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.

Gentianaceae

Gentiana tibetica

by G & P Jürgens

King ex Hook.f.

Bhutan2012 261
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September

Description

Gentiana tibetica is a robust perennial gentian of the high Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, native to China (notably Xizang and Qinghai), Bhutan and Nepal; the scattered European, Korean and Japanese GBIF records derive from cultivation and herbaria rather than wild populations. It occupies the alpine and upper subalpine zone, growing in moist meadows, grassy hillsides, scrub margins and open stony slopes. The cited collection from Shele-La in Bhutan at about 4100 m in September places it among the late-flowering high-altitude flora of the eastern Himalaya, where it endures cold nights and a short growing season.

The plant is a stout, erect perennial herb forming a basal rosette from a thick rootstock. The basal and lower stem leaves are large, broadly elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, prominently several-veined and narrowed to a sheathing base, the cauline leaves becoming smaller and bract-like upward. The flowers are numerous and sessile, crowded into dense terminal and axillary clusters subtended by leafy bracts. Each flower has a membranous calyx and a tubular to narrowly funnelform corolla that is pale yellowish-white to greenish, often spotted, with short erect lobes and small plicate folds (plicae) between them. The fruit is a stipitate bivalved capsule releasing numerous small winged seeds.

Gentiana tibetica belongs to section Cruciata of the genus, the cluster-flowered gentians, and was described by King from Hooker's material. The pale tubular flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees adapted to the cold montane climate. Like several large-rooted gentians it has a history of medicinal use of its bitter roots. Widespread and locally common on the plateau and its Himalayan rim, it is not considered threatened.

Author: King ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Ho & Liu's monograph of the Gentians of China (Gentiana)

Gentianaceae

Gentiana tubiflora

by G & P Jürgens

(G.Don) Griseb.

Bhutan2015 374
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October
Bhutan2015 376
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October
Bhutan2015 381
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October
Bhutan2012 921
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October

Description

Gentiana tubiflora is a dwarf alpine gentian of the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau, recorded by GBIF from Nepal, India, Bhutan and China (a Malaysian datum is likely erroneous) across some 124 occurrences. It is a plant of high open ground: alpine turf, short grazed pastures, damp meadows, gravelly flushes and moist slopes near the upper limit of vegetation, typically between about 3500 and 4500 m. The specimen photographed at Tumching-La in Bhutan at 4000 m in October, flowering very late in the season, illustrates its tolerance of cold and its occupation of exposed, well-watered high-alpine grassland.

It is a small, tufted perennial herb forming low cushions or mats from a slender rootstock, with short, often prostrate to ascending leafy shoots. The leaves are small, opposite, linear to narrowly oblong, crowded and somewhat rigid, with cartilaginous margins. The flowers are solitary and terminal, the corolla narrowly tubular as the epithet indicates, with five short erect lobes alternating with small plicate folds, and coloured deep to pale blue. The calyx is tubular with narrow lobes, the stamens are inserted within the corolla tube, and the fruit is a stalked capsule that releases numerous minute seeds.

Gentiana is a large genus whose section of small-flowered, tube-corolla'd alpine species is especially diverse across the Sino-Himalaya, and G. tubiflora is a characteristic member of that high-elevation assemblage. The narrow tubular corolla and folds between the lobes channel access to specialised pollinators and protect the nectar, while the compact mat habit buffers the plant against wind and cold. The species is widespread and not regarded as threatened, forming a familiar element of late-flowering Himalayan alpine meadows.

Author: (G.Don) Griseb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Gentianaceae), Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ho & Liu monograph of Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana venusta 

by G & P Jürgens

(G.Don) Wall. ex Griseb.

Garw 2005 330 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bagubasa 4100m, September

Description

Gentiana venusta is a Himalayan alpine gentian ranging through India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan, with about 103 documented occurrences tracing a broad arc along the high Himalaya from the western to the eastern ranges. It is a strict alpine, growing on open grassy slopes, alpine meadows, moist turf and stony pastures above the treeline, generally between roughly 3500 and 4500 m. The illustrated plant from Bagubasa in Garhwal at 4100 m, flowering in September, exemplifies its late-monsoon to early-autumn flowering, when these dwarf gentians colour the short alpine sward after the snow-fed turf has been grazed and the meadows begin to dry.

It is a small tufted annual or short-lived perennial forming low rosettes from which arise several decumbent to ascending, few-flowered stems. The leaves are small, sessile, obovate to spathulate and crowded basally, the cauline pairs more distant and lanceolate, with a narrow cartilaginous margin. The flowers are solitary or few, terminal, with a tubular calyx whose lobes are unequal, and a narrowly funnelform to club-shaped corolla that is pale blue, whitish or yellowish, often spotted within, with short erect lobes and conspicuous plicate, fimbriate to bifid intervening folds (plicae). The fruit is a stipitate, bivalved capsule containing numerous minute, smooth seeds.

The species belongs to Gentiana sect. Chondrophyllae, the large group of small-flowered annual Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan gentians, a notoriously difficult complex in which G. venusta is distinguished by floral and plical characters. The name G. venusta (G.Don) Wall. ex Griseb. is accepted. Flowering is closely tied to snowmelt and monsoon timing, and pollination is by small insects; the diminutive seeds are dispersed by wind and water. It is widespread and of least conservation concern.

Author: (G.Don) Wall. ex Griseb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Ho & Liu A Worldwide Monograph of Gentiana

Orchideaceae

Geodorum densiflorum

by G & P Jürgens

(Lam.) Schltr.

Geodorum densiflorum ergebnis
Bhutan Paro, 2400m June

Description

Geodorum densiflorum is a widespread terrestrial orchid ranging across tropical and subtropical Asia and into the Pacific, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia and numerous islands, with well over a thousand documented occurrences. It grows in open deciduous and bamboo forest, grassy slopes, scrub and roadside banks, usually in seasonally dry, well-drained ground from the lowlands to mid-elevations. The plant photographed near Paro in Bhutan at 2400 m in June represents the upper part of its altitudinal range, flowering with the onset of the monsoon.

The species arises from underground, corm-like pseudobulbs that store water and reserves through the dry season. The leaves are few, large, broadly elliptic-lanceolate and plicate, with prominent parallel venation, narrowed to a petiole-like base and often appearing with or after the flowers. The inflorescence is unmistakable: a stout scape terminating in a dense, sharply nodding or recurved raceme so that the flowers face downward, the apex curving over before erecting in fruit. The flowers are pink to white with a pouched, whitish labellum marked yellow or purple within. The column is short and the fruit a pendent capsule.

In GBIF the name appears as a synonym, with Geodorum densiflorum treated as the accepted name; the species is the type of the small palaeotropical genus Geodorum within tribe Cymbidieae, distinguished by its characteristic nodding inflorescence. Its wide range, ecological tolerance and frequent occurrence in disturbed habitats make it relatively secure, though, like all orchids, it is listed on CITES Appendix II.

Author: (Lam.) Schltr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb), Flora of British India, CITES Appendices

Geraniaceae

Geranium donianum

by G & P Jürgens

Sweet

BhutanPG2011 106
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3450m June
Sikkim2003 181 G247
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m 08.2003

Description

Geranium donianum is an alpine cranesbill of the Himalaya and southwestern China, recorded by GBIF from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar across roughly 795 occurrences. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadows, open grassy slopes, scrub margins and stony turf, generally at high elevations where it forms part of the herb-rich alpine sward. The photographed plants were found in Bhutan at Tsochenchen at 3450 m in June and in Sikkim at Dzongri at 4100 m in August, situations typical of its preference for sunny, well-drained montane grassland through the brief alpine summer.

It is a low, tufted perennial arising from a stout, often woody rootstock, with somewhat spreading, hairy stems. The leaves are orbicular to reniform in outline and palmately divided nearly to the base into several wedge-shaped, deeply lobed segments, the lobes again toothed; basal leaves are long-petiolate. The flowers are relatively large and showy, with five free, obovate petals that are typically deep pink to purplish-red and conspicuously darker-veined, sometimes notched at the apex. There are ten stamens and a five-lobed superior ovary; the fruit is the characteristic beaked schizocarp of the genus, whose mericarps separate elastically at maturity to fling out the seeds.

GBIF accepts the name. Within Geranium it belongs among the Himalayan alpine cranesbills allied to G. orientali-tibeticum and related taxa, a group well represented across the high ranges. The vivid dark-veined petals serve as nectar guides for bee and fly pollinators. Widespread and locally common in alpine pastures, G. donianum is assessed as of least conservation concern.

Author: Sweet · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Yeo monograph of Geranium

Geraniaceae

Geranium lambertii

by GP Jürgens

Sweet

Bhutan2012 218
Bhutan Shele-La, 3800m September
BhutanPG2011 679 01 01
Bhutan Luksur, 3700m July
Nepal 95 389P688 ergebnis
Nepal Bahanjyang 3700m October

Description

Geranium lambertii is a perennial herb of the high Himalaya, distributed through China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan, with about 304 georeferenced records (additional codes from Canada, Japan and Europe reflect its presence in cultivation). It inhabits subalpine and alpine meadows, forest clearings, shrubberies and moist rocky slopes, often among dwarf rhododendron and on the margins of birch forest. The collections cited from Bhutan at Shele-La (3800 m, September) and Luksur (3700 m, July) and from Bahanjyang in Nepal (3700 m, October) place it firmly in the 3500-4000 m belt, flowering through the late monsoon and into autumn.

It forms a clump of trailing to ascending stems from a stout rootstock. The leaves are long-petiolate and palmately divided into five to seven deeply lobed and toothed segments, sparsely hairy. The flowers are among the most distinctive in the genus, nodding and saucer- to bell-shaped, with five broad, satiny white petals usually flushed pink and contrasting with a dark crimson-purple centre; the ten stamens and the style cluster are conspicuous, and the pedicels recurve in fruit. The fruit is the typical geranium schizocarp, with a long beak that splits elastically to fling the seeds.

Geranium lambertii, named by Sweet, is a well-marked species of the Himalayan endemic assemblage and a long-cultivated ornamental prized for its pendent, dark-eyed blooms. Its mid- to late-season flowering supports bumblebees and other high-altitude pollinators, and the spring-loaded mericarps achieve effective ballistic seed dispersal. It is widespread and not considered threatened, though localised meadow populations are sensitive to heavy grazing.

Author: Sweet · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Yeo Hardy Geraniums

Geraniaceae

Geranium nakaoanum

by GP Jürgens

H.Hara

BhutanPG2011 372
Bhutan Dur-Tso, 3800m June
Also included: Pedicularis siphonantha D.Don
Sikkim2003 176 P240
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m, August

Description

Geranium nakaoanum is a Himalayan cranesbill known from Nepal, the Indian Himalaya, Bhutan and adjacent China, with around 61 GBIF occurrences reflecting its montane to alpine distribution. It occupies open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, streamsides and the herbaceous margins of dwarf rhododendron and juniper scrub on moist, humus-rich soils. The locality figured, Dur Tsachu in Bhutan at about 3800 m in June, sits within its typical band of roughly 3300-4500 m; the accompanying note of Pedicularis siphonantha at Dzongri in Sikkim at 4100 m in August underscores the high-elevation meadow community in which it grows, flowering through the monsoon summer.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb with a thickened rootstock, producing slender, often decumbent or ascending stems clothed in spreading or retrorse hairs. The leaves are long-petioled and palmately divided into five to seven deeply incised, lobed segments forming a rounded outline, the laminae sparsely hairy on both surfaces. The flowers are borne in few-flowered cymes on glandular-hairy pedicels; the five free petals are pink to rose-purple, frequently darker-veined and shallowly notched. Ten stamens surround the five-carpellate ovary, which matures into the characteristic beaked schizocarp whose mericarps spring apart elastically to disperse the seeds.

The species commemorates the Japanese botanist Sasuke Nakao, a participant in mid-twentieth-century Himalayan expeditions. It belongs to the large temperate genus Geranium, well represented in the Himalaya by several allied alpine taxa distinguished by indumentum, petal colour and leaf dissection. As a meadow perennial it contributes to the diverse alpine herb flora and is pollinated chiefly by bees and flies; no specific threat is recorded, though alpine grazing pressure can affect such populations.

Author: H.Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Aedo monograph of Geranium, Yeo Hardy Geraniums

Geraniaceae

Geranium polyanthes

by GP Jürgens

Edgew. & Hook.f.

Sikkim2003 204 P284
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m 08.2003

Description

Geranium polyanthes is a perennial cranesbill of the high Himalaya and the mountains of southwestern China, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar (with scattered cultivated or vouchered records elsewhere) across about 331 georeferenced occurrences. It is a plant of subalpine and alpine meadows, open hillsides, grassy slopes and forest clearings near and above the treeline, characteristically flowering in the monsoon months of July and August. Its elevational range extends from roughly 3,000 m to over 4,000 m, well represented by the photographed plant from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3,900 m in August, where it grows among dwarf rhododendron and herbaceous alpine turf.

The species forms a clump from a stout rootstock, the stems erect to ascending and clothed, like the rest of the plant, in spreading hairs. The leaves are orbicular-reniform in outline and palmately lobed into shallow, broad, crenate-toothed segments, the basal leaves long-petioled. As the epithet polyanthes ("many-flowered") indicates, the inflorescence is comparatively dense and many-flowered, an umbel-like cluster of pink to rose-pink flowers with five obovate, slightly notched petals veined with darker lines, ten stamens and a beaked pistil. The fruit is the characteristic geraniaceous schizocarp with an elongate rostrum that splits explosively into one-seeded mericarps, ejecting the seeds.

Geranium polyanthes belongs to the large genus Geranium (subgenus Geranium) and is one of a suite of pink-flowered Himalayan perennial cranesbills that includes G. donianum and G. nakaoanum, from which it is separated by its denser, many-flowered inflorescence and leaf division. As a nectar-rich alpine herb it is visited by bees and other insects and contributes to the floral diversity of Himalayan summer pastures. It is locally common and not considered threatened, though the alpine meadow habitats it occupies are sensitive to overgrazing and to the upslope shifts in vegetation associated with a warming climate.

Author: Edgew. & Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Yeo: Hardy Geraniums and the systematic monograph of the genus Geranium

Geraniaceae

Geranium procurrens

by GP Jürgens

Yeo

Bhutan2012 336
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
Bhutan2012 165
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
Nepal 95 117 P205 ergebnis
Nepal south of Rupien La 3400m October

Description

Geranium procurrens is a trailing perennial of the central and eastern Himalaya, native to Nepal, Bhutan, India and adjacent China, with around 192 recorded occurrences and a scatter of cultivated or naturalised records farther afield reflecting its garden popularity. It grows in subalpine and upper temperate habitats, among forest margins, shrubberies, banks and open slopes where it scrambles over surrounding vegetation, flowering late into the autumn. The species is well represented in the high Himalaya, as shown by collections from the Haa (Haar) Valley in Bhutan at about 3200 m in September and from south of the Rupien La in Nepal at around 3400 m in October.

The plant is distinctive for its long, prostrate, procumbent stems that root at the nodes and form sprawling mats, giving the epithet procurrens. The leaves are long-petiolate with an orbicular blade deeply palmately five- to seven-lobed, the lobes themselves toothed or further divided, and marked above with a darker zone. The flowers are borne on slender pedicels and have five spreading obovate petals of deep magenta to purplish-crimson with darker veining and a near-black centre, surrounding ten stamens and a beaked ovary. The fruit is the characteristic geranium schizocarp, the long rostrate beak splitting elastically into five mericarps that catapult the seeds.

Geranium procurrens was described by Yeo, the monographer of the genus, and is closely allied to the magenta-flowered Himalayan species of section Polyantha. Its nodal rooting and stoloniferous habit, unusual among hardy geraniums, enable extensive vegetative spread and have made it a vigorous ground-cover plant in cultivation, where it has given rise to garden hybrids. In the wild it remains a locally common montane species of no particular conservation concern, valued ecologically as a late-flowering nectar source for high-altitude pollinators.

Author: Yeo · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China Vol. 11, Yeo monograph Hardy Geraniums

Geraniaceae

Geranium refractum

by GP Jürgens

Edgew. & Hook.

BhutanPG2011 491
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Managed-Chu, 3550m June

Description

Geranium refractum is a perennial herb of the eastern and central Himalaya and adjacent China, distributed through China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 645 georeferenced records concentrated in the subalpine and alpine zones. It grows in alpine meadows, forest clearings, shrubberies and moist, rocky slopes, often among dwarf rhododendron and on streamside banks. The plant photographed along the Ludlow-Sherriff trail near the Managed-Chu in Bhutan at 3550 m, flowering in June, is typical of its high-elevation habitat, where it appears with the early summer thaw.

It forms ascending to spreading stems from a perennial rootstock, the foliage palmately divided into five to seven deeply incised and toothed lobes. The flowers, as the epithet indicates, are nodding and become strongly reflexed, with five reflexed to spreading white or pale pinkish petals; the ten stamens and the long style column are exserted and conspicuous against the recurved corolla, recalling a small cyclamen or shooting-star in posture. The fruit is the characteristic geranium schizocarp with an elongate beak, the mericarps releasing seeds by elastic ejection.

Geranium refractum, described by Edgeworth and Hooker f., belongs to the same Himalayan group of nodding-flowered species as G. lambertii, from which it differs in its reflexed white flowers and exserted reproductive parts. Its early-summer blooms are visited by bumblebees and other montane insects, and the spring-loaded mericarps disperse seed ballistically. It is reasonably widespread across the eastern Himalaya and is not regarded as threatened, although alpine meadow populations are subject to grazing pressure.

Author: Edgew. & Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Yeo Hardy Geraniums