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

Anaphalis busua

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 160
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
Bhutan2012 160
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
BhutanPG2011 833 01 01 1
Bhutan Chele-La, 3400m July

Description

Anaphalis busua is a Himalayan everlasting widespread from Pakistan and India through Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar into south-western China, with additional records from Sri Lanka; the 619 occurrences confirm a broad montane range, while points labelled Belgium represent cultivated or erroneous data. It occupies open grassy slopes, forest clearings, banks and disturbed ground from roughly 1500 to 3600 m. The documented Bhutanese material from the Haa Valley at about 3200 m in September and from the Chele-La at 3400 m in July illustrates its long flowering season across the temperate and lower subalpine zones of the eastern Himalaya.

The species is a perennial herb with a woody rootstock producing erect, white-woolly stems. The leaves are sessile, linear to oblong-lanceolate, somewhat decurrent, green and thinly arachnoid above and densely white-tomentose beneath, with revolute margins. The capitula are small and numerous, aggregated into dense terminal corymbs; each head is heterogamous and functionally dioecious, with the involucre of papery, pearly-white, radiating phyllaries that give the genus its everlasting quality. The florets are tubular and whitish, the outer female and filiform, the inner mostly functionally male. The cypselae are minute and oblong, crowned by a pappus of slender, barbellate, basally free bristles.

Anaphalis is a large genus of the Gnaphalieae especially diverse in the Sino-Himalayan region, distinguished from Helichrysum and Gnaphalium by its scarious involucres and predominantly dioecious heads. A. busua belongs to the broad-leaved Himalayan group and is taxonomically variable, with several related forms intergrading. The dry chaffy phyllaries persist long after flowering, favouring wind dispersal of the small achenes. The species is common and weedy in disturbed montane habitats and is of no conservation concern.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Hilliard & Burtt Gnaphalieae studies

Asteraceae

Anaphalis cavei

by GP Jürgens

Chatterjee

Nepal 95 418 W728 ergebnis
Nepal Jaisuli Kund 4200m, October

Description

Anaphalis cavei is a Himalayan high-alpine species recorded from Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and southwestern China, with around 91 occurrences concentrated along the main Himalayan axis. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, the accompanying image documenting it at Jaisuli Kund in Nepal at about 4200 m in October, as the brief autumn growing season closes. It inhabits open stony slopes, alpine meadow turf, moraine and rocky ground near and above the treeline, growing in well-drained, often gravelly substrates exposed to intense insolation and cold, where its dense indumentum mitigates desiccation and ultraviolet stress.

It is a small, perennial, white-woolly herb forming low tufts or mats from a branched, somewhat woody caudex. The stems and leaves are densely covered in appressed lanate-tomentose hairs giving a silvery-grey aspect; the leaves are narrowly oblanceolate to spathulate, often with margins revolute and bases decurrent or semi-amplexicaul. The capitula are aggregated into a compact terminal corymb; each head is surrounded by several rows of dry, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts characteristic of the genus. The plants are functionally dioecious, with female and male florets borne predominantly on separate heads, and the cypselae are small, glabrous and crowned by a deciduous capillary pappus.

The species, described by Chatterjee, belongs to tribe Gnaphalieae, the genus Anaphalis being a taxonomically intricate group of "everlasting" daisies whose papery bracts persist long after flowering. Its restricted high-elevation range, dense wool and cushion-like habit are adaptations to the harsh alpine environment, and seed dispersal is anemochorous via the pappus. Owing to its narrow, remote montane distribution it has not been formally assessed, but it appears locally frequent within suitable alpine habitat.

Author: Chatterjee · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Gnaphalieae monograph (Asteraceae)

Asteraceae

Anaphalis contorta

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

Bhutan2015 325
Bhutan Trongsa 2000m, October
Bhutan2012 294
Bhutan Shele-La, 3900m September
Bhutan2012 892
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3700m October
Bhutan2012 893
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3700m October

Description

Anaphalis contorta is a widespread Asian everlasting distributed from Nepal, India and Bhutan through China to the Philippines, Taiwan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, with GBIF recording over 1280 occurrences across this broad range. It is a plant of open, sunny, often dry and stony ground, favouring grassy slopes, banks, rocky pasture, trackside verges and forest margins from the temperate zone up into the subalpine. The cited Bhutanese localities span this breadth, from Trongsa at 2000 m in October to the Shele-La at 3900 m in September and the Tumching-La at 3700 m in October, demonstrating its occurrence from mid-montane forest country to high subalpine passes where it persists and flowers into the autumn.

It is a perennial herb forming tufts from a woody rootstock, the erect stems and the linear to narrowly lanceolate leaves clothed in dense white or greyish woolly tomentum, the leaf margins frequently revolute and somewhat contorted, a feature alluded to in the epithet. The capitula are small and numerous, aggregated into dense terminal corymbose clusters. Each head is surrounded by an involucre of dry, papery, persistent white phyllaries that constitute the showy part of the inflorescence, the plant being functionally dioecious with male and female heads on separate individuals. The minute tubular florets give rise to tiny cypselae bearing a pappus of slender barbellate bristles.

A member of tribe Gnaphalieae, Anaphalis comprises numerous Himalayan and East Asian species whose papery white "everlasting" bracts are an adaptation to exposed, drought-prone montane habitats and aid in attracting pollinators to the small florets. The dried inflorescences are long-lasting and locally gathered for decoration. Tolerant of poor soils and disturbance and very widely distributed, A. contorta is a secure species of no conservation concern.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hilliard's revision of Anaphalis (Gnaphalieae)

Asteraceae

Anaphalis margaritacea

by GP Jürgens

(L.) Benth. & Hook.f.

Bhutan2012 98
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September

Description

Among the most widely distributed of all Asteraceae, Anaphalis margaritacea spans a remarkable circumboreal and montane range, documented from North America (US, CA) and eastern Asia (CN, JP, TW) across the Himalaya (NP, IN) to a broad swathe of temperate Europe (GB, SE, DE, CZ, FR, AT, NL, CH, DK, NO, FI) and Russia, with more than 62,000 GBIF occurrences attesting to its abundance and partly naturalised status in the Old World. It favours open, well-drained sunny situations: grassy slopes, forest margins, roadsides, screes and subalpine meadows. In the eastern Himalaya it ascends well into the high mountains, as seen in the photographed population on the Shele-La in Bhutan at around 3600 m in September, where it flowers late in the season on stony alpine turf.

A perennial herb arising from a creeping rhizome, it forms erect, simple stems 20–60 cm tall, densely clothed throughout in white woolly-tomentose indumentum. The leaves are alternate, sessile, linear to linear-lanceolate, often somewhat decurrent, green and thinly arachnoid above and persistently white-tomentose beneath, with revolute margins. The inflorescence is a dense terminal corymb of numerous small capitula; each head is surrounded by several series of pearly-white, papery, radiating involucral bracts that give the plant its lasting ornamental quality. The florets are functionally unisexual, the species being largely dioecious, with tubular yellowish disc florets. The fruit is a small oblong cypsela bearing a pappus of slender barbellate bristles aiding wind dispersal.

The pearly everlasting is the type species of Anaphalis, a genus of the tribe Gnaphalieae centred on Asia, and its papery bracts retain form when dried, long valuing it in floristry. Ecologically it is a colonist of disturbed and pioneer ground, behaving as a weakly invasive naturalised plant in parts of Europe. Of least conservation concern given its vast range and ecological tolerance, it nonetheless provides a useful nectar source for late-season pollinators and larval food for certain lepidoptera.

Author: (L.) Benth. & Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Anaphalis monograph (Hilliard & Burtt, Gnaphalieae)

Asteraceae

Anaphalis nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

(Spreng.) Hand.-Mazz.

Garh 07 207 ergebnis
India Garhwal Panwali 3300m, June

Description

Anaphalis nepalensis is a widespread Sino-Himalayan everlasting distributed across China, Taiwan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Myanmar, with over 3600 georeferenced records making it one of the better-documented Himalayan composites. It occupies open alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes, rocky pastures and forest clearings, generally between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from Panwali in the Garhwal Himalaya at 3300 m, flowering in June, typifies its grassy mid-alpine habitat where it forms low cushions or spreading patches in short turf.

It is a perennial, white-woolly herb arising from a creeping rhizome, with prostrate to ascending stems clothed in dense grey-white tomentum. The leaves are oblanceolate to spathulate, often crowded in a basal rosette and reducing upward, cottony on both surfaces. The capitula are arranged singly or in small terminal clusters and are dioecious or subdioecious; the conspicuous part is the spreading ring of dry, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts surrounding the small yellowish disc florets, an arrangement that gives the genus its "pearly everlasting" character. The achenes bear a pappus of fine barbellate bristles.

The persistent, scarious bracts retain their form long after flowering, an adaptation suiting the plant to harsh, exposed alpine conditions and aiding identification. Anaphalis nepalensis is a variable species with several recognised varieties differing in stature and leaf form, and it is sometimes confused with related Himalayan congeners. Common and ecologically adaptable, it is not of conservation concern and is occasionally grown as a rock-garden ornamental.

Author: (Spreng.) Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Compositae monographs (Handel-Mazzetti)

Asteraceae

Anaphalis nepalensis var. monocephala

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Hand.-Mazz.

Sikkim2003 187 P255
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m 08.2003
Nepal 99 274 ergebnis
West-Nepal Loccu 3800m, June
Garw 2005 150 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Kuari-Pass 3900m, September

Description

Anaphalis nepalensis var. monocephala is a high-alpine pearly everlasting of the Himalaya and adjacent China, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Taiwan and south-west China across 426 georeferenced occurrences. It occupies open alpine turf, screes, rocky slopes and gravelly moraine in the upper alpine zone. The cited collections at Dzongri in Sikkim (4000 m), Loccu in west Nepal (3800 m) and the Kuari Pass in Garhwal (3900 m) confirm its preference for elevations of roughly 3500-4800 m, where it flowers through the short summer and into early autumn. The variety is distinguished from typical A. nepalensis chiefly by its solitary or few terminal capitula on dwarf, cushion-forming stems.

It is a low, mat- or cushion-forming perennial herb with a branched woody caudex and short, white-woolly (lanate) stems and foliage. The leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, crowded toward the base, densely grey-tomentose and frequently bearing a tuft of wool at the apex. The capitula are usually solitary (monocephalous), comparatively large, and surrounded by numerous papery, pearly-white, radiating involucral bracts that simulate ray florets; the true florets are small and yellowish, the plant being functionally dioecious. The fruit is a tiny cypsela crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles.

The genus Anaphalis belongs to tribe Gnaphalieae (the cudweeds and everlastings), in which dry, persistent scarious bracts give the inflorescences their lasting quality. The white bracts and clustered florets attract small flies and bees, while the plumed cypselae are wind-dispersed. The variety is locally frequent in high Himalayan pastures and is not considered threatened, though sensitive to heavy grazing and trampling.

Author: (DC.) Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Hilliard & Burtt Gnaphalieae studies

Asteraceae

Anaphalis royleana

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

Garw 2005 297 ergebnis
India Garhwal Patanathi 3750m, October
Garw 2005 50 ergebnis

Description

Anaphalis royleana is a high-montane to subalpine perennial widely distributed across the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China and Taiwan. With 482 georeferenced occurrences, it is one of the more frequently collected members of the genus, occupying open stony slopes, alpine meadows, grazed pastures and the margins of rhododendron and birch scrub. The species typically ranges between roughly 3000 and 4500 m; the plant photographed at Patanathi in Garhwal, India, at 3750 m in October exemplifies its preference for well-drained, sunny situations where it flowers and fruits late into the season.

The plant forms tufted clumps from a woody rootstock, with erect, simple, white-woolly (lanate) stems. The leaves are alternate, sessile and frequently decurrent, linear to oblong-lanceolate, entire-margined, and densely grey- to white-tomentose, the lower surface usually more persistently floccose than the upper. The capitula are small, numerous, and aggregated into dense terminal corymbs. Each head is subtended by several rows of dry, papery (scarious), pearly-white involucral bracts that give the genus its garden name; the florets are functionally unisexual, the central disc florets staminate and the marginal florets pistillate. The fruit is a small cylindrical cypsela crowned by a pappus of slender, barbellate bristles facilitating wind dispersal.

Anaphalis is a large Old World genus closely allied to Helichrysum and Gnaphalium within the tribe Gnaphalieae, characterised by its dioecious or subdioecious capitula. A. royleana belongs to a taxonomically intricate complex of Himalayan everlastings in which leaf indumentum and bract form provide the principal diagnostic characters. Its broad elevational and geographic amplitude, tolerance of grazing, and effective anemochory render it secure, and it is not considered threatened.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Anaphalis revisionary studies in Gnaphalieae

Asteraceae

Anaphalis triplinervis 

by GP Jürgens

Sims ex C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2015 408
Bhutan Tumching-La 4000m, October
Garw 2005 296 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kunol 2900m, September

Description

Anaphalis triplinervis is a widespread Himalayan everlasting recorded natively from Nepal, India, China, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan, and widely grown in gardens (hence European and North American records); GBIF holds over 900 occurrences. It is a plant of open subalpine and alpine slopes, grassy meadows, forest clearings and stony banks, ranging from about 2000 to over 4000 m. The photographed material is from Tumching-La in Bhutan at 4000 m in October and from Kunol in Garhwal, India, at 2900 m in September, spanning the autumn flowering across the central and eastern Himalaya.

The species is a tufted perennial herb with creeping rhizomes and erect, white-woolly stems. The leaves are alternate, oblong to obovate-lanceolate, sessile and often somewhat decurrent, with the three prominent longitudinal nerves that give the epithet "triplinervis"; they are green and thinly cobwebby above and densely white-tomentose beneath. The capitula are small and crowded in dense terminal corymbs, each surrounded by spreading, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts that form the showy "flower"; the true florets are small and yellowish, the plants typically dioecious or functionally so. The fruit is a tiny cypsela with a pappus of barbellate bristles.

Anaphalis belongs to the tribe Gnaphalieae, the cudweeds, and A. triplinervis is among the most familiar Himalayan species, its persistent papery bracts making it a popular everlasting for drying. Abundant and ecologically tolerant of grazed and disturbed slopes, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Sims ex C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Revision of Asiatic Anaphalis (Gnaphalieae)

Asteraceae

Anaphalis xylorhiza

by G & P Jürgens

Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f.

Sikkim2003 260 P358
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m, July

Description

Anaphalis xylorhiza is a high-alpine pearly-everlasting of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 416 georeferenced occurrences indicating a fairly frequent species along the inner high ranges. It grows in alpine meadows, on stony slopes, screes and rocky ridges above the treeline, typically between roughly 3500 and 4800 m. The plant was photographed at Dzongri in Sikkim at 4000 m in July, a setting representative of its ecology, flowering at the height of the monsoon on open, well-drained, frequently grazed alpine ground.

As the epithet xylorhiza indicates, it is a perennial herb with a thick, woody rootstock from which arise low, white-woolly stems. The leaves are linear to narrowly oblong or spathulate, often crowded toward the base, grey-green and clothed in a dense persistent felt of appressed hairs on both surfaces, the bases sometimes decurrent. The capitula are small and aggregated into compact terminal corymbose clusters; each head is surrounded by dry, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts that give the genus its everlasting quality. The plants are essentially dioecious, with male and female heads on separate individuals, and the fruit is a minute cypsela bearing a pappus of slender bristles.

Anaphalis (tribe Gnaphalieae) is centred in Asia and is distinguished from the closely allied Antennaria and Helichrysum by its corymbose, scarious-bracted heads and its functionally dioecious breeding system; A. xylorhiza belongs to the woody-rooted, high-elevation Himalayan group. Its dense indumentum and persistent papery bracts are adaptations to cold, irradiation and desiccation in the alpine zone. Widespread and locally abundant, it is not considered threatened, although heavy summer grazing affects accessible populations.

Author: Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hooker Flora of British India (Asteraceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace geranifolia

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2014 822
Bhutan Chele-La 3100m, May
Bhutan2014 1019
Bhutan Chele-La 3100m, May
Sikkim2004 376 P653
Sikkim/India Lachung 2800m May

Description

Androsace geranifolia is a Himalayan rock-jasmine of the temperate to subalpine zone, ranging through the central and eastern Himalaya from Nepal through Sikkim and India into Bhutan. GBIF currently holds no georeferenced occurrences and treats the name as doubtful at present, so its distribution is best inferred from herbarium and floristic records, which place it in moist, shaded forest, mossy banks, rock ledges and stream gullies between roughly 2500 and 3500 m. The documented sites at Chele-La in Bhutan at 3100 m and at Lachung in Sikkim, India, at 2800 m, both flowering in May, illustrate its preference for cool, humid, partly shaded montane habitats in spring.

It is a soft, herbaceous perennial, distinct among Himalayan Androsace in its conspicuously geranium-like foliage. The leaves are long-petiolate with orbicular to reniform, palmately lobed and toothed blades, forming a loose basal rosette or tuft rather than the tight cushion of many congeners. From the rosette arise slender, hairy scapes bearing an umbel of several small flowers subtended by leafy bracts. Each flower has a campanulate calyx and a salver-shaped white to pale pink corolla with five spreading lobes and a small yellow eye at the constricted throat. The fruit is a small, few- to several-seeded globose capsule.

Androsace is a large genus of Primulaceae centred on the mountains of central Asia, and A. geranifolia represents the broad-leaved, woodland-dwelling rather than cushion-forming element of the genus, allied to A. sarmentosa and A. rotundifolia. Its dissected foliage reflects adaptation to shaded forest understorey rather than the exposed screes typical of the section. As a narrowly distributed, seldom-collected Himalayan endemic, its conservation status remains formally unassessed and warrants further field documentation.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith & Lowe revision of Androsace, Flora of British India