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.

Rubiaceae

Luculia gratissima

by G & P Jürgens

Sweet

Bhutan2012 418
Bhutan Tserang 1300m, September
Bhutan2012 1341
Bhutan Sandrup 1500m, September
Nepal 95 346 P619 ergebnis
Nepal Tibling 2200m October

Description

Luculia gratissima is a Himalayan and southwest Chinese shrub or small tree ranging from Nepal through Bhutan and northeast India into southern China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. GBIF records some 404 occurrences, including many cultivated specimens in temperate and subtropical regions worldwide. It inhabits subtropical to warm-temperate forest, forest margins, open hillsides and stream banks, generally between about 1000 and 2500 m. The photographed plants come from Bhutan at Tserang (1300 m) and Sandrup (1500 m) in September and from Tibling in Nepal at about 2200 m in October, the autumn flowering period typical of this fragrant species.

The species is an erect, branched shrub or small tree with terete, glabrescent branchlets. The leaves are opposite, large, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, with prominent pinnate venation and interpetiolar stipules. The flowers are borne in large terminal corymbose cymes and are showy and sweetly scented; each has a slender, elongate corolla tube opening into five spreading pink lobes, with small paired scales at the throat and exserted anthers. The fruit is an obovoid, ribbed, two-valved capsule that splits to release numerous small winged seeds adapted to wind dispersal.

Luculia gratissima Sweet is prized horticulturally for its fragrant pink autumn flowers and is widely grown in mild and subtropical gardens, which accounts for its many extralimital GBIF records. Within its native Himalayan and Indo-Chinese range it is widespread and not considered threatened. The genus Luculia, with its long-tubed scented flowers and winged capsular seeds, is of phylogenetic interest as an early-diverging lineage within the Rubiaceae.

Author: Sweet · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, taxonomic revisions of Luculia (Rubiaceae)

Onagraceae

Ludwigia octovalvis

by GP Jürgens

(Jacq.) P.H.Raven

Nepal 95 27 P42 ergebnis
Nepal Darondi-Khola 630m Octobre

Description

Ludwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) P.H.Raven is a pantropical wetland herb or subshrub of the willowherb family, one of the most widespread members of the genus. GBIF documents over 37,000 records across the tropics and warm temperate zones — the Americas (USA, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Cuba, Puerto Rico), Africa and the western Indian Ocean (South Africa, Madagascar, Réunion), Australia, and tropical and subtropical Asia (China, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia). In the Himalayan foothills it occupies marshes, ditches, paddy margins, riverbanks and other seasonally wet ground at low elevations, as for the photographed plant from Nepal, Darondi-Khola, 630 m, in October.

The plant is an erect, much-branched annual or short-lived perennial 0.5–2 m tall with terete to weakly four-angled, often reddish stems that are pubescent above. Leaves are alternate, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, entire, acuminate and shortly petiolate. Flowers are solitary in the upper leaf axils, 4-merous, with four bright yellow, obovate petals and four green sepals; the inferior, narrowly cylindric ovary is conspicuous. The fruit is a slender, ribbed, octovalved (eight-grooved) capsule — the source of the epithet — splitting to release numerous small seeds embedded in the dry pith, well suited to water and gravity dispersal.

Ludwigia is taxonomically complex, and L. octovalvis is a variable aggregate within which several subspecies and forms have been recognised. Its broad pantropical range, weediness in rice agriculture and ready colonisation of disturbed wet ground make it ecologically successful and locally a useful medicinal plant. It is not of conservation concern.

Author: (Jacq.) P.H.Raven · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Raven: Monograph of the genus Jussiaea / Ludwigia (Reinwardtia)

Ericaceae

Lyonia ovalifolia

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Drude

Nepal 97 517 P1015
Nepal Chinchilla 1950m May
Nepal 2001 521 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Mulabari 1360m, May

Description

Lyonia ovalifolia is a widespread Sino-Himalayan and East Asian shrub or small tree distributed from China, Japan and Taiwan through Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina, with a large GBIF dataset of over 13000 records. It grows on open hillsides, forest margins, thickets and in pine and oak forest understorey, typically between about 1000 and 3000 m. The illustrated plants from Chinchilla at 1950 m and Mulabari in Gorkha at 1360 m in Nepal, both flowering in May, are typical of its subtropical to temperate montane habitats, where it is a common component of the secondary scrub and open forest of the Himalayan midlands.

It is a deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub or small tree with reddish-brown, often somewhat zigzag young branchlets. The leaves are alternate, ovate to ovate-elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, with an entire margin, an acuminate apex and a rounded to subcordate base, with pinnate venation. The flowers are borne in axillary racemes along the shoots, each with a small five-lobed calyx and an urceolate (urn-shaped) white corolla with five short recurved lobes, ten included stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is a small, ovoid, woody, five-valved loculicidal capsule with a persistent thickened placental axis, releasing numerous minute seeds.

Lyonia belongs to the subfamily Vaccinioideae of the Ericaceae and, in common with many members of that family, contains grayanotoxin-type diterpenes, making the foliage toxic to livestock; the plant has local uses as an insecticide and in folk medicine. The urn-shaped flowers are pollinated by bees and other insects, and the tiny seeds are wind-dispersed from the dehiscing capsules. As an abundant and ecologically tolerant species across a vast range, L. ovalifolia is of least conservation concern.

Author: (Wall.) Drude · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Judd Revision of Lyonia (Ericaceae) monograph

Ericaceae

Lyonia villosa

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex C.B. Clarke) Hand.-Mazz.

Lyonia villosa ergebnis scaled
Bhutan Wangdi, 2400m June

Description

Lyonia villosa (Wall. ex C.B.Clarke) Hand.-Mazz. is a widely distributed Sino-Himalayan shrub recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Vietnam and Japan, with more than 1300 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF, reflecting its broad range across the eastern Himalaya and southern China. It grows in temperate forest, forest margins, thickets and open rocky hillsides, commonly between about 1500 and 3500 m. The plant photographed near Wangdi at 2400 m in June is characteristic of its mid-elevation habitat, where it forms part of the understorey and scrub of mixed broadleaved and conifer woodland.

It is a deciduous shrub or small tree with villous to tomentose young branchlets, the indumentum giving rise to the epithet. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, entire, with a pubescent surface and prominent venation. The white, urceolate (urn-shaped) flowers are borne in axillary racemes or fascicles along the branches; each corolla is shortly five-lobed at the contracted mouth, with included stamens whose anthers bear awns, and a superior ovary maturing into a woody, dehiscent, five-valved capsule. The capsule has thickened sutures, a diagnostic feature of the genus, and releases numerous small seeds.

Lyonia belongs to the tribe Lyonieae of the Ericaceae and is allied to Pieris and Agarista; the thickened capsule sutures and awned anthers separate it from these relatives. Several varieties have been recognised within L. villosa on the basis of indumentum density and leaf shape. As in many Ericaceae the foliage is reported to be toxic to livestock. The species is common and widespread and is not considered threatened.

Author: (Wall. ex C.B. Clarke) Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Judd revision of Lyonia (Ericaceae)

Primulaceae

Lysimachia congestiflora

by G & P Jürgens

Hemsl.

Bhutan2014 782
Bhutan Wangdi Mo-Chu 1200m, May

Description

Lysimachia congestiflora is a wide-ranging species native across China, Taiwan, the Himalaya (Nepal, north-east India, Bhutan) and into Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Japan; its very large total of 1844 georeferenced records includes numerous naturalised and cultivated points in the United States, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Australia and Europe, reflecting its popularity as a creeping ground-cover and basket plant. It grows in moist, shaded to open ground on grassy banks, streamsides, ditches, field margins and damp roadside slopes. The Bhutan collection at Wangdi along the Mo-Chu at about 1200 m typifies its preference for warm, humid lower-montane habitats.

It is a low, mat-forming perennial herb with slender, decumbent to creeping stems that root at the lower nodes and are sparsely villous. The leaves are opposite, ovate to broadly elliptic, often gland-dotted and minutely hairy. The flowers are crowded in dense terminal clusters (hence congestiflora), each on a short pedicel; the corolla is yellow, rotate to broadly campanulate, five-lobed and frequently marked with reddish spots or a darker throat. There are five stamens, and the fruit is a small globose capsule enclosed by the persistent calyx.

Within Primulaceae the genus Lysimachia (sometimes segregated as Lysimachiopsis or placed in subgenus Idiophyton) comprises loosestrifes characterised by rotate corollas and capsular fruit. The clustered yellow flowers attract a range of generalist insect pollinators. Exceptionally adaptable and frequently weedy in cultivation, the species is abundant throughout its native range and of no conservation concern; its capacity to naturalise has even made it a minor garden escape in several regions.

Author: Hemsl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Hu & Kelso Primulaceae monographic treatments

Primulaceae

Lysimachia evalvis

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Sikkim 2006 282 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 281 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chaana 1650m, May

Description

Lysimachia evalvis is a Sino-Himalayan herb distributed along the moist temperate and subtropical belt of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Burmese ranges. GBIF records (88 occurrences) span India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and China, with scattered cultivated or vouchered material noted from the United States. It favours shaded, humid forest margins, stream banks and seepage slopes within broadleaved woodland. The species was photographed at Chaana in West Bengal, India, at about 1650 m in May, in the lower montane forests where it flowers with the onset of the pre-monsoon rains.

It is a perennial, somewhat fleshy herb with slender erect to ascending stems arising from a short rhizomatous base. The leaves are alternate to subopposite, ovate to lanceolate, entire, acuminate at the apex and often gland-dotted, borne on short petioles. The flowers are solitary or few in the upper leaf axils, with a deeply five-lobed calyx and a yellow, rotate to campanulate corolla divided into five lobes; the five stamens are inserted on the corolla tube. The fruit is a small globose capsule; as the epithet evalvis suggests, dehiscence is reduced or irregular rather than by the typical valves, a diagnostic feature within the genus.

Lysimachia (Primulaceae, formerly segregated in Myrsinaceae alliance) is a large, near-cosmopolitan genus well represented in the Himalaya. L. evalvis belongs to the predominantly Asian element of the genus, its distribution reflecting the warm, perhumid forests of the eastern Himalayan front. No formal conservation assessment is widely published; like many forest-floor herbs of this region, its persistence depends on intact humid montane forest, making habitat conversion the principal threat to local populations.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hu's monograph of Lysimachia (Primulaceae)

Primulaceae

Lysimachia lobelioides

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bh09 395 P626
Bhutan Mo-Chu, 1350m June
Bh09 396 P628
Bhutan Mo-Chu, 1350m June

Description

Lysimachia lobelioides is a slender herb ranging widely through the Himalaya and Southeast Asia, recorded from China, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan and New Caledonia, with 647 occurrences logged in GBIF. It favours moist, shaded and disturbed places at low to middle elevations: stream banks, ditches, damp grassy ground, field margins and open forest, broadly between 300 and 2500 m. The Bhutanese collection illustrated, from the Mo-Chu valley at 1350 m in June, typifies its occurrence in warm subtropical river-valley habitats during the early monsoon, when it flowers freely on damp, fertile soils.

It is an annual or short-lived perennial with weak, erect to decumbent, often quadrangular stems 10-40 cm long, glabrous and sometimes rooting at the lower nodes. The leaves are alternate, ovate to lanceolate, thin in texture, shortly petiolate and frequently dotted with dark glandular punctations. The small flowers are borne singly in the upper leaf axils on filiform pedicels; the corolla is white to pale pink, deeply five-lobed and shorter than or about equalling the lanceolate calyx lobes, with five stamens. The fruit is a small globose capsule dehiscing by valves and releasing numerous minute angular seeds.

Lysimachia (Primulaceae, formerly Myrsinaceae in part) is a large, near-cosmopolitan genus best developed in eastern Asia; L. lobelioides belongs to a group of small-flowered, axillary-flowered annuals. Its wide distribution, weedy tendency and tolerance of disturbed wet ground make it ecologically adaptable and of no conservation concern. The disjunct New Caledonian records are biogeographically notable, pointing to long-distance dispersal of this colonising species across the Indo-Pacific.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Revision of the Genus Lysimachia (Primulaceae)

Primulaceae

Lysimachia prolifera

by GP Jürgens

Klatt

Nepal 2001 255 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Niuli Kharka 2700m, May
Nepal 2001 256 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Niuli Kharka 2700m, May

Description

Lysimachia prolifera is a Sino-Himalayan species distributed across the central and eastern Himalaya and southwestern China, with verified occurrences in Nepal, India, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Pakistan; outlying records from Japan and the United States among the roughly 194 collections almost certainly reflect cultivated or misdetermined material. It is a plant of moist temperate to subalpine habitats, favouring shaded forest margins, streamsides, mossy banks and damp grassy clearings. The photographed population at Niuli Kharka in Gorkha, Nepal, at about 2700 m and flowering in May, is typical of its mid-montane band where snowmelt and monsoon moisture keep the substrate reliably humid.

The species is a perennial herb with slender, often decumbent to ascending stems arising from a creeping rhizomatous base. The leaves are simple, opposite or sometimes whorled, ovate to lanceolate, entire-margined and frequently gland-dotted, narrowing to a short petiole or sessile base. The flowers are borne singly in the leaf axils or in lax leafy racemes; the corolla is rotate and five-lobed, typically yellow, the lobes spreading and often marked with darker glands. Stamens are five, opposite the corolla lobes and shortly connate at the base, the ovary superior with a single style. The fruit is a small, globose, dehiscent capsule containing numerous minute angular seeds.

Within Primulaceae, Lysimachia is a large, taxonomically intricate genus now circumscribed broadly, and species such as L. prolifera are distinguished by subtle differences in leaf arrangement, gland distribution and inflorescence form that have historically caused confusion. Ecologically it contributes to the herbaceous understorey of Himalayan forests and is visited by generalist pollinating insects. No specific conservation concern is recorded for this widespread montane species, though, like many Himalayan herbs, it is locally sensitive to forest clearance, trampling and grazing along trekking corridors.

Author: Klatt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hu's monograph of Lysimachia (Primulaceae)

Didymocarpinae

Lysionotus pubescens

by G & P Jürgens

C.B. Clarke

Bhutan2012 996
Bhutan Thritangebe 1000m, October

Description

Lysionotus pubescens is an epiphytic or lithophytic gesneriad of the humid subtropical to lower montane forests of the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma, recorded from China, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Its 75 georeferenced occurrences trace a belt of warm, moist evergreen forest where it grows perched on mossy tree trunks, branches and shaded rock faces. The plant photographed at Thritangebe in Bhutan at 1000 m in October reflects its preference for the warm, low-elevation forest zone, flowering in the post-monsoon period when humidity remains high beneath the canopy.

The plant is a small woody-based perennial with pendent or ascending stems bearing leaves in whorls of three or more, or sometimes opposite. The leaves are leathery, elliptic to oblong, with a toothed (serrate to crenate) margin, and as the epithet indicates the herbage is finely pubescent. The flowers are borne in short axillary cymes; the corolla is tubular and distinctly two-lipped (bilabiate), white to pale pink or pale violet, often with yellow or purple markings in the throat, with two fertile stamens. The diagnostic fruit is a long, slender, linear capsule that dehisces to release numerous minute seeds bearing fine appendages.

Lysionotus belongs to subtribe Didymocarpinae of the Gesneriaceae, the family group cited here, and is distinguished within it by its long siliqua-like capsule and frequently whorled leaves. The genus is centred on the Sino-Himalayan and Indo-Chinese region and is well represented in China. As an epiphyte dependent on intact humid forest, L. pubescens is locally common where suitable habitat persists but is sensitive to forest clearance.

Author: C.B. Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Gesneriaceae of the Old World monograph (Weber), Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton)

Euphorbiaceae

Macaranga denticulata

by G & P Jürgens

Müll.Arg.

Bhutan2015 199
Bhutan, Zhemgang 910m, October
Bhutan2015 557
Bhutan, Punaka 1240m, October
Bhutan2015 556
Bhutan, Punaka 1240m, October

Description

Macaranga denticulata is a fast-growing pioneer tree with a wide tropical and subtropical Asian distribution, its 1451 georeferenced occurrences spanning China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and beyond. It is a characteristic colonist of disturbed ground, forest gaps, road cuttings, secondary forest and abandoned swidden plots in warm, humid foothill country. The records from Zhemgang at 910 m and Punakha at 1240 m in Bhutan in October place it firmly in the low-elevation subtropical zone where it regenerates rapidly after disturbance and forms early-successional thickets and woodland.

The plant is a small to medium evergreen tree with smooth bark and somewhat whorled, spreading branches. The leaves are large, alternate, peltate or subpeltate, broadly ovate to triangular with a denticulate margin reflected in the epithet, palmately veined, and often bearing glands and pale tomentum beneath. As a member of the Euphorbiaceae it is dioecious, the small apetalous flowers borne in branched axillary inflorescences subtended by toothed or glandular bracts; male and female flowers occur on separate trees. The fruit is a small two-lobed capsule, the seeds often associated with a fleshy aril attractive to birds and ants.

Macaranga is a large palaeotropical genus famous for its myrmecophytic (ant-associated) species and its ecological role as a pioneer. M. denticulata is a non-myrmecophytic but ecologically important coloniser, valued for rapid biomass accumulation, soil stabilisation and as a nurse species in fallows. Its enormous range, abundance and affinity for disturbed habitats make it among the most secure and widespread trees in its family across tropical Asia.

Author: Müll.Arg. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Revision of Macaranga (Euphorbiaceae) (Whitmore and successors), Trees of tropical Asia