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

Leontopodium himalayanum

by GP Jürgens

DC.

BhutanPG2011 507
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Shashuna, 4000m June
Nepal 99 528 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3800m, June

Description

Leontopodium himalayanum is the characteristic Himalayan edelweiss, distributed across China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar (CN, NP, IN, BT, PK, MM), with about 437 GBIF occurrences mapping a broad but strictly montane range along the chain. It occupies alpine and subalpine meadows, open grassy and stony slopes, screes and rocky banks, generally above the forest limit. The photographed plants were recorded on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at Shashuna in Bhutan at 4000 m and at the Churta-Khola in West Nepal at 3800 m, both in June, flowering early in the high-mountain season on exposed turf.

It is a tufted perennial herb growing from a short branched rhizome, producing several erect or ascending flowering stems 5–30 cm tall, the herbage greyish with a dense appressed white tomentum. The leaves are linear, linear-lanceolate or oblong-spathulate, sessile, woolly especially beneath. The inflorescence is crowned by a spreading rosette of lanceolate floral bracts much more densely white-lanate than the foliage, forming the radiating star that distinguishes the edelweiss. Several small subglobose capitula are clustered at the centre of this ruff; the heads bear yellowish tubular florets and are functionally subdioecious. The fruit is a minute cypsela tipped with a pappus of slender, barbellate to subplumose bristles facilitating wind dispersal.

Within Leontopodium (tribe Gnaphalieae) the Himalayan species form a closely allied group differentiated chiefly by indumentum density and bract proportions, and L. himalayanum (described by DC.) is the most widespread representative across the range. Its conspicuous woolly star is a classic alpine adaptation buffering the reproductive organs against ultraviolet exposure, cold and water loss. The species is common and not regarded as threatened, although picking and collection have locally reduced populations near trekking routes.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Leontopodium monograph (Handel-Mazzetti, revision of the genus)

Asteraceae

Leontopodium jacotianum

by GP Jürgens

Beauverd

Bhutan2012 57
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September
Bhutan2012 61
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September

Description

Leontopodium jacotianum is a high-alpine edelweiss of the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from Nepal, China, India, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar (NP, CN, IN, BT, PK, MM), with a modest 546 GBIF occurrences reflecting its restriction to lofty, difficult terrain. It inhabits open alpine meadows, stony slopes, screes and rocky crevices above the treeline, where snow lies long and the growing season is brief. The photographed plant grew on the Shele-La in Bhutan at about 4100 m in September, flowering at the close of the monsoon season on exposed alpine turf typical of the genus across the eastern Himalaya.

It is a tufted perennial herb arising from a stout, branched caudex, forming compact cushions or small clumps of several flowering stems 5–25 cm tall, the whole densely grey-white lanate-tomentose. The basal and cauline leaves are spathulate to linear-oblong, sessile, woolly on both surfaces. The diagnostic feature is the terminal star of leaf-like floral bracts radiating beyond the capitula, densely felted with white woolly hairs and forming the familiar edelweiss "flower". Within this stellate ruff sit several crowded capitula; the heads contain yellowish tubular florets, the plants typically subdioecious with outer female and central functionally male florets. The fruit is a small cypsela crowned by a pappus of barbellate to subplumose bristles.

The genus Leontopodium (tribe Gnaphalieae) reaches its greatest diversity in the Himalaya and the mountains of western China, where numerous species are differentiated by indumentum, bract shape and habit; L. jacotianum, described by Beauverd, belongs to this dense Asiatic radiation. The thick woolly investment is an adaptation to intense ultraviolet radiation, desiccation and cold at high elevation. Though not currently assessed as threatened, such narrowly alpine specialists are sensitive to climatic warming and the upslope contraction of suitable habitat.

Author: Beauverd · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Leontopodium monograph (Handel-Mazzetti, revision of the genus)

Lamiaceae

Leonurus cardiaca

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Garh 07 310 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bebra 2450m, June

Description

Leonurus cardiaca, motherwort, is a perennial herb of Eurasian origin that has become widely naturalised, with a very large GBIF dataset of 79501 occurrences concentrated in Europe, Russia and temperate North America. It is a plant of disturbed, nutrient-rich ground, occurring on roadsides, hedgerows, waste places, field margins, fallows and around habitation. The plant recorded at Bebra in the Garhwal Himalaya at 2450 m in June represents an introduced or naturalised montane occurrence, where it grows on open, anthropogenically disturbed ground and flowers in early summer.

The species is an erect perennial reaching 0.5-1.2 m, with the quadrangular stems typical of Lamiaceae, often branched and somewhat pubescent. The leaves are opposite and decussate, long-petiolate, the lower palmately three- to five-lobed with coarsely toothed lobes, grading to narrower, fewer-lobed leaves above. The small flowers are borne in dense axillary verticillasters subtended by stiff, spinescent bracteoles; each has a five-toothed, rigid, sharply pointed calyx and a two-lipped pinkish to pale purple corolla, the upper lip densely white-villous and the lower three-lobed, enclosing four didynamous stamens. The fruit comprises four trigonous nutlets.

Leonurus belongs to the subfamily Lamioideae, and L. cardiaca has long been valued in herbal medicine as a cardiac and nervine tonic, the basis of both its scientific and common names. As a hardy, seed-prolific ruderal, it spreads readily in disturbed temperate habitats and is locally established well beyond its native Eurasian range; it is of no conservation concern and is sometimes regarded as a minor weed.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Krestovskaja's revision of Leonurus

Brassicaceae

Lepidostemon williamsii

by GP Jürgens

(H.Hara) Al-Shehbaz

BhutanPG2011 417
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4400m June

Description

Lepidostemon williamsii is a rare high-alpine crucifer known only from Nepal and Bhutan, and is among the most sparsely documented species in this account, with merely about 12 GBIF records. It is confined to the upper alpine zone, growing on open screes, moraines, gravelly slopes and rock crevices near the limit of vascular plant life. The single cited collection, from the Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail at Warrtlang-La in Bhutan at about 4400 m in June, exemplifies its restriction to cold, exposed, well-drained mineral substrates where snow lies late and the growing season is extremely short.

The plant is a small, often cushion-forming or low tufted perennial herb adapted to severe alpine conditions, with a basal cluster of leaves that are entire to shallowly toothed or lobed. The flowers are typical of the family, with four sepals and four clawed petals arranged in a cross and arrayed in a short, congested raceme. The genus Lepidostemon is diagnosed by its distinctive stamens, whose filaments bear conspicuous scale-like or winged appendages, a feature reflected in the generic name. The fruit is a short silicula or silique characteristic of high-alpine Brassicaceae, splitting to release the seeds.

The species was originally described by H. Hara and transferred to Lepidostemon by Al-Shehbaz, whose revisions have clarified the circumscription of the small Sino-Himalayan genera of Brassicaceae. As a narrow-range endemic occupying a very specialised and harsh high-alpine niche with very few known populations, L. williamsii is inherently vulnerable, and its restricted distribution makes it a priority for monitoring against habitat disturbance and climatic change.

Author: (H.Hara) Al-Shehbaz · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Al-Shehbaz's revision of Himalayan Brassicaceae

Trichosporeae

Leptoboea multiflora

by GP Jürgens

(C.B. Clarke) Benth. ex Gamble

BhutanPG2011 823 01 01
Bhutan Paro 3000m, July

Description

Leptoboea multiflora is a perennial herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, with 153 GBIF occurrences recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. As a member of the Gesneriaceae, it grows in shaded, humid forest, typically on mossy rocks, boulders, banks and tree bases in damp, sheltered situations of the temperate broad-leaved zone, often between about 1500 and 3000 m. The plant photographed at Paro in Bhutan at 3000 m in July occupies the upper end of this range, flowering during the moist monsoon period when atmospheric humidity is high.

The species is a low, herbaceous to slightly succulent perennial with short stems and leaves that may be clustered or subopposite, the blades ovate to elliptic, crenate to serrate at the margins and frequently pubescent, with the asymmetric, anisophyllous tendency common in the family. The flowers are numerous, as the epithet indicates, borne in axillary cymes; each has a small five-lobed calyx and a tubular, somewhat bilabiate corolla, with the typically reduced fertile stamen number of the gesneriad tribe and a superior ovary. The fruit is a slender, elongate capsule dehiscing to release very numerous minute seeds.

The entry lists the family as Trichosporeae, which is in fact a tribe of Gesneriaceae rather than a family; the accurate placement is Gesneriaceae, subfamily Didymocarpoideae, tribe Trichosporeae, within which Leptoboea is a small Asian genus allied to Boea and Paraboea. As a humidity-dependent epilithic forest herb, it is sensitive to canopy disturbance, though it remains locally frequent in undisturbed montane forest.

Author: (C.B. Clarke) Benth. ex Gamble · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Weber's classification of Gesneriaceae

Rubiaceae

Leptodermis amoena

by G & P Jürgens

Spring.

Bhutan2015 289 1
Bhutan Zhemgang 1100m, October
Bhutan2015 291
Bhutan Zhemgang 1100m, October

Description

Leptodermis amoena is a narrowly distributed eastern Himalayan shrub recorded from Bhutan, neighbouring north-east India and adjacent southern China; with only about 18 GBIF occurrences it is among the more poorly collected members of its genus. It is a plant of warm-temperate to subtropical hill forest, occupying forest margins, open thickets, roadside banks and rocky slopes, broadly from 1,000 to 2,500 m. The plant photographed at Zhemgang in central Bhutan at 1,100 m in October illustrates its occurrence at the lower, subtropical end of this range, flowering late in the season on warm, well-drained slopes within the broad-leaved forest zone.

It is an erect, much-branched deciduous shrub up to about 1-2 m tall, with slender greyish to brownish branchlets that are puberulent when young. The leaves are opposite, small, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, entire and shortly petiolate, subtended by interpetiolar stipules bearing a slender awn typical of the genus. The flowers are borne in few-flowered axillary or terminal cymose clusters and are tubular and funnelform, with a narrow corolla tube expanding into five spreading lobes and an often pubescent exterior; the colour ranges from pale lilac to pinkish or whitish. As in Leptodermis, the species is heterostylous, and the fruit is a small capsule splitting into valves to release narrow seeds.

Leptodermis (Rubiaceae, tribe Paederieae) comprises some forty species centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, distinguished by their awned stipules, tubular heterostylous flowers and septicidal capsules. L. amoena is characterised by its delicate, attractively coloured corollas, reflected in the epithet amoena ('charming'). Its restricted range, low collection density and dependence on mid-elevation forest suggest a species potentially sensitive to habitat conversion, though it has not been formally assessed and no global IUCN status is published. Targeted survey across the eastern Himalaya would clarify its true distribution and conservation needs.

Author: Spring. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Rubiaceae of the Himalaya, monograph of Leptodermis

Rubiaceae

Leptodermis ludlowii

by G & P Jürgens

Spring.

Bhutan2012 317
Bhutan Paro-Chu, 2400m September

Description

Leptodermis ludlowii is a narrowly distributed Eastern Himalayan shrub, known from only about 26 georeferenced records confined to China (CN), Bhutan (BT) and India (IN). It is a plant of warm-temperate montane valleys, occupying open hillsides, dry scrub, rocky slopes and forest margins at middle elevations. The plant photographed along the Paro-Chu in western Bhutan at about 2400 m in September is characteristic of these sunny, well-drained inner-valley habitats, where the species flowers into the late monsoon. Its very restricted range and small number of collections mark it out as a regional endemic of the Eastern Himalaya.

It is a small, much-branched deciduous shrub with slender, often pubescent twigs. The leaves are opposite, small, ovate to elliptic, entire, and subtended by characteristic interpetiolar stipules with a membranous base and bristle-like awns, typical of the genus. The flowers are borne in small axillary or terminal clusters; each has a narrowly funnel-shaped, five-lobed corolla, usually white to pale pink or lilac, with the lobes spreading at the mouth. The slender corolla tube and the membranous, often persistent calyx are diagnostic of Leptodermis. The fruit is a small, dry capsule splitting into valves to release the seeds, which are enclosed in a thin, membranous testa from which the genus takes its name.

Leptodermis (Rubiaceae, tribe Paederieae) is an Asian genus centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, with many narrowly distributed, locally endemic species adapted to dry montane scrub. L. ludlowii, commemorating the collector Frank Ludlow, is one such restricted Eastern Himalayan endemic. Its very limited known range and scant collection record make it of conservation interest, although it has not been formally assessed; the integrity of mid-elevation valley scrub is important to its persistence.

Author: Spring. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Robbrecht and Deb taxonomic studies of Asian Rubiaceae (Leptodermis)

Rubiaceae

Leptodermis stapfiana

by G & P Jürgens

H.J.P.Winkl

Bhutan2012 1036
Bhutan Trithangebe 900m, October

Description

Leptodermis stapfiana H.J.P.Winkl. is a shrub of the Rubiaceae distributed through the central and eastern Himalaya and into adjacent China. GBIF records it from Nepal, Bhutan, India and China, with 76 georeferenced occurrences. The species favours warm to cool temperate slopes, forest margins, scrub and roadside thickets, typically on well-drained, often rocky ground. The illustrated plant from Trithangebe in Bhutan at 900 m, flowering in October, reflects its preference for the lower montane belt, where it can form conspicuous patches of bloom late in the growing season after the main monsoon.

The plant is an erect to spreading, much-branched shrub with slender, greyish, often finely pubescent branchlets. The leaves are opposite, small, ovate to lanceolate, entire, shortly petiolate, and subtended by triangular, aristate stipules characteristic of the genus. Flowers are sessile and clustered in the leaf axils and at the branch tips; the corolla is narrowly funnel-shaped, white to pale lilac or pinkish, with five (rarely four) spreading lobes that are valvate and crisped-pubescent within the throat. The species is typically heterostylous, and the fruit is a small dry capsule splitting into valves to release angular seeds enclosed in a delicate membranous testa, the feature that gives Leptodermis its name.

Leptodermis is a taxonomically difficult Sino-Himalayan genus in which species are separated largely by leaf size, calyx-lobe number and indumentum, and L. stapfiana sits within this radiation centred on the eastern Himalaya and southwest China. It is not regarded as threatened, but as a hardy, late-flowering nectar source it contributes to montane pollinator networks and to the structural diversity of Himalayan scrub vegetation.

Author: H.J.P.Winkl · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Deb & Rout: Studies in Indian Leptodermis (Rubiaceae)

Lamiaceae

Leucas ciliata

by G & P Jürgens

Benth.

Bhutan2015 62
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 2000m, October
Bhutan2015 460
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 2000m, October

Description

Leucas ciliata is a widely distributed Asian herb ranging across the Himalaya and into China, mainland Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam), Bangladesh and beyond, with GBIF logging 573 occurrences over a broad set of countries including CN, IN, NP, BT, TH, MM, VN and BD. It is a plant of open, disturbed and seasonally moist ground, occurring on grassy slopes, forest margins, roadsides, scrub and cultivated land at low to mid elevations, generally up to about 2500 m. The photographed plant was recorded at Wangdi (Wangdue) Phodrang in west-central Bhutan around 2000 m, flowering in October at the close of the monsoon.

The species is an erect annual or short-lived perennial herb with the quadrangular stems typical of the Lamiaceae, clothed in spreading, often ciliate hairs. The leaves are opposite, ovate to lanceolate, toothed (crenate-serrate) and short-petiolate. The flowers are aggregated into dense, globose axillary whorls (verticillasters) subtended by bristly, ciliate bracts. Each flower has a tubular, ribbed calyx with spine-tipped teeth and a two-lipped white corolla in which the small upper lip is hooded and densely woolly outside while the larger lower lip is three-lobed; the four didynamous stamens lie beneath the galea. The fruit comprises four smooth nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Leucas is a large Old World genus of the subfamily Lamioideae, well represented in tropical Asia and Africa and characterised by woolly white corollas adapted to insect pollination. Several species, including L. ciliata, are used in traditional medicine. As a ruderal colonist of open and anthropogenic habitats it is common and widespread, and faces no conservation concern.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China (Lamiaceae), Sebald revision of Leucas (Labiatae)

Lamiaceae

Leucas decemdentata

by G & P Jürgens

(Willd.) Sm.

Sikkim 2006 260 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Lingza 1300m, May

Description

Leucas decemdentata is one of the most widely distributed members of its genus, ranging across tropical and subtropical Asia and out into the western Pacific. GBIF records, totalling more than 1,600 occurrences, document its presence in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Myanmar through China, Taiwan and Japan to Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea, and onward to Australia, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia, as well as Christmas Island. In the eastern Himalaya it is a plant of warm-temperate to subtropical situations, frequenting open hillsides, roadside banks, cultivated margins, fallow fields and other disturbed ground. The photographed plant from Lingza in West Bengal, India, at about 1300 m and flowering in May, is typical of its lower montane occurrence, where it behaves as a weedy ruderal of sunny, well-drained slopes.

The species is an erect or ascending annual to short-lived perennial herb, usually 30-100 cm tall, with quadrangular stems that are retrorsely hairy along the angles. Leaves are opposite and decussate, ovate to lanceolate, with a crenate-serrate margin, an acute apex and a cuneate to attenuate base, the lamina sparsely pubescent and borne on short petioles. The white flowers are crowded into dense, globose, axillary verticillasters subtended by linear bracts. Each flower has a tubular, ten-toothed calyx with subequal spinescent teeth and a strongly two-lipped corolla, the upper lip arched and densely white-villous, the lower lip three-lobed with a larger middle lobe; the four didynamous stamens lie beneath the hood. The fruit comprises four smooth, trigonous nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

The ten conspicuous calyx teeth give the species its epithet decemdentata and are a useful diagnostic character within the large, taxonomically intricate genus Leucas. Long included with the white-flowered, capitate-inflorescenced "thumbergia group" of species, it has frequently been confused with L. ciliata, L. mollissima and other allies, and several Asian names have been treated as synonyms. Ecologically it is a pioneer of open, disturbed habitats and a minor melliferous plant visited by bees and other insects. It carries no conservation concern, being abundant and adaptable across an enormous geographic range, and like many Leucas species it is used locally in folk medicine for fevers and skin complaints.

Author: (Willd.) Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Revision of the genus Leucas (Lamiaceae) by Ryding