed throughout the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, from Nepal and India through Bhutan to southwestern China, Myanmar and Vietnam (GBIF: c. 1,931 occurrences). It is a fast-growing pioneer of moist temperate and subtropical zones, colonising landslides, river terraces, abandoned fields and forest gaps, typically between about 900 and 2,700 m. The photographed trees from Tashiyangtse in eastern Bhutan (c. 1,750 m) and the Mewa-Khola in eastern Nepal (c. 1,800 m) exemplify its dominance on moist, disturbed mid-montane slopes.

The tree reaches 10–25 m, with smooth grey bark becoming fissured with age. The leaves are alternate, broadly elliptic to ovate, acuminate, with finely serrate to nearly entire margins and prominent pinnate venation. Unusually for the genus, A. nepalensis flowers in autumn: the slender pendulous male catkins and short erect female inflorescences appear together, and the female structures mature into small, woody, cone-like infructescences (strobiles) that persist on the tree and release tiny winged nutlets (samaras) for wind dispersal.

Alnus nepalensis is ecologically and economically significant as a nitrogen-fixing species, harbouring symbiotic actinomycetes of the genus Frankia in root nodules; this enables it to enrich degraded soils, making it valuable in agroforestry, soil reclamation, watershed restoration and as a shade tree in cardamom cultivation. The wood is used for timber, fuel and matchwood. The species is abundant and of least conservation concern.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Chen & Li: Betulaceae of China

Apocynaceae

Alstonia neriifolia

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Nepal 97 45 G67
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1100m, April
Nepal 97 46 P68
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1100m, April

Description

Alstonia neriifolia is a shrub or small tree of the warm, humid lower hills of the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burmese region, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, China and southwards into mainland and insular Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore. It occupies subtropical broad-leaved forest, forest margins, stream banks and shaded ravines at low to moderate elevations. The specimen photographed at Mewa-Khola in eastern Nepal at 1100 m in April reflects its preference for the warm, moist foothill belt, where it flowers as the pre-monsoon temperatures rise.

Like other members of its genus it exudes a white latex when cut. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three or more, narrowly lanceolate to oblong and acuminate, recalling those of Nerium (oleander) and giving the species its epithet; the lamina is glabrous and leathery with numerous closely parallel lateral veins running to a marginal collecting vein. The flowers are borne in terminal cymose clusters, with a small five-lobed calyx and a salverform white to cream corolla whose lobes overlap to the left in bud. The fruit is a pair of slender, elongate follicles that split to release numerous flattened seeds bearing tufts of hairs at both ends for wind dispersal.

Alstonia is a pantropical genus of the Apocynaceae, subfamily Rauvolfioideae, well known for the indole alkaloids in its bark, several species of which are valued in traditional medicine and as timber. Alstonia neriifolia, described by D.Don, is distinguished from the better-known A. scholaris by its narrower, oleander-like leaves and smaller stature. Its comma-shaped, comose seeds and reliance on insect pollination of the fragrant flowers underpin its ecology in disturbed and successional foothill forest.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Middleton's revision of Asian Alstonia (Apocynaceae)

Apocynaceae

Alstonia sebusi

by GP Jürgens

(Van Heurck & Müll.Arg.) Monach.

Bh2008 497 P766
Bhutan Samtengang, 2200m April

Description

Alstonia sebusi (the accepted spelling being Alstonia sebusii) is a tree of montane forests in the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, recorded from Bhutan, India, China (Yunnan), Myanmar and Japan, with about 50 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It occurs in broadleaved evergreen and mixed montane forest, typically on slopes within the warm- to cool-temperate belt. The specimen illustrated was photographed at Samtengang in Bhutan at about 2200 m in April; across its range it generally favours humid, well-drained forest soils where it grows as a canopy or sub-canopy tree.

The species is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree exuding milky latex when cut, as is characteristic of the genus. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to several at the nodes, simple, entire, leathery and elliptic to oblong, with numerous closely parallel lateral veins. The flowers are small, white to cream, borne in terminal cymose clusters, with a salverform corolla whose tube bears overlapping lobes; the gynoecium consists of two carpels. The fruit comprises a pair of slender, pendulous follicles that split to release numerous flattened seeds bearing tufts of hair at each end, adapted for wind dispersal.

Alstonia (Apocynaceae, subfamily Rauvolfioideae) is a pantropical genus of latex-bearing trees rich in indole alkaloids, several of which have medicinal and pharmacological interest. The whorled leaves and paired follicles with comose seeds are diagnostic. Like other Alstonia species it provides soft, light timber locally used for carving and utility purposes. No major conservation threat is documented, though the species is dependent on the continued integrity of mid-elevation montane forest, which faces pressure from logging and land conversion in parts of its range.

Author: (Van Heurck & Müll.Arg.) Monach. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Bhutan and Sikkim, Sidiyasa Revision of the Genus Alstonia

Zingiberacaea

Amomum subulatum

by GP Jürgens

Roxb.

Nepal 97 57 P87
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1160m, April

Description

Amomum subulatum, the large or black cardamom, is native to the moist sub-Himalayan tracts of eastern Nepal, north-eastern India, Bhutan and adjacent China, the roughly 108 GBIF records reflecting both wild and extensively cultivated populations; records from the United States, Germany and Korea derive from cultivation and herbarium material. It grows in the shaded understorey of moist broad-leaved forest, along streams, ravines and damp shaded slopes, typically between about 600 and 2000 m, and is widely grown under forest shade as a cash crop. The photographed plant from the Mewa-Khola valley of Nepal at 1160 m in April is characteristic of its warm, humid lower-montane habitat.

It is a tall, tufted, rhizomatous perennial forming dense clumps of leafy pseudostems one to two metres high arising from a stout, creeping rhizome. The leaves are large, lanceolate, glabrous and distichous, with a long-acuminate (subulate) apex giving the species its name, and clasping sheaths. The inflorescence is a dense, head-like spike borne on a short scape at the base of the clump, the flowers with a yellowish, red-streaked labellum subtended by bracts. The fruit is a globose to ovoid, reddish-brown, ribbed and warty capsule containing numerous aromatic, blackish seeds.

Amomum belongs to the ginger family Zingiberaceae (here misspelled in the source) and is a major economic plant of the eastern Himalaya, the dried capsules forming the black cardamom of commerce, valued as a spice and in traditional medicine. Cultivation under natural forest canopy makes it an important agroforestry species. It is not of conservation concern, though wild genetic resources and the shade-forest systems that sustain its cultivation merit protection.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Zingiberaceae of the Himalaya (taxonomic monograph)

Araceae

Amorphophallus napalensis

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Bogner & Mayo

Bh2008 63 P103
Bhutan Punaka-Chu, 1500m April

Description

Amorphophallus napalensis is a tuberous aroid of the subtropical Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, recorded from India, Nepal, Thailand, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh across some 80 GBIF occurrences. The photographed plant was found along the Punaka-Chu in Bhutan at about 1500 m in April. It grows in moist broad-leaved forest, on shaded slopes, ravines and forest floors, typically between roughly 500 and 1800 m, emerging with the pre-monsoon and monsoon rains from a dormant underground tuber.

The plant arises from a depressed-globose subterranean tuber and produces, in season, a single large solitary leaf with a long mottled petiole and a blade divided into numerous segments giving an umbrella-like, much-dissected appearance. The inflorescence, typical of the genus, is a spadix subtended by a spathe; the spadix bears a basal zone of female flowers below a zone of male flowers, topped by a sterile appendix. At anthesis the inflorescence emits a fetid odour and may generate heat (thermogenesis) to attract carrion-feeding flies and beetles, which effect pollination. The infructescence ripens into a cluster of fleshy berries.

Amorphophallus is a large palaeotropical genus notable for these protogynous, often malodorous inflorescences and their fly-and-beetle (sapromyophilous) pollination, with the berries subsequently dispersed by birds. The seasonal solitary leaf and dormant tuber adapt the species to the marked wet-dry rhythm of the monsoon forest. A. napalensis is widespread and not regarded as threatened, though, like many forest aroids, it depends on the maintenance of shaded, humid woodland habitat.

Author: (Wall.) Bogner & Mayo · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Hetterscheid & Ittenbach – Revision of the Genus Amorphophallus

Vitaceae

Ampelocissus rugosa 

by G & P Jürgens

Planch.

Garw 2005 268 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kunol 2400m, September

Description

Ampelocissus rugosa is a tendril-climbing vine of the Himalaya and adjacent south-east Asia, recorded from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Vietnam. Its roughly 95 georeferenced collections, the fewest in this group, indicate a relatively restricted and under-collected distribution along the subtropical-to-warm-temperate forest belt of the Himalayan foothills. It grows in forest margins, thickets, ravines and along streams, scrambling over shrubs and trees. The photographed plant from Garhwal at Kunol at 2400 m in September represents the upper part of its altitudinal range and its late-monsoon fruiting period, when the vine bears its grape-like infructescences.

It is a robust herbaceous to woody climber with leaf-opposed tendrils characteristic of the grape family. The simple leaves are broadly ovate to cordate in outline, sometimes shallowly lobed, with a toothed margin and a rugose (wrinkled) upper surface that gives the species its epithet; the lower surface is often tomentose. The inflorescence is a leaf-opposed, compound cyme or panicle, typically with a basal tendril, bearing many small, greenish flowers with a four- to five-merous calyx and corolla and a fleshy disc around the ovary. The fruit is a small, globose, fleshy berry, ripening dark purple to black and containing one or few hard seeds, the cluster superficially resembling a wild grape.

Ampelocissus is a pantropical genus of the Vitaceae closely allied to Vitis, distinguished by its tendril-bearing inflorescences and frequently tuberous rootstock. Several Asian species are gathered locally for their edible, acidic fruits and have potential as wild relatives of the cultivated grape. A. rugosa is a sparsely documented Himalayan vine; while not formally assessed, its limited collection record warrants attention to forest-margin habitats under pressure from clearance.

Author: Planch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 12, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Latiff's Revision of Asian Ampelocissus