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.

Lauraceae

Machilus kurzii

by G & P Jürgens

King ex Hook.f.

Sikkim2004 379 P656 ergebnis
Sikkim Lachung-valley 3200 m, May
Sikkim2004 380 P657 ergebnis
Sikkim Lachung-valley 3200 m, May

Description

Machilus kurzii is an evergreen laurel of the eastern Himalaya and Southeast Asia, distributed from NE India and Bhutan through Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam into SW China, as documented by its roughly 135 GBIF occurrences across IN, BT, CN, MM, TH, KH, VN and KR. The tree photographed grows in the Lachung valley of northern Sikkim at about 3,200 m in May. It is a species of humid temperate and subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest, occurring on moist slopes and in ravines often dominated by other Lauraceae, Fagaceae and rhododendrons, where high rainfall and persistent cloud sustain the laurophyllous canopy across a broad altitudinal range.

It is an evergreen tree with smooth bark and glabrous to thinly pubescent twigs. The leaves are alternate, coriaceous, elliptic to oblanceolate, entire, with a pinnate venation of fine, looping secondary veins and an obtuse to shortly acuminate apex, often glaucous beneath. The flowers are small and bisexual, borne in subterminal or axillary panicles; they show the trimerous laurel plan with six tepals in two whorls, fertile stamens in several whorls including a third whorl with paired basal glands, and inward-facing anthers dehiscing by valves. The fruit is a globose to ellipsoid berry seated on a persistent, somewhat enlarged perianth base or cupule, characteristic of the genus.

Machilus, often treated within or close to Persea, is an Asian genus of the tribe Laureae whose delimitation has long been debated; molecular and floral evidence continues to refine the boundary between Machilus and Persea. The species is an integral element of mid-montane evergreen forest, contributing to canopy structure and providing fleshy fruits for birds. It is not currently considered threatened, though it depends on the maintenance of undisturbed humid broadleaf forest.

Author: King ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Kostermans: Lauraceae studies

Loranthaceae

Macrosolen psilanthus

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook.f.) Danser

Bhutan2012 698
Bhutan Galephu 850m, September

Description

Macrosolen psilanthus is an eastern Himalayan hemiparasitic mistletoe distributed across India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, with about 35 occurrences concentrated in the warm subtropical foothills and duars at the base of the Himalaya. It grows as a stem parasite on the branches of a range of broad-leaved trees and shrubs in subtropical broad-leaved forest, secondary woodland and along forest edges, predominantly at low elevations below about 1200 m. The photographed plant from Galephu in southern Bhutan at 850 m, flowering in September, is typical of its occurrence in the humid, low-altitude foothill forests of the eastern Himalayan front, where suitable host trees are abundant.

It is a glabrous, woody aerial hemiparasite attached to its host by a haustorial connection. The branches are terete to somewhat angled, and the leaves are opposite, coriaceous, ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, entire, with pinnate venation and a short petiole. The inflorescences are axillary spikes or racemes bearing opposite, decussate flowers, each subtended by a single bract. The flowers are bisexual with a calyculus crowning the inferior ovary and a tubular, six-merous corolla that is reddish, orange or greenish-yellow, the lobes reflexing at anthesis; the epithet psilanthus ("smooth-flowered") refers to the glabrous perianth. The six stamens are epipetalous. The fruit is a one-seeded berry whose seed is enveloped in viscin.

Macrosolen belongs to the Loranthaceae, the showy-flowered mistletoes, and like its relatives is an obligate hemiparasite drawing water and minerals from its host while photosynthesising in its own green leaves. The flowers are bird-pollinated (ornithophilous), and the viscin-coated seeds are dispersed by frugivorous birds such as flowerpeckers that deposit them on host branches. The species is locally frequent within its foothill range and is not considered threatened.

Author: (Hook.f.) Danser · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Barlow Loranthaceae revisions for the Malesian and Asian region (monograph), Flora of British India

Rosaceae

Maddenia himalaica

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Bhutan2014 585
Bhutan Phobjika 3100m, May

Description

Maddenia himalaica is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan species recorded from Nepal, north-east India, Bhutan and south-west China, the 68 georeferenced occurrences including a few cultivated points in Belgium and the United States. It is a plant of cool temperate forest margins, ravines, streamsides and shrubberies, often in association with mixed broadleaved and conifer woodland. The Bhutan material was gathered at Phobjika at about 3100 m, within its usual elevational band of roughly 2400-3600 m in the upper temperate zone. Under current taxonomy GBIF treats the name as a synonym, with Maddenia himalaica regarded as the accepted name; the genus is now frequently subsumed within Prunus.

It is a deciduous shrub or small tree with glabrous to finely pubescent young branchlets and conspicuous, persistent, fringed stipules. The leaves are alternate, oblong to obovate-elliptic, acuminate, sharply and often doubly serrate at the margin, with prominent venation. The small flowers are crowded in short, dense racemes and are apetalous or nearly so, a key generic feature; the numerous stamens surround a glabrous ovary. The fruit is a small ovoid drupe, blackish at maturity, seated on the persistent hypanthium.

Maddenia has long been placed in subfamily Amygdaloideae near Prunus and Pygeum, and molecular studies support its inclusion within a broadly circumscribed Prunus, the reduced apetalous flowers being a derived condition. Its dense racemes attract small insects, and the drupes are dispersed by birds. Widespread if scattered across the Himalaya, it is not considered threatened, though its forest habitat is locally reduced by clearance and grazing.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Rehder Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs

Magnoliaceae

Magnolia campbellii

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Nepal 97 118 P204
Nepal Mewa-Khola 2470m April
Nepal 97 119 G206 2
Nepal Mewa-Khola 2470m April
Nepal1992 149 P216 ergebnis
Nepal Simbua-Khola 2500m March 

Description

Magnolia campbellii, Campbell's magnolia, is a large deciduous tree of the eastern Himalaya, native from Nepal through Sikkim and Bhutan into NE India, Myanmar and SW China; the additional GBIF codes (GB, IE, US, NZ, JP, DE and others) among its roughly 807 occurrences reflect its renown as a cultivated ornamental. The plants photographed grow in eastern Nepal in the Mewa-Khola (c. 2,470 m, April) and Simbua-Khola (c. 2,500 m, March) valleys, flowering before leaf flush in early spring. In the wild it inhabits temperate broadleaf and mixed forest on humid, well-drained slopes, typically between 2,100 and 3,000 m, often as an emergent tree among oak, rhododendron and laurel.

It is a tree reaching 20–30 m with a stout trunk, grey bark and stout, often pubescent young twigs marked by ringed stipular scars. The leaves are alternate, elliptic to obovate, entire, glaucous and finely hairy beneath. The large, solitary, precocious flowers are among the most spectacular of the genus, cup-and-saucer in form, 15–25 cm across, with numerous tepals ranging from deep rose-pink to white; as in all Magnoliaceae the receptacle bears spirally arranged stamens below an elongate gynoecium of free carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of follicles forming a cylindrical, often twisted etaerio that splits to expose red, arillate seeds suspended on slender funicular threads.

Magnolia campbellii belongs to subgenus Yulania, the precocious-flowering Asian magnolias, and its early bloom on bare branches is a defining feature exploited in horticulture, where numerous selections and hybrids exist. Though widely grown, wild populations face pressure from logging and forest conversion, and the species is regarded as of conservation interest across parts of its native range, making intact mid-montane Himalayan forest important to its persistence.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Hunt (ed.): Magnolias and their Allies

Magnoliaceae

Magnolia globosa

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2011 191
Sikkim Lachung 2800m, June
Sikkim2011 193
Sikkim Lachung 2800m, June

Description

Magnolia globosa is a small deciduous tree or large shrub of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China, documented by GBIF (236 occurrences) from China, India, Bhutan and Nepal, with additional records reflecting cultivation in Europe, Korea and elsewhere. It is a plant of cool, humid temperate forest, growing in mixed broadleaved and conifer woodland, along ravines and on shaded slopes, generally between about 2500 and 3500 m. The collection from Lachung in Sikkim at 2800 m in June represents its typical montane forest habitat, where it flowers in early summer in the moist, mist-laden middle-mountain belt.

The species is a spreading, often multi-stemmed tree whose young twigs, petioles and flower buds bear conspicuous rusty or pale tomentum. The leaves are alternate, broadly ovate to elliptic, rounded to cordate at the base and pubescent beneath. The flowers are nodding and characteristically cup-shaped to nearly globose, fragrant, with creamy-white to ivory tepals; the perianth is differentiated into a few outer and several inner tepals surrounding numerous spirally arranged stamens and an elongate gynoecium of free carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of follicles forming a cylindric to ovoid pink to crimson cone, releasing red-arillate seeds at maturity.

Magnolia globosa belongs to the morphologically ancient Magnoliaceae, a family noted for spirally arranged floral parts, apocarpous gynoecia and beetle pollination of the large protogynous flowers. Its nodding globose blooms and aggregate follicular cone are diagnostic. Though valued in horticulture, wild populations are scattered and the species, like many temperate Himalayan magnolias, is potentially vulnerable to forest loss and so warrants monitoring.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Hunt Magnolias and their Allies

Magnoliaceae

Magnolia hodgsonii

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Keng

Sikkim 2006 492 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chaana 1700m, May

Description

Magnolia hodgsonii is an evergreen tree of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, distributed through northeast India, Nepal, Bhutan, southern China (Yunnan, Xizang), Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and into Malesia. It is a component of warm, humid subtropical to lower montane broad-leaved evergreen forest, favouring sheltered valleys, ravines and moist hill slopes on deep soils. It generally occurs from the lowlands to around 1,800 m; the tree photographed at Chaana in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal at 1,700 m in May exemplifies its upper subtropical forest habitat, flowering at the close of the dry season.

The plant is a medium-sized to large tree with smooth grey bark and stout twigs. The leaves are large, alternate, often clustered toward the branch tips, obovate to elliptic-oblong, coriaceous, glabrous and entire, with a prominent venation. The solitary, terminal flowers are large and fragrant, with creamy-white to pale yellow tepals arranged in several whorls; the numerous stamens and the apocarpous gynoecium of free carpels are borne on an elongate floral axis. The fruit is an ellipsoid to ovoid aggregate of follicles which split to expose seeds enveloped in a fleshy red to orange sarcotesta, dispersed by birds.

The species, with basionym attributed to Hooker f. and Thomson and recombined by H. Keng, was formerly placed in the segregate genus Talauma, now subsumed within a broadly circumscribed Magnolia. As an archaic, beetle-pollinated member of one of the most basal angiosperm lineages, it is of considerable evolutionary interest. Valued for its timber and ornamental flowers, it is subject to selective logging and forest clearance, and warm-temperate populations on the forest fringe merit monitoring where habitat loss is ongoing.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Keng · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Figlar & Nooteboom: Magnoliaceae notes

Magnoliaceae

Magnolia kisopa

by G & P Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Figlar

Bhutan2012 435
Bhutan Dochu-La 2500m, October
Bhutan2015 517
Bhutan Dochu-La 2500m, October
Bhutan2015 519
Bhutan Dochu-La 2500m, October

Description

Magnolia kisopa (Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Figlar is a Himalayan tree distributed across Nepal, China, India, Vietnam, Bhutan and Cambodia, with GBIF recording some 129 occurrences. It is a component of cool temperate to subtropical broad-leaved forest, on humid, well-drained slopes, in ravines and along forest margins in the mid-montane belt. The Bhutanese material from the Dochu-La at 2500 m, photographed in October, places it in the cool temperate evergreen and mixed forest zone, where it occurs as a scattered understorey to canopy tree.

It is a deciduous or semi-evergreen tree with smooth to slightly fissured bark and stout young twigs bearing the conspicuous stipular scars of the family. The leaves are simple, alternate, obovate to oblanceolate, entire-margined, with an acuminate apex and cuneate base, often glaucous beneath. The flowers are large, solitary and terminal, with a perianth of several free, fleshy white to creamy tepals undifferentiated into sepals and petals, surrounding the floral axis bearing numerous spiral stamens and free carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of follicles forming an oblong, cone-like etaerio dehiscing to expose seeds with a fleshy red sarcotesta.

Magnolia kisopa, formerly placed in Michelia, was transferred to a broadly circumscribed Magnolia by Figlar following molecular evidence uniting these Asian magnoliids. It belongs to the evergreen-leaved magnolias of the Sino-Himalayan and Southeast Asian region, an ancient lineage with beetle pollination and bird-dispersed arillate seeds. As a tree valued for timber and ornament, populations are locally affected by forest clearance, and the wider genus includes many taxa of conservation concern.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Figlar · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Figlar & Nooteboom magnolioid classification of the Magnoliaceae

Boraginaceae

Maharanga bicolor

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex G. Don) A. DC.

BhutanPG2011 846
Bhutan Paro-Chu 2400m, July
Nepal 99 477 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3300m, June

Description

Maharanga bicolor (Wall. ex G. Don) A. DC. is a Himalayan herb of the borage family, recorded by GBIF in 64 occurrences from China (CN), Nepal (NP), Bhutan (BT) and India (IN). It grows on open grassy slopes, rocky banks, forest margins and alpine meadows of the temperate to subalpine zone. The image documents two populations: the Paro-Chu valley in Bhutan at 2400 m in July and the Churta-Khola in West Nepal at 3300 m in June, illustrating the species' typical mid- to high-elevation Himalayan range during the early monsoon.

The plant is a perennial herb arising from a thickened, often reddish rootstock, with erect or ascending stems clothed, like the whole plant, in stiff bristly hairs typical of the family. The leaves are alternate, oblong to lanceolate, sessile or shortly stalked and hispid on both surfaces. The flowers are nodding, borne in terminal scorpioid cymes; the corolla is tubular to narrowly campanulate or urceolate, contracted at the mouth and often bicoloured in yellow and dark purple or maroon, with the anthers conspicuously exserted in a connivent cone, a feature distinguishing Maharanga from the closely related Onosma. The fruit comprises up to four hard, ovoid nutlets.

Maharanga is a small Sino-Himalayan genus segregated from Onosma chiefly by its connate, exserted anthers and pendent flowers, and its species are characteristic elements of the open Himalayan flora. The bristly indumentum and reddish roots, which yield dyes in some relatives, are shared features of the Lithospermeae. The pendent tubular flowers are adapted to insect, probably bumblebee, pollination. With a restricted Himalayan range and dependence on open montane habitats, the genus is of biogeographic interest, though M. bicolor remains locally frequent and is not regarded as threatened.

Author: (Wall. ex G. Don) A. DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Boraginaceae revision (Maharanga; I. M. Johnston, Onosma and allied genera)

Boraginaceae

Maharanga emodi

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

BhutanPG2011 99 scaled
Bhutan Chogcham, 3400m June
Nepal 99 42 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June

Description

Maharanga emodi is a striking bristly herb of the Himalaya and adjacent China, recorded from Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, with GBIF documenting 170 occurrences. It grows on open alpine and subalpine slopes, rocky banks, grazed meadows and cliff ledges. The images derive from Chogcham in Bhutan at about 3400 m and from Nyor Gaad in West Nepal at about 2800 m, both flowering in June, illustrating its mid- to high-montane range across the chain.

The plant is a perennial with a stout rootstock and erect to ascending stems densely clothed in stiff, often pustular-based hairs. The leaves are oblong to oblanceolate, rough-hairy and crowded below. The flowers are pendent in nodding, branched cymes; the corolla is tubular and somewhat inflated or urceolate, contracted at the mouth, typically yellow flushed with purple or wine-red, with the anthers connivent around the exserted style, a floral form distinctive of the genus.

GBIF treats this binomial as a synonym while listing Maharanga emodi as the accepted name, reflecting nomenclatural movement between Maharanga and Onosma. Maharanga is a small Himalayan segregate of Onosma defined largely by its inflated corolla and connate stamens, and its taxonomic independence has been debated; some authors subsume it within Onosma. Like its relatives the roots contain red dye pigments. Its showy flowers and montane habitat make it a conspicuous element of Himalayan slope vegetation.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Riedl's treatment of Boraginaceae

Berberidaceae

Mahonia napaulensis

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Nepal1992 158 P231 ergebnis
Nepal Yamphudin 1800m March 

Description

Mahonia napaulensis is a Himalayan evergreen shrub distributed from central Nepal eastward through northeast India, Bhutan, and Myanmar to southern China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou), with outlying populations recorded in northern Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. GBIF documents nearly 985 occurrences across its range. The species inhabits montane broadleaved and mixed forests, forest clearings, and rocky slopes at elevations of 1,100–2,800 m. Near Yamphudin in eastern Nepal at 1,800 m, it occurs in the understorey of mid-hill Quercus–Rhododendron forests, flowering conspicuously in the dry pre-monsoon months of February to April.
Mahonia napaulensis is an erect, often sparsely branched shrub growing to 2–5 m tall. The leaves are imparipinnately compound, 25–45 cm long, with 7–15 pairs of coriaceous, ovate-lanceolate leaflets that are spinose-serrate along the margins and glossy dark green above. The inflorescence consists of 5–12 fascicled racemes arising from the stem apex, each 12–25 cm long, bearing densely arranged yellow flowers. Individual flowers are trimerous with 6 sepals in two whorls, 6 petals, and 6 stamens with valvate dehiscence. The fruit is a globose berry, 7–10 mm in diameter, blue-black with a waxy bloom at maturity, containing 2–5 seeds.
Mahonia napaulensis is closely allied to M. acanthifolia, from which it is distinguished by its more numerous leaflet pairs and generally longer racemes. Some authorities have treated these taxa as conspecific, but molecular phylogenetic studies support their separation. The berries are consumed by birds, particularly bulbuls and laughingthrushes, which serve as the primary seed dispersers. The species is widely cultivated as an ornamental in temperate gardens worldwide, valued for its architectural foliage and fragrant winter flowers.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 6, Flora of Nepal Checklist, Adhikari et al.: Berberidaceae of Nepal (2010)