Tag:

Montane (1500-2500 m)

Amaryllidaceae

Haemanthus coccineus

by GP Jürgens

L.

Sikkim2003 550 P773
Sikkim Gangtok 1750m August

Description

Haemanthus coccineus is a bulbous geophyte native to the winter-rainfall regions of South Africa and Namibia, where the overwhelming majority of its more than three thousand records originate; the further occurrences in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Europe represent cultivation and naturalisation. In its homeland it grows on rocky slopes, in sandy or stony soils and seasonally dry scrub of the Cape, flowering in late summer to autumn after the foliage has died back. The plant photographed at Gangtok in Sikkim at 1750 m in August is a cultivated specimen well outside the species' natural range, the Himalaya being far removed from its Mediterranean-climate African home.

The plant arises from a large, flattened, fleshy bulb. It typically produces only two (occasionally more) broad, strap-shaped, prostrate leaves that lie flat on the ground, often spotted or barred with red-purple beneath and ciliate at the margin; these are usually borne after flowering. The inflorescence is a stout, mottled scape topped by a dense umbel of small flowers tightly enclosed by several showy, fleshy, bright scarlet spathe bracts, giving the plant its common name of blood lily or paintbrush lily. Numerous coral-red stamens with prominent yellow anthers project beyond the perianth, and the fruit is a fleshy, brightly coloured berry containing few large seeds.

Haemanthus is a southern African genus of the Amaryllidaceae characterised by the brush-like umbel framed by coloured bracts, and H. coccineus is its most widespread and variable species. The bright bracts and exserted stamens attract bird and insect pollinators, while the fleshy berries are dispersed by animals. Long cultivated as an ornamental, it is secure in the wild; its appearance in Himalayan gardens underscores its horticultural popularity rather than any natural Asian distribution.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Southern Africa, The Color Encyclopedia of Cape Bulbs, Snijman's revision of Haemanthus (Amaryllidaceae)

Helwingiaceae

Helwingia himalaica

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson ex C.B.Clarke

Sikkim 2006 40 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chainribas 1660m, May

Description

Helwingia himalaica is a Sino-Himalayan shrub distributed from China through Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar to Vietnam, with over 1300 documented occurrences spanning the eastern Himalaya and southwest China. It grows in the understorey of evergreen and mixed broad-leaved forest, along shaded ravines and moist montane slopes, typically between roughly 1300 and 2700 m. The photographed plant from Chainribas in West Bengal, India at 1660 m, flowering in May, is characteristic of its occurrence in humid, shaded subtropical to lower temperate forest in the eastern Himalaya, where it forms part of the shrub layer.

It is a dioecious, evergreen to semi-evergreen shrub with slender, glabrous branches. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic or oblong, with a setulose-serrulate margin, an acuminate apex and a cuneate base, and small filiform stipule-like appendages at the petiole base. The most remarkable feature is the epiphyllous inflorescence: the small, greenish, four- to five-merous unisexual flowers are borne in clusters on the upper surface (adaxial midrib) of the leaf, a phenomenon resulting from the adnation of the floral axis to the petiole and midrib. Staminate flowers occur in small umbels and pistillate flowers singly or few together, the latter with an inferior ovary that ripens into a small, fleshy, black or red drupe.

Helwingia is the sole genus of the small family Helwingiaceae in the order Aquifoliales, distinguished from related families chiefly by its unique epiphyllous flowering. The greenish flowers are insect-pollinated, and the berry-like drupes are dispersed by birds. As a widespread and locally common forest understorey shrub across the Sino-Himalayan region, H. himalaica (the accepted name) is not considered threatened.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson ex C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Soltis et al. Aquifoliales phylogenetic studies (monograph)

Didymocarpinae

Henckelia calva

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) D.J. Middleton & Mich. Müller

Sikkim2003 59 P79
Sikkim above Yoksam 2750m August
Sikkim2003 60 G80
Sikkim Yoksam 1800m, August

Description

Henckelia calva (C.B.Clarke) D.J.Middleton & Mich.Müller is a perennial herb of the Gesneriaceae (the input subtribe name Didymocarpinae notwithstanding), distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjacent ranges. GBIF (a sparse 12 occurrences) records it from northern India, Bhutan and Myanmar, where it grows on shaded, moss-covered rocks, damp banks and forest understorey in humid broad-leaved and evergreen forest. The two Sikkim records at Yoksam, at 1,800 m and 2,750 m, both in August during the monsoon, indicate a montane preference broadly between 1,500 and 3,000 m, where high atmospheric humidity supports its growth.

The plant is a soft, more or less rhizomatous herb. Leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, often somewhat fleshy, with a crenate to serrate margin and a relatively sparse indumentum (the epithet "calva", meaning bald or glabrescent, alludes to this comparatively smooth surface). The inflorescences are axillary cymes bearing showy zygomorphic flowers; the corolla is tubular and bilabiate, white to pale violet or bluish, the throat sometimes marked with yellow. There are two fertile stamens with cohering anthers, and the ovary is superior, maturing into the elongate, narrowly cylindrical, twisted capsule characteristic of Henckelia, which splits to release numerous minute seeds.

The species was transferred from Didymocarpus to a recircumscribed Henckelia following molecular phylogenetic studies of Old World Gesneriaceae by Middleton, Möller and collaborators, a reclassification that reshaped generic limits in the subtribe Didymocarpinae. As a narrow-range, hygrophilous understorey herb of the eastern Himalaya, it is intrinsically vulnerable to forest disturbance and habitat loss, and its few documented occurrences underline the need for continued field survey of the region's Gesneriaceae.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) D.J. Middleton & Mich. Müller · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of China Vol. 18, GBIF, Weber & Burtt: Remarks on the classification of Gesneriaceae

Didymocarpinae

Henckelia urticifolia

by GP Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) A.Dietr

Bhutan2012 646
Bhutan Tserang 1600m, September
Sikkim2003 348 W489
Sikkim above Yoksam 1880m August

Description

Henckelia urticifolia is a Himalayan gesneriad ranging through Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, the c. 212 georeferenced records concentrated along the humid southern Himalayan front. It is a plant of shaded, moist understorey habitats: it grows on damp banks, mossy rock faces, ravines and the margins of broadleaved and subtropical forest, generally between about 1200 and 2200 m. The illustrated material was gathered at Tserang in Bhutan at 1600 m in September and above Yoksam in Sikkim at 1880 m in August, locations typical of its preference for cool, dripping, sheltered sites that retain monsoon moisture.

It is a perennial herb with an erect to ascending, often softly hairy stem. As the epithet suggests, the leaves are nettle-like (urticifolia): opposite, ovate, coarsely toothed, thin-textured and pubescent, with prominent venation. The flowers are borne in axillary cymes; the calyx is five-parted and the corolla zygomorphic, tubular and bilabiate with a short two-lobed upper lip and a larger spreading three-lobed lower lip, pale violet to bluish-mauve, often with darker guidelines and a paler throat. There are two fertile stamens with cohering anthers, and the ovary is superior. The fruit is the characteristic elongate, narrowly cylindrical capsule of the genus.

Henckelia (Gesneriaceae) was recircumscribed in the molecular reclassification of the Old World didymocarpoid gesneriads, with many Asiatic species formerly placed in Didymocarpus and Chirita transferred to it; the supra-generic placement in subtribe Didymocarpinae reflects that scheme, so the family name given here, though listed as the subtribal name, properly resolves to Gesneriaceae. The genus is defined by its straight, undivided capsules and bilabiate corolla. Forest-dwelling and locally common, the species is not presently considered threatened, but it depends on intact humid forest cover.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don) A.Dietr · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Weber & Möller revision of Henckelia (Gesneriaceae)

Araliaceae

Heptapleurum griffithii

by G & P Jürgens

(Seem.) ined.

Sikkim 2006 482 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 481 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chaana 1750m, May
Sikkim 2006 310 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chaana 1750m, May

Description

Heptapleurum griffithii is an eastern Himalayan araliad documented from Bhutan and adjacent south-western China, the GBIF record being sparse with only about three georeferenced occurrences, reflecting both its restricted range and limited collection. It grows in moist, broad-leaved evergreen and mixed montane forest, often as an epiphyte or hemiepiphyte on tree trunks and mossy rocks, or as a free-standing shrub, in the warm-temperate zone. The plant photographed at Chaana in West Bengal at 1750 m in May occupied this humid mid-elevation forest belt, where high atmospheric moisture and shade favour its establishment.

It is a glabrous shrub or small tree, sometimes epiphytic, with stout greyish branchlets. The leaves are alternate and palmately compound, the long petiole bearing a whorl of several leaflets; the leaflets are elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, leathery, entire, acuminate at the apex and cuneate at the base, with prominent lateral venation and a sheathing petiole base. The inflorescence is a large terminal panicle of umbels; the small flowers are greenish to creamy, with five petals, five stamens and an inferior ovary crowned by a low stylar disc. The fruit is a small subglobose drupe, ribbed when dry and containing several pyrenes.

GBIF lists the name as a synonym while retaining Heptapleurum griffithii as accepted; the species was long placed in Schefflera, and the recircumscription of that polyphyletic genus has returned many Asian species to Heptapleurum. As a forest-canopy and epiphytic component it contributes to structural diversity, its fleshy drupes dispersed by birds. Given its narrow documented range, intact mid-montane forest is important to its persistence.

Author: (Seem.) ined. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, A Generic Revision of Araliaceae (Schefflera and allies)

Araliaceae

Heptapleurum rhododendrifolium 

by G & P Jürgens

(Griff.) G.M.Plunkett & Lowry

Sikkim 2006 482 ergebnis
India Sikkim, Ringi Chu 1900m, May
Sikkim 2006 310 ergebnis
India Sikkim, Ringi Chu 1900m, May

Description

Heptapleurum rhododendrifolium is an epiphytic to semi-epiphytic shrub distributed across the eastern Himalayas and into Southeast Asia, with records from Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, northeast India, Myanmar, southern China, and extending to Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. GBIF documents 136 occurrences across this broad range. The species inhabits subtropical and warm-temperate evergreen forests at elevations of 1,200–2,500 m, where it typically grows as an epiphyte on mossy tree trunks and branches, or occasionally as a terrestrial shrub on steep, humus-rich banks in areas of persistent cloud immersion and high rainfall.
Heptapleurum rhododendrifolium is an evergreen shrub, 1–4 m tall, with stout, sparsely branched stems. The leaves are digitately compound, clustered near the branch tips, with 5–9 coriaceous leaflets. Leaflets are oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, 8–20 cm long, glossy dark green above and often pale or ferruginous-tomentose beneath, with entire margins and a prominent midrib — the overall appearance recalling Rhododendron foliage, hence the epithet. Petioles are stout, 10–20 cm long. The inflorescence is a terminal, compound umbel of numerous small, greenish-white flowers, each 3–4 mm across, with 5–7 petals and an equal number of stamens. The ovary is inferior, 5–7-locular. The fruit is a subglobose drupe, 4–6 mm in diameter, ripening to dark purple or black, with persistent style remnants.
This species was long placed in Schefflera sensu lato, but recent molecular phylogenetic studies by Plunkett and Lowry have led to its transfer to the reinstated genus Heptapleurum, which accommodates the Asian and Pacific clade formerly within Schefflera. The photographed specimen from Ringi Chu in Sikkim at 1,900 m represents a typical mid-elevation epiphytic occurrence in one of the wettest valleys of the eastern Himalayas. The species plays an ecological role as a provider of fruit resources for montane bird communities. Its broad distribution from the Himalayas to the Pacific islands reflects an ancient tropical Asian lineage with considerable dispersal capacity.

Author: (Griff.) G.M.Plunkett & Lowry · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Plunkett & Lowry (2018) — Phylogenetics of Araliaceae

Orchideaceae

Herminium latilabre

by G & P Jürgens

(Lindl.) X.H.Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang

Bhutan2012 1324
Bhutan Pemagatse, 1800m October
Bhutan2012 1323
Bhutan Pemagatse, 1800m October

Description

Herminium latilabre is a terrestrial orchid widely distributed across the Himalaya and Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar, with GBIF logging 414 occurrences, making it among the better-collected taxa in this group. It grows in moist montane forest, grassy slopes, mossy banks and forest margins. The illustrated plant was photographed at Pemagatse in Bhutan at about 1800 m, flowering in October, a humid mid-montane setting under partial shade.

It is a small, slender tuberous geophyte arising from a subterranean tuberoid. One or a few narrow, lanceolate to elliptic leaves are borne low on the stem, which terminates in a slender raceme of numerous small, greenish to yellowish-green flowers. The flowers are non-resupinate to weakly so, with a broad, often expanded labellum (the epithet latilabre, broad-lipped) and a reduced or absent spur, the column short and characteristic of the genus. The fruit is a small dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

The species is accepted. Its present circumscription reflects recent molecular and morphological work by X.H. Jin, Schuiteman, Raskoti and colleagues, who have reorganised the boundaries between Herminium and allied genera such as Androcorys and Monorchis. Like most temperate terrestrial orchids it depends on mycorrhizal fungi for germination and establishment, and is pollinated by small insects attracted to the inconspicuous flowers. Its broad range and frequency suggest a secure status, though grassland conversion poses local pressures.

Author: (Lindl.) X.H.Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Raskoti's Orchids of Nepal

Rubiaceae

Himalrandia tetrasperma

by GP Jürgens

(Wall. ex Roxb.) T.Yamaz.

Bh2008 491 P760
Bhutan Samtengang, 2300m April
Nepal 2009 10 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Sheno-Okrini 1900m, May

Description

Himalrandia tetrasperma is a spiny shrub of the Rubiaceae endemic to the Himalaya and its western foothills, recorded by GBIF (about 176 occurrences) from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan and Afghanistan. It is a plant of warm, often dry, open forest, scrub and rocky hillsides in the subtropical and lower temperate zone, frequently on sunny slopes and ravine sides. The illustrated material was gathered in Bhutan at Samtengang near 2300 m in April and in the Helambu region of Nepal at Sheno-Okrini around 1900 m in May, both flowering in spring, which is consistent with the genus producing its blossom on the bare or newly leafing wood of the dry season.

The plant is a much-branched, deciduous shrub whose short lateral shoots are modified into stout, woody spines, a distinctive armament for the family. The leaves are opposite or clustered on the dwarf shoots, small, obovate to elliptic, entire and glabrescent, with interpetiolar stipules. The flowers are solitary or in small fascicles, fragrant and white, with a short calyx and a salverform corolla of five spreading lobes opening from a slender tube. There are five stamens inserted in the throat and an inferior, bilocular ovary. The fruit is a small, fleshy to leathery berry, the epithet tetrasperma referring to the typically four-seeded fruit.

Himalrandia is a small genus segregated from the broadly circumscribed Randia, to which the species was long referred (as Randia tetrasperma); its placement among the Gardenieae has been confirmed by revision. As a hardy shrub of disturbed and semi-arid hill country it is locally common and not regarded as threatened, its fragrant flowers pollinated by insects and its berries dispersed by birds.

Author: (Wall. ex Roxb.) T.Yamaz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Tirvengadum's studies of Asian Gardenieae (Rubiaceae)

Saururaceae

Houttuynia cordata

by GP Jürgens

Thunb.

Sikkim2004 369 P644
Sikkim/India Tista-Valley 1900m May
Nepal 2009 64 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Doroli 1850, May

Description

Houttuynia cordata is a widespread East Asian and Himalayan herb with a very large GBIF dataset of nearly 18000 records spanning Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam and Thailand, together with numerous naturalised and cultivated occurrences in Europe and North America. It grows in moist and wet places, along streamsides, ditches, marsh margins, wet meadows and shaded forest floors, from the lowlands up to around 2500 m. The illustrated plants from the Tista valley in Sikkim/India at 1900 m and from Doroli in the Helambu region of Nepal at 1850 m, both flowering in May, are typical of its damp, shaded montane habitats in the Himalaya.

It is a rhizomatous perennial herb emitting a strong fish-like odour when bruised. The slender rhizomes creep underground, giving rise to erect, simple or sparingly branched stems. The leaves are alternate, broadly ovate-cordate with a deeply cordate base, an acuminate apex, an entire margin and palmate venation, often tinged red beneath, and the petiole base is sheathing with a membranous stipule. The minute, perianthless flowers are densely crowded on a short terminal spike that is subtended by four (occasionally more) showy, petaloid white involucral bracts, giving the whole structure the appearance of a single flower. Each tiny flower has three stamens and a one-locular ovary of fused carpels; the fruit is a small capsule with numerous seeds.

Houttuynia cordata is one of only a few genera in the small basal angiosperm family Saururaceae (order Piperales). It is widely used as a culinary herb and in traditional medicine across East Asia, and the variegated forms are popular ornamentals. It spreads vigorously by its creeping rhizomes, forming clonal colonies, and can become weedy where introduced. It is exceedingly common and of least conservation concern.

Author: Thunb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Liang & Tucker Saururaceae systematic studies (monograph)

Apocynaceae

Hoya linearis

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex D.Don

Bhutan2012 1175
Bhutan Trashiyantse 1780m, October
Bhutan2012 1177
Bhutan Trashiyantse 1780m, October

Description

Hoya linearis is a Himalayan epiphytic wax-plant, GBIF recording around 106 occurrences from India, Bhutan, Nepal, China and Myanmar, the remaining records (US, ZA, FI, VN) representing cultivated material of this popular ornamental. It grows as a pendent epiphyte on mossy tree trunks and branches in humid, shaded broadleaved and evergreen montane forest, generally between about 1500 and 2500 m, where persistent cloud and high humidity sustain its succulent foliage. The plant photographed from Trashiyangtse (Trashiyantse) in eastern Bhutan at 1780 m, flowering in October, typifies its occurrence in cool, moist mid-montane forest where it festoons the canopy in long hanging masses.

It is a glabrous to softly hairy epiphytic subshrub with slender, trailing or pendent stems rooting at the nodes. The leaves are distinctive: linear, narrow, soft, slightly fleshy and grooved above, hanging in dense curtains quite unlike the broad succulent leaves of most Hoya. The flowers are borne in pendent umbellate cymes; each has a small calyx and a fleshy, white, five-lobed, star-shaped corolla with a central corona typical of the asclepiad group, sweetly fragrant especially in the evening. The fruit is a slender paired follicle releasing comose seeds dispersed by wind.

Described by Wallich (ex D. Don), H. linearis is placed in Hoya within Apocynaceae (subfamily Asclepiadoideae, formerly Asclepiadaceae). Its specialised epiphytic, narrow-leaved habit makes it readily recognisable and a much-grown houseplant, though wild populations depend on intact humid montane forest and are vulnerable to deforestation and over-collection. Ecologically its fragrant flowers attract insect pollinators, while its plumed seeds exploit air currents to colonise new host trees.

Author: Wall. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Hoya (Asclepiadaceae) – Kleijn & van Donkelaar monograph