Tag:

Montane (1500-2500 m)

Caprifoliaceae

Lonicera webbiana

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bh09 39 P71
Bhutan Paro 2400m, June

Description

Lonicera webbiana is a deciduous shrub of the temperate Himalaya and adjoining Central Asian mountains, distributed from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan eastwards through Kashmir, northern India, Nepal and Bhutan into south-western China and Myanmar, with over 2000 occurrence records (those from Europe and North America representing cultivated material). It grows in coniferous and mixed forest, forest margins, thickets and shrubberies, chiefly between about 2400 and 3600 m. The specimen photographed at Paro in Bhutan at 2400 m in June illustrates its early-summer flowering within the upper temperate forest belt.

The shrub reaches 2-3 m, with hollow young branches and ovate to elliptic-lanceolate leaves that are acuminate at the apex, often ciliate and softly pubescent beneath. Flowers are borne in pairs on a slender, drooping peduncle, each pair subtended by small linear bracts; the corolla is two-lipped and reddish to purplish, the tube short and gibbous at the base. The paired ovaries are largely free, and the fruit develops into red, ellipsoid berries which are partly fused at the base, a feature aiding recognition of the species.

Lonicera webbiana belongs to Caprifoliaceae and to the large, taxonomically complex section Isoxylosteum (the bush honeysuckles); it has at times been confused with related Himalayan species such as L. quinquelocularis and L. angustifolia. The nectar-bearing flowers attract long-tongued bees and other pollinators, while the conspicuous red berries are dispersed by birds. Widespread and locally frequent across an extensive range, the species is of least conservation concern and is a characteristic understorey shrub of Himalayan fir and spruce forests.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan, Rehder revision of Lonicera, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

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)

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 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)

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 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

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)

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)

Asparagaceae

Maianthemum fuscum

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) LaFrankie

Sikkim 2006 229 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ramman 2100m, May

Description

Maianthemum fuscum is a rhizomatous woodland herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent mountains of southwestern China, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan and Vietnam across roughly 303 georeferenced occurrences. It inhabits cool, moist, shaded broadleaf and mixed forest, growing on humus-rich slopes, beneath rhododendron and oak canopy, and along streamsides in the temperate montane belt, generally between about 1,800 and 3,000 m. The photographed plant from Ramman in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal, India, at around 2,100 m in May is representative of its pre-monsoon flowering, the inflorescences appearing as the new leafy shoots unfurl on the forest floor.

The plant arises from a slender creeping rhizome bearing an erect, often arching aerial stem with several alternate, sessile to short-petioled leaves that are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate and prominently parallel-veined. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme or narrow panicle of small flowers, each flower with a typically six-parted perianth of free or basally connate tepals that are dull purplish-brown to dark maroon, giving the species its epithet fuscum ("dusky"). There are six stamens and a superior ovary maturing into a small globose berry that ripens through mottled to red or purplish-black, containing few seeds and dispersed by birds.

Maianthemum fuscum was long placed in the genus Smilacina, and its transfer reflects the modern circumscription of Maianthemum to encompass the trimerous-flowered Asian "false Solomon's seals" alongside the dimerous North-temperate species; the family placement follows the broad Asparagaceae of APG, the group having previously been treated under Convallariaceae or Liliaceae. Within the Himalaya it is one of several closely related forest Maianthemum species whose vegetative similarity makes them dependent on floral and fruit characters for reliable identification. The species is locally common, not regarded as threatened, but like other shade-demanding rhizomatous herbs it is sensitive to canopy loss and forest disturbance.

Author: (Wall.) LaFrankie · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, LaFrankie's revision of Maianthemum (Smilacina) and the Convallariaceae