Tag:

Montane (1500-2500 m)

Lamiaceae

Elsholtzia pilosa 

by G & P Jürgens

Benth.

Garw 2005 241 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Bora 2200m, September

Description

Elsholtzia pilosa is a wide-ranging Asian mint distributed from the Indian Himalaya, Nepal and Bhutan eastward through Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to southern China, with nearly 400 GBIF occurrences indicating it is a frequent component of its region. It is a plant of open, disturbed and seasonally moist ground, growing along forest margins, on grassy banks, in fallow fields, by paths and on damp slopes, often as a weedy colonist of cultivated and waste land. The plant figured from Bora in Garhwal, India, at about 2200 m in September is typical of its montane range of roughly 1500-3000 m, the autumn flowering coinciding with the close of the monsoon.

It is an erect, aromatic annual herb with a quadrangular, usually pilose stem branching from the base. The leaves are opposite, ovate to lanceolate, with a serrate-crenate margin, an acuminate apex and a cuneate base tapering to a slender petiole, sparsely hairy and gland-dotted. The small flowers are crowded into dense, one-sided, spike-like terminal verticillasters, each subtended by a bract; the corolla is purplish to pinkish-white and bilabiate, with the four stamens exserted as in the genus. The calyx is tubular and ribbed, becoming enlarged in fruit and enclosing the four smooth, ovoid nutlets characteristic of the mint family.

The epithet pilosa refers to the soft, spreading hairiness of the herbage. Elsholtzia is a mainly eastern Asian genus of aromatic herbs and subshrubs, several species of which are used medicinally and as flavourings, the essential oils giving the foliage its pungent scent. As a pioneer of disturbed ground, E. pilosa is well adapted to anthropogenic habitats, which accounts for its broad and locally abundant distribution across the Himalaya and southern China.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hooker Flora of British India, Press Labiatae of the Himalaya

Juglandaceae

Engelhardia spicata var. colebrookeana

by G & P Jürgens

(Lindl. ex Wall.) Koord. & Valeton

Bhutan2012 649
Bhutan Tserang 1660m, September

Description

Engelhardia spicata var. colebrookeana is a subtropical tree of the walnut family ranging across the southern Himalaya and into Southeast Asia, with GBIF records from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. It is a component of warm broad-leaved and pine-oak forest, secondary woodland and forest margins, mostly between 800 and 2,000 m. The photographed tree grows at Tserang in southern Bhutan at about 1,660 m in September, when the long, drooping fruiting catkins with their winged nutlets are conspicuous in the subtropical foothill forest.

The plant is a medium-sized to large deciduous or semi-evergreen tree with grey, somewhat fissured bark. The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound, with several pairs of opposite to subopposite, elliptic-oblong, entire leaflets that are glabrous to finely hairy and oblique at the base. The species is monoecious, with slender pendulous catkins; the female flowers develop into a characteristic infructescence in which each small, hard nutlet is subtended by a large, three-lobed, membranous wing-bract that acts as a samara for wind dispersal. This trilobed wing readily distinguishes Engelhardia from its relatives in the family.

Following GBIF, this taxon is treated as a synonym under the accepted name Engelhardia spicata colebrookeana, a variety distinguished from typical E. spicata by indumentum and leaflet characters. The Juglandaceae are an economically and phylogenetically important temperate-to-tropical family, and Engelhardia represents its warm Asian element. The tree is widespread, used locally for timber, fuel and tannin, and is not considered threatened, persisting well in disturbed and secondary forest.

Author: (Lindl. ex Wall.) Koord. & Valeton · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4 (Juglandaceae), Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Manning: The Genera of Juglandaceae

Juglandaceae

Engelhardia spicata var. integra

by G & P Jürgens

(Kurz) W.E.Manning ex Steenis

Bhutan2014 684
Bhutan Wangdi-Phodrang 2280m, May

Description

Engelhardia spicata var. integra (Kurz) W.E.Manning ex Steenis is a tree of the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to the subtropical and warm-temperate forests of South and Southeast Asia. GBIF (around 136 occurrences) records the taxon from China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Bhutan, Vietnam, Myanmar and Nepal, where it forms a component of broad-leaved hill and montane forest, often on forest margins and slopes. It typically occurs in the subtropical mid-montane belt; the tree photographed at Wangdi-Phodrang in Bhutan at 2,280 m in May represents it in early-season flower within this characteristic elevational zone.

Engelhardia spicata is a medium to large deciduous tree with pinnately compound leaves; in var. integra the leaflets are characteristically entire-margined (hence "integra"), distinguishing it from forms with toothed leaflets. The leaflets are opposite to subopposite along the rachis, elliptic to oblong, glabrous to thinly pubescent. The species is monoecious, with flowers borne in long, pendulous catkin-like spikes; the most striking feature is the fruit, a small nutlet subtended by a conspicuous, enlarged, three-lobed membranous wing (an accrescent bract) that develops into a samaroid structure adapted for wind dispersal, the spikes hanging in long tassels at maturity.

The genus Engelhardia (sometimes spelled Engelhardtia) belongs to subfamily Engelhardioideae of the Juglandaceae, a primarily tropical Asian lineage distinguished from the temperate walnuts and hickories by its winged, bract-derived fruits. The wind-dispersed samaras are an important diagnostic and ecological character, enabling the tree to colonise open and disturbed hill forest. As a widespread but variable species, E. spicata has been treated with several infraspecific taxa, of which var. integra is recognised on the basis of its entire leaflet margins.

Author: (Kurz) W.E.Manning ex Steenis · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Manning: The genus Engelhardia (Juglandaceae)

Ephedraceae

Ephedra gerardiana

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex  Klotzsch & Garcke

Nepal 99 7 ergebnis
Westnepal, Jumla 2300m June

Description

Ephedra gerardiana is a dwarf gymnosperm shrub of the high mountains of central and southern Asia, native across China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; its roughly 539 GBIF occurrences cluster along the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau margins. It is a plant of dry, cold, high-elevation environments, as recorded near Jumla in West Nepal at about 2300 m in June, and ascends well above the treeline into the alpine and steppe zone. It thrives on stony slopes, gravel terraces and dry riverbeds, tolerating intense insolation, drought and winter cold in the rain-shadow valleys of the inner Himalaya.

The plant is a low, densely tufted, mat-forming shrublet with rigid, jointed, green photosynthetic stems that perform the work of the much-reduced, scale-like leaves borne in pairs at the swollen nodes. As a gymnosperm it bears no true flowers; reproductive structures are small cones, the plants typically dioecious, with pollen in axillary microsporangiate cones and ovules in compact megasporangiate cones. After pollination the female bracts become fleshy and bright red, forming a berry-like structure enclosing one or two seeds, dispersed by birds.

Ephedra is the sole genus of Ephedraceae within the gnetophytes, an isolated lineage of seed plants; E. gerardiana is the principal Himalayan species and a traditional source of the alkaloid ephedrine, harvested medicinally as somlata. This value, combined with slow growth and harsh, slowly regenerating habitats, has made wild populations locally vulnerable to over-collection and grazing, prompting conservation attention in parts of its range even though the species remains widespread overall.

Author: Wall. ex  Klotzsch & Garcke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Monograph of the Genus Ephedra (Stapf)

Acanthaceae

Eranthemum purpurascens

by GP Jürgens

Wight ex Nees

Nepal1992 81 P114 ergebnis
Nepal Sokathum1650m, March 

Description

Eranthemum purpurascens is a subtropical understorey shrub of the Himalayan foothills and adjacent Indian subcontinent, recorded principally from India and Nepal, with cultivated and naturalised occurrences in China, Indonesia, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and the United States reflecting its ornamental use. It grows in the shaded understorey of moist subtropical and lower temperate forest, along streambanks and shaded ravines, generally between about 600 and 1800 m. The photographed plant from Sokathum, Nepal, at roughly 1650 m and flowering in March, exemplifies its early-spring blooming in warm, sheltered hill forest before the onset of the monsoon.

The plant is an erect, soft-wooded shrub with quadrangular, often swollen-nodal stems. The leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, acuminate, entire to obscurely crenate, and frequently bear cystoliths visible as fine streaks on the lamina. The flowers are borne in dense terminal and axillary spikes subtended by conspicuous, often purple-tinged bracts. Each flower has a slender corolla tube expanding into a spreading five-lobed limb of pale blue to violet, with two exserted stamens; the fruit is a clavate, explosively dehiscent capsule bearing seeds on hooked retinacula typical of the Acanthaceae.

The epithet purpurascens refers to the purplish bracts and flushed foliage. Eranthemum is a tropical Asian genus allied to Pseuderanthemum and Daedalacanthus, several members of which, including this species, are cultivated for their winter and spring colour. The conspicuous bracts and tubular blue corollas are adapted to insect pollination, while the cystolith-bearing leaves are a diagnostic family feature. The species is locally common and not regarded as threatened.

Author: Wight ex Nees · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Acanthaceae of the Indian Subcontinent

Aristolochiaceae

Eria clausa

by GP Jürgens

King & Pantl.

Bhutan2014 175
Bhutan Trashiyangtse 2000m, May

Description

Eria clausa King & Pantl. is an epiphytic orchid of the subtribe Eriinae (Orchidaceae), distributed through the eastern Himalaya and adjacent regions. GBIF records (78 occurrences) document its presence in China, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and New Guinea, indicating a broadly Sino-Himalayan to Southeast Asian range. The species was photographed at Trashiyangtse in Bhutan at 2,000 m in May, a setting typical of its occurrence in humid, mossy broad-leaved and mixed evergreen forests, where it grows on tree trunks and branches at montane elevations between roughly 1,500 and 2,500 m.

The plant produces clustered, fleshy pseudobulbs from a short rhizome, each bearing a few coriaceous, oblong to lanceolate leaves at the apex. The inflorescence is a short, few- to several-flowered raceme arising near the pseudobulb apex; the flowers are small, whitish to pale yellow, and remain only partly opening, a feature reflected in the epithet "clausa" (closed). The lip is trilobed and the column is short and footed, conforming to the structural plan of the Eria alliance.

The genus Eria has been substantially redefined following molecular work, with many former species transferred to segregate genera; the placement of clausa should therefore be read against this ongoing reorganisation of the Eriinae. As an epiphyte dependent on intact, humid forest canopy, the species is sensitive to logging and forest degradation, and like all orchids it is listed under CITES Appendix II, regulating international trade.

Author: King & Pantl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 25, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Pearce & Cribb: The Orchids of Bhutan (2002)

Asteraceae

Erigeron karvinskianus

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Sikkim2004 3 G4
Sikkim West-Bengal, Sambon 1750m April
Sikkim2004 4 P5
Sikkim West-Bengal, Sambon 1750m April

Description

Erigeron karvinskianus, the Mexican fleabane, is a sprawling daisy native to Mexico and Central America but now naturalised across much of the temperate and subtropical world. GBIF documents it from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Japan and India, among many others, with over 67,000 occurrences reflecting its status as a cosmopolitan introduced species. It colonises walls, rocky banks, paths, terraces and disturbed slopes from sea level to about 2500 m. The plant illustrated was photographed near Sambon in the Sikkim/West Bengal hills at 1750 m in April, where it has become established as a garden escape along walls and roadsides.

It is a slender, much-branched, mat-forming perennial with wiry, decumbent to ascending stems. The lower leaves are oblanceolate and few-toothed or trilobed, the upper entire and reduced. The numerous small capitula are borne on slender peduncles; each head has a single series of narrow ray florets that open white and age through pink to purplish-red, so that a plant simultaneously bears flowers of several hues, surrounding a central disc of yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a small ribbed achene crowned by a pappus of fine bristles that facilitates wind dispersal.

A member of tribe Astereae, E. karvinskianus is valued horticulturally for its long, profuse flowering and self-seeding habit, the very trait underlying its weediness. In parts of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa it is regarded as an invasive environmental weed escaping gardens to colonise native rock and cliff habitats. In the Himalaya it is a naturalised alien rather than an indigenous element, of no conservation interest but of some invasion-ecology concern.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of North America, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Erigeron (Asteraceae: Astereae) systematic monograph

Ranunculaceae

Eriocapitella vitifolia 

by G & P Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Nakai

Bhutan2012 1325
Bhutan Pemagatse 1900m, October
Bhutan2012 447
Bhutan Wangdi 2500m, September
Garw 2005 255 ergebnis scaled
Garw 2005 256 ergebnis scaled
India Garhwal Sitel 1850m, September

Description

Eriocapitella vitifolia (formerly Anemone vitifolia) is a robust perennial herb widespread across the Himalaya and East Asia, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Taiwan, Myanmar, Pakistan and beyond, with nearly 2000 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF reflecting both its native range and ornamental cultivation. It favours forest margins, open slopes, shrubberies and disturbed banks, mainly in the warm- to cool-temperate belt between about 1500 and 3000 m. The plants illustrated were photographed in Bhutan at Pemagatse (1900 m) and Wangdi (2500 m) and in the Indian Garhwal at Sitel (1850 m), flowering from September into October.

The species arises from a stout, woody rootstock and produces long-petiolate basal leaves with broadly cordate-ovate, vine-like (vitifolia, grape-leaved) blades that are shallowly three- to five-lobed, toothed, and densely white-tomentose beneath. Tall, branching flowering scapes bear cymose clusters of showy flowers, each with five to many petaloid sepals (true petals absent) that are white to pale pink, surrounding a central mass of numerous yellow stamens and a domed cluster of carpels. The fruiting head is globose and conspicuously woolly, the densely hairy achenes being adapted for wind dispersal, a feature reflected in the generic name.

Eriocapitella was segregated from Anemone (Ranunculaceae) on molecular and morphological grounds, comprising the woolly-fruited Asian anemones, and E. vitifolia is one of its most familiar Himalayan representatives. It is widely grown in temperate gardens and is an ancestral parent of the cultivated Japanese anemones, explaining scattered records in Europe, North America and southern Africa. Containing acrid ranunculaceous compounds, it is avoided by grazers and, common and adaptable, is of no conservation concern.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Nakai · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hoot et al. Phylogeny of Anemone and Allies

Brassicaceae

Erysimum pachycarpum

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Nepal 2009 88 ergebnis
Nepal Samthang 2410m, May

Description

Erysimum pachycarpum is a Himalayan wallflower distributed across Nepal, Bhutan, northern India, and extending into southwestern China (Tibet, Yunnan). GBIF documents 39 occurrences from these countries. The species inhabits dry rocky slopes, open scrubland, disturbed ground along trails, and stony riverbanks in the warm to cool temperate zone, at elevations from approximately 1,800 to 3,500 m. The photograph from Samthang in Nepal at 2,410 m, taken in May, shows the species at a mid-elevation site during its spring flowering period.
The plant is a biennial or short-lived perennial herb, 20–60 cm tall, with erect, usually unbranched stems covered in appressed, medifixed (malpighian) trichomes characteristic of the genus. Basal leaves are oblanceolate, 3–8 cm long, with entire to sinuate-dentate margins, forming a rosette that may wither at flowering; cauline leaves are narrowly lanceolate, sessile, progressively smaller upward. The inflorescence is a dense, terminal raceme that elongates considerably in fruit. Flowers are tetramerous with yellow petals, 8–12 mm long, spatulate, clawed. Stamens six, tetradynamous. The silique is stout and thick-walled — hence the epithet pachycarpum (thick-fruited) — erect to slightly spreading, 3–6 cm long, quadrangular in cross-section, densely covered with appressed trichomes. Seeds are oblong, narrowly winged.
Erysimum pachycarpum is distinguished from other Himalayan Erysimum species primarily by its robust, thickened siliques and relatively large flowers. The genus Erysimum is taxonomically challenging due to frequent hybridisation and subtle morphological boundaries between species, and molecular studies are ongoing to resolve relationships within the Himalayan clade. The species is not currently assessed as threatened and appears locally common in suitable open, dry habitats across its range.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1

Fabaceae

Erythrina arborescens

by GP Jürgens

Roxb.

Bhutan2015 65
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 1900m, October
Bhutan2012 464
Bhutan Wangdi 2500m, September

Description

Erythrina arborescens is a Himalayan to Southeast Asian coral tree distributed across China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Japan and Thailand, with about 369 GBIF occurrences spanning this wide subtropical to warm-temperate range. It grows in open broad-leaved forest, forest margins, valley slopes and disturbed ground, generally from about 1300 to 3000 m. The trees photographed near Wangdi Phodrang in Bhutan at about 1900 m in October and at about 2500 m in September illustrate its mid-elevation valley habitat, where its scarlet flower spikes appear after the leaves toward the close of the monsoon.

The species is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree with a stout trunk and branches armed with scattered conical prickles. The leaves are alternate and trifoliolate, with broadly ovate to rhombic leaflets, the terminal one largest, on a long prickly petiole. The inflorescence is a dense terminal raceme of large, showy, bright red papilionaceous flowers in which the broad standard petal is conspicuously enlarged while the wings and keel are reduced, an arrangement adapted to bird pollination. The fruit is an elongate, torulose, dehiscent legume constricted between the few shining red-brown seeds.

Erythrina is a pantropical genus of about 130 species notable for ornithophilous, nectar-rich flowers and seeds containing toxic isoquinoline alkaloids. E. arborescens is among the few species extending into temperate Himalayan elevations, its post-monsoon flowering and copious nectar attracting sunbirds and other nectarivorous birds that serve as pollinators. Widely distributed and tolerant of disturbance, it is of least concern; it is locally valued as a shade and ornamental tree and features in traditional medicine across its range.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Krukoff & Barneby studies of Erythrina