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.

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis bella

by G & P Jürgens

Prain

BhutanPG2011 198
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3650m June
BhutanPG2011 206
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3650m June

Description

Meconopsis bella is a dwarf, exquisite blue poppy endemic to the eastern Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and adjacent southern China, the 79 GBIF occurrences reflecting its narrow range and the inaccessibility of its habitat. It grows in cool, moist, sheltered situations at high elevation, characteristically rooted in crevices of rock faces, cliff ledges, moraines and shaded banks between roughly 3300 and 4500 m. The photographed plant was found at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3650 m in June, the early-summer flowering season when it blooms amid the monsoon mists of the subalpine zone.

It is a small, slender, tap-rooted perennial lacking a leafy stem, the few leaves forming a basal tuft; the blades are obovate and pinnately lobed or coarsely toothed, on long slender petioles, bearing scattered fine hairs. The flowers are solitary on long, thread-like leafless scapes that arise directly from the rootstock and nod gracefully. Each flower has four broad, satiny petals in pale sky-blue to lavender or, in some forms, soft pink-mauve, surrounding a boss of yellow stamens and a prominent ovary tipped by a clavate stigma. The fruit is a narrow erect capsule dehiscing apically to shed numerous small seeds.

The genus Meconopsis is the celebrated assemblage of Asiatic blue poppies, and M. bella is among the smallest and most delicate, belonging to the crevice-dwelling group. Its scattered, cliff-bound populations and exacting requirements for cool humid air and sharp drainage render it both horticulturally prized and intrinsically vulnerable to collection and climatic shifts. Although not formally Red-Listed, its restricted eastern Himalayan endemism warrants conservation attention, and seed-grown stock underpins its limited cultivation in specialist gardens.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Grey-Wilson: The Genus Meconopsis, Flora of China

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis grandis

by GP Jürgens

Prain

Nepal 97 187 G369
Nepal Tayla-La 4050m April
Nepal 99 107 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3600m, June
Nepal 99 280 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalomura 4100m, June
Nepal 99 281 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalomura 4100m, June

Description

Meconopsis grandis is a high-altitude perennial of the eastern and central Himalaya, distributed across Nepal, northern India, Sikkim, Bhutan and adjacent southern Tibet (China), with cultivated and naturalised records reflected in the European data (United Kingdom, Belgium, Norway, Sweden). GBIF documents some 266 occurrences, a figure inflated by its long horticultural history as one of the celebrated "blue poppies." In its native range it grows in moist alpine meadows, open scrub, the margins of Rhododendron thickets and along streamsides on humus-rich, well-drained acidic soils. The collections illustrated span the snowmelt belt between roughly 3600 and 4100 m, from Tayla-La in central Nepal at 4050 m in April to the slopes south of Rara Lake at 3600 m and Kalomura at 4100 m in June, where it flowers as the monsoon advances.

It forms a stout, deciduous perennial from a thick rootstock, with a basal rosette of oblanceolate to elliptic leaves clothed in rust-coloured to fulvous bristly hairs, the blades narrowing into a winged petiole and often shallowly toothed. The flowering scape is erect, bristly and bears one to several large nodding flowers, each typically with four (sometimes more) broad, satiny, overlapping petals of intense azure to violet-blue, occasionally purplish. Numerous golden stamens surround a stout ovary crowned by a short, well-defined style and capitate to clavate stigma. The fruit is an elongate, ellipsoid to narrowly ovoid capsule, bristly-hairy, dehiscing by short apical valves to release small seeds.

Meconopsis grandis belongs to a taxonomically intricate complex of perennial blue poppies and has historically hybridised in cultivation, giving rise to the widely grown Meconopsis × sheldonii. Variation in flower colour, leaf indumentum and monocarpic versus polycarpic habit has prompted recognition of several subspecies and forms by different authors. Ecologically it is pollinated chiefly by bumblebees attracted to its conspicuous corolla. Though not formally assessed as threatened across its wide range, populations are localised and sensitive to grazing pressure, trampling and the warming of alpine habitats, making it a flagship species for Himalayan montane conservation.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Christopher Grey-Wilson – The Genus Meconopsis

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis horridula

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

BhutanPG2011 552 1
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Dem-Tso, 4650m July
BhutanPG2011 664
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Dem-Tso, 4700m July
Nepal 99 328 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4300m, June

Description

Meconopsis horridula is one of the most widespread of the blue poppies, distributed across the high Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau through China, Nepal, Bhutan and India, with a large dataset of around 1472 occurrences (records reported from cultivation in Britain, Canada and elsewhere reflect its horticultural celebrity). It inhabits open stony slopes, scree, moraine, rock crevices and high alpine turf, typically between about 4000 and 5000 m. The photographed plants from Dem-Tso on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at 4650–4700 m in July, and from Kalmura in West Nepal at 4300 m in June, are characteristic of its preference for exposed, well-drained high-elevation ground.

It is a monocarpic herb, the whole plant densely armed with stiff, spreading, pale to purplish spines. The leaves form a basal rosette and are oblanceolate, entire to lobed and likewise spiny on both surfaces and along the petiole. Flowering stems bear nodding, saucer-shaped flowers, solitary on long scapes or several on a leafy raceme; the four (to six) petals are sky-blue to purple or occasionally reddish, surrounding a boss of yellow stamens and a stout ovary topped by a short style. The fruit is an erect, narrowly ellipsoid, bristly capsule dehiscing by apical valves to release numerous small seeds.

Meconopsis horridula, described by Hooker and Thomson, has long served as a catch-all for variable spiny blue poppies, and modern revisions have segregated several taxa (such as M. racemosa and M. prattii) formerly lumped under it. Being monocarpic, individuals flower once and die after seed-set. Though locally common, the genus is subject to over-collection of seed and pressure from trekking and grazing across its range.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Papaveraceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan, Christopher Grey-Wilson's monograph The Genus Meconopsis

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis napaulensis

by GP Jürgens

DC.

BhutanPG2011 271
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4100m June

Description

Meconopsis napaulensis DC. is a monocarpic Himalayan poppy distributed through Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, north-east India and adjacent south-west China, growing in open subalpine and alpine habitats such as moist meadows, scrub margins, rocky slopes and forest clearings. It favours cool, humid, well-drained sites between roughly 3000 and 4200 m. The photographed plant from Jule-Tso in Bhutan at 4100 m, flowering in June, sits near the upper end of this range, where late snowmelt and summer moisture sustain the brief but spectacular flowering of these high-mountain poppies on open, sunlit slopes.

The plant is a giant, monocarpic herb that builds up over several years as a large basal rosette of pinnately lobed to deeply divided, bristly leaves before producing a single tall, leafy, branched flowering stem in its final season. The whole plant is clothed in stiff, often rust-coloured bristles. The flowers are large, nodding and saucer-shaped, with four (sometimes more) silky petals ranging from blue and purple to red, pink or yellow in different populations, surrounding a central boss of numerous stamens and a prominent ovary. The fruit is an elongate, bristly capsule dehiscing by apical valves to shed abundant minute seeds, after which the entire plant dies.

Meconopsis napaulensis has long been a taxonomically confused name, applied to a range of red- and purple-flowered big rosette poppies; modern revisions have segregated several distinct species (such as M. paniculata and M. wilsonii) formerly lumped under it. Pollinated chiefly by bumblebees, these poppies are emblematic of the Himalayan alpine flora. While not formally assessed as threatened, their monocarpic life cycle, narrow alpine niche and horticultural appeal make wild populations vulnerable to over-collection and climate-driven habitat change.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, The Genus Meconopsis (Grey-Wilson), Flora of China (Papaveraceae)

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis paniculata

by G & P Jürgens

(D. Don) Prain

Sikkim2011 89
Sikkim Chopta-valley 4200m, June
BhutanPG2011 321
Bhutan
Sikkim2011 252
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June
Nepal 97 136 G252
Nepal Mewa-Khola 3100m April

Description

Meconopsis paniculata is a stately Himalayan poppy distributed through Nepal, the Indian states of Sikkim and Darjeeling, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China), with cultivated records in Britain and Canada; GBIF documents about 440 occurrences. It grows in the upper temperate to subalpine and lower alpine zone, on open grassy slopes, forest clearings, streamsides and shrubby hillsides, as recorded in the Chopta valley (4200 m) and at Yumthang (3700 m) in Sikkim and at Mewa-Khola (3100 m) in Nepal. Spanning roughly 3000-4200 m, it flowers from spring into early summer (April-June), often forming conspicuous stands on damp, humus-rich slopes.

It is a robust monocarpic herb, forming in its first years a large basal rosette before producing a single tall, branched flowering stem up to 1.5-2 m. The whole plant is densely clothed in golden to rusty, spreading bristly hairs. The basal leaves are large, oblong-lanceolate and pinnately lobed or deeply cut, narrowing into a winged petiole. The inflorescence is an elongate, leafy panicle (the epithet "paniculata") of nodding, broadly cup-shaped flowers; the four (rarely more) petals are pale to clear yellow, surrounding a boss of numerous yellow stamens and a stout ovary crowned by a short style and lobed stigma. The fruit is an oblong, bristly capsule dehiscing by apical pores to shed many small seeds.

Described by Prain from D. Don's basionym, M. paniculata belongs to the monocarpic, bristly-fruited group of Meconopsis allied to M. napaulensis and M. wallichii, a complex whose taxonomy has long been debated owing to hybridisation and variable indumentum. As a monocarpic species it dies after a single flowering, relying entirely on abundant seed for regeneration. The flowers are visited by bumblebees foraging at altitude. Widespread across its range, it is not considered globally threatened, though seed collection and grazing can affect local populations.

Author: (D. Don) Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Grey-Wilson's monograph of the genus Meconopsis

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis sherriffii

by GP Jürgens

G. Taylor

BhutanPG2011 482 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4400m June

Description

Meconopsis sherriffii is a rare and narrowly endemic Himalayan poppy known only from a small area of the eastern Himalaya straddling south-eastern Xizang (China) and adjacent northern Bhutan; with merely around 17 georeferenced occurrences (CN, BT) it ranks among the most localised members of its celebrated genus. It is a plant of high alpine turf, screes and rocky, well-drained slopes near the upper limit of vegetation, typically between about 4000 and 4800 m. The plant photographed at Warrtlang-La on the historic Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at 4400 m in June, flowering in the short alpine summer, occupies exactly this exposed, high-elevation habitat for which the species is named after its co-discoverer George Sherriff.

It is a tap-rooted perennial forming a low rosette of leaves clothed, like the scapes, in soft golden to rufous hairs. The leaves are oblong to oblanceolate, entire to shallowly lobed, and densely pilose. The flowers, borne singly or few on hairy scapes, are large and saucer-shaped, with four (occasionally more) broad, satiny petals of a distinctive soft pink to rose colour, unusual in a genus dominated by blue and yellow species; the boss of numerous golden stamens surrounds a superior ovary topped by a short style and lobed stigma. The fruit is an ellipsoid, hairy, several-valved capsule opening by apical pores to release many minute seeds.

Meconopsis sherriffii belongs to the section of monocarpic-to-perennial hairy Himalayan poppies and is prized in cultivation for its rare pink colouring. Its extremely restricted range, low population numbers and dependence on fragile high-alpine habitat make it of clear conservation concern, vulnerable to grazing, collection and climatic change.

Author: G. Taylor · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Grey-Wilson's monograph The Genus Meconopsis, Ludlow & Sherriff's Bhutan collections

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis simplicifolia

by G & P Jürgens

(D. Don) Walp.

Sikkim2011 75
Sikkim2011 66
Sikkim Tanghu 3900m, June
Bh09 15 P27
Bh09 13 G13
Bhutan Chele-La,3200m June
Sikkim2004 433 G755
Sikkim2004 432 G754
Sikkim/India Yumthang 3600m May

Description

Meconopsis simplicifolia (D. Don) Walp. is a high-mountain perennial blue poppy of the central and eastern Himalaya, ranging through Nepal, Sikkim and northern India, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China), with cultivated records accounting for the United Kingdom entries in a GBIF dataset of roughly 267 occurrences. It inhabits alpine meadows, open turf, rocky slopes and the margins of Rhododendron scrub on moist, humus-rich, well-drained acidic soils, typically within the snowmelt-fed alpine zone. The illustrated collections cluster between about 3200 and 3900 m, from Tanghu in Sikkim at 3900 m and Chele-La in Bhutan at 3200 m in June to Yumthang on the Sikkim-India border at 3600 m in May, marking a late-spring to early-summer flowering as the snow retreats.

It forms a perennial herb with a basal rosette of simple, undivided leaves, oblanceolate to elliptic or narrowly lanceolate, entire to faintly toothed and clothed in soft, often fulvous to fawn-coloured bristly hairs, narrowing to a winged petiole; the simple, unlobed foliage gives the species its epithet. From the rosette arise one or several slender, bristly, leafless scapes, each bearing a solitary, nodding flower. The flowers have four (sometimes more) broad, silky, overlapping petals of clear sky-blue to violet or, in some forms, reddish-purple, surrounding a tuft of golden stamens and a stout ovary topped by a short, distinct style and capitate stigma. The fruit is an ellipsoid, bristly capsule opening by short apical valves.

Meconopsis simplicifolia is part of the perennial, scapose blue-poppy assemblage and is distinguished from allies such as M. grandis by its single-flowered scapes and entirely simple leaves; it is variable in flower colour and in whether it behaves as monocarpic or polycarpic. Pollinated chiefly by bumblebees, it is a celebrated ornamental long grown in cool temperate gardens. Across its range populations are localised and sensitive to grazing, trampling and the warming of alpine habitats, making it, like its relatives, a species of interest for Himalayan alpine conservation though not formally assessed as threatened.

Author: (D. Don) Walp. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Christopher Grey-Wilson – The Genus Meconopsis

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis sinuata

by G & P Jürgens

Prain

BhutanPG2011 155
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3500m June

Description

Meconopsis sinuata is a blue poppy of the eastern Himalaya. GBIF records it from India, Nepal, Bhutan and China, with around 60 occurrences distributed along the moist eastern Himalayan ranges. It grows in subalpine and alpine meadows, open shrubberies, forest clearings and rocky slopes, typically between 3000 and 4300 m, in the high-rainfall belt swept by the summer monsoon. The plant figured here was photographed at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3500 m in June, flowering early in the season among damp alpine herbage characteristic of this genus of cool, humid mountain habitats.

It is a slender perennial or biennial poppy bearing bristly hairs throughout. The basal leaves are oblanceolate with a distinctly sinuate to lobed margin, narrowing to a winged petiole, and the cauline leaves diminish upward. The nodding flowers are borne singly on bristly pedicels in the upper axils; the four (occasionally more) delicate, crinkled petals are sky-blue to purplish-blue, sometimes mauve, surrounding a boss of numerous yellow stamens. The superior ovary bears a short style, and the fruit is an elongate, bristly capsule dehiscing by apical valves to shed many small seeds.

Meconopsis, the celebrated Himalayan blue poppies, is a centre of endemism in the eastern Himalaya and Hengduan mountains, and the group has been extensively recircumscribed by molecular work separating Asian species from the European M. cambrica. The vivid blue pigmentation, attractive to bumblebee pollinators, has also made these poppies prized in cultivation. Restricted to specialised high-rainfall alpine habitats, M. sinuata is sensitive to grazing and habitat disturbance, and several congeners are of conservation concern.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, The Genus Meconopsis: Blue Poppies and their Relatives

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis wallichii var. fusco-purpurea

by GP Jürgens

Sikkim2003 156 G209
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m 08.2003
Sikkim2003 158 P211
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m, August

Description

Meconopsis wallichii var. fusco-purpurea is a dark-flowered variant of the tall Himalayan blue poppy complex of the eastern Himalaya, ranging through Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. Although GBIF holds no occurrence records under this infraspecific name (the taxon being treated under the broader M. wallichii and the genus Meconopsis sensu lato), the species occupies open subalpine and lower alpine slopes, forest clearings and shrubberies, typically between 3000 and 4000 m. The photographs from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3900 m in August document this purple-flowered form in its characteristic high-montane meadow habitat during the monsoon flowering season.

The plant is a tall, monocarpic herb that forms a basal rosette of deeply pinnatifid, bristly-hairy leaves over several years before producing a single robust, branched flowering stem up to a metre or more in height. The stems and foliage bear rusty to golden setose hairs. The large, nodding, saucer-shaped flowers are arranged in a leafy panicle; in this variety the petals are a deep dusky purple to wine-red rather than the sky-blue typical of the species, surrounding a boss of golden stamens. The ovary is bristly and develops into an elongate, several-valved capsule dehiscing at the apex to release numerous small seeds.

Taxonomically this purple form has been recognised at varietal rank within the variable M. wallichii, itself part of the difficult Sino-Himalayan genus Meconopsis where flower colour and indumentum vary clinally; many such names are now subsumed or transferred following modern revisions. The monocarpic life history, with a long vegetative phase and a single mass-flowering event, is characteristic of the group. As a striking ornamental, it is of horticultural interest, while wild populations depend on undisturbed subalpine slopes.

Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson's monograph The Genus Meconopsis

Gentianaceae

Megacodon stylophorus

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) Harry Sm.

BhutanPG2011 807 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3900m July

Description

Megacodon stylophorus is a stately giant gentian of the eastern Himalaya and southwestern China. GBIF records it from China, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar, with roughly 450 occurrences, the genus being a small Sino-Himalayan endemic. It grows in moist subalpine meadows, forest clearings, scrub margins and along streamsides between about 3000 and 4300 m. The plant shown was photographed on the Chele-La pass in western Bhutan at 3900 m in July, when its tall flowering stems rise above the surrounding alpine herbage at the height of the monsoon growing season.

It is one of the largest herbaceous gentians, an erect perennial reaching 1-1.5 m from a stout rhizome. The stem bears opposite, sessile, broadly ovate leaves with conspicuous arcuate parallel venation. The large, pendulous, broadly campanulate flowers are borne in the upper leaf axils; the corolla is pale greenish-yellow, intricately net-veined with darker reticulation, and 4-5 cm long. Distinctively the style is long and persistent (the epithet stylophorus, style-bearing), exserted from the corolla, and the fruit is a large septicidal capsule releasing numerous winged seeds adapted to wind dispersal.

Megacodon is a segregate from the broadly defined Gentiana, distinguished by its great stature, reticulate corolla and elongate style, and molecular studies place it among the basal lineages of tribe Gentianeae. Its showy net-veined flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees foraging at high elevation. Though striking and of horticultural interest, it is not regarded as globally threatened, but its dependence on undisturbed, moist subalpine habitats makes it sensitive to overgrazing and shifting monsoon regimes.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Gentianaceae: systematics and natural history