Tag:

Montane (1500-2500 m)

Araliaceae

Aralia kingdon-wardii

by G & P Jürgens

J.Wen, Lowry & Esser

Bhutan2015 646
Bhutan Mo-Chu 1600m, October

Description

Aralia kingdon-wardii is a narrowly distributed eastern Himalayan and southwest Chinese species known from China, Myanmar, Bhutan and northeastern India, with GBIF recording only about 45 occurrences, reflecting its rarity and restricted range. It is a plant of warm-temperate to subtropical broadleaf forest, the photographed material coming from the Mo-Chu valley in western Bhutan at 1600 m in October. It occupies humid forest interiors, ravine slopes, clearings and stream banks on rich, moist soils in the lower montane belt, where it grows as a tall coarse herb or soft-wooded shrub in shaded to semi-open situations.

The species is a robust, often prickly perennial with stout stems and very large, two- to three-pinnately compound leaves, the numerous ovate to ovate-lanceolate leaflets serrate along the margins and acuminate at the apex. The small, five-merous, greenish-white flowers have an inferior ovary and are borne in numerous umbellules aggregated into a very large, much-branched terminal panicle, the typical inflorescence architecture of Aralia. The fruit is a small, dark, more or less globose, ribbed drupe containing several flattened pyrenes, ripening to purple-black and dispersed by birds.

Named for the plant collector Frank Kingdon-Ward, the species was described by J. Wen, Lowry and Esser as part of modern revisionary work clarifying Asian Aralia and the segregation of related Araliaceae genera. Given its limited known range and low number of records, A. kingdon-wardii is of potential conservation interest, dependent on the persistence of intact eastern Himalayan montane forest; its panicles of nectar-rich flowers and bird-dispersed drupes integrate it into forest pollinator and frugivore networks.

Author: J.Wen, Lowry & Esser · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Wen, Lowry & Esser studies in Asian Aralia (Araliaceae), Frodin & Govaerts World Checklist of Araliaceae

Convolvulaceae

Argyreia hookeri 

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Nepal 99 958 ergebnis
West-Nepal Thuli Bheri 2150m, July
Nepal 99 959 ergebnis
West-Nepal Thuli Bheri 2150m, July
Nepal 99 960 ergebnis
West-Nepal Thuli Bheri 2150m, July

Description

Argyreia hookeri C.B.Clarke is a woody climber of the morning-glory family native to the Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Malesian region. GBIF records indicate occurrences in Nepal, India, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia, marking a distribution that spans the Himalayan foothills into Southeast Asia. It grows in forest margins, thickets and along streamsides in subtropical to lower temperate forest, generally between about 1,000 and 2,300 m. The plant photographed in the Thuli Bheri valley of west Nepal at 2,150 m, flowering in July, reflects its monsoon-season anthesis in moist hill forest.

The species is a perennial twining liana with stems that are pubescent when young. The leaves are large, ovate to broadly cordate, entire, acuminate, and softly hairy beneath, borne on long petioles. The flowers are arranged in axillary, peduncled cymose clusters subtended by conspicuous bracts; the corolla is funnelform and showy, rose-pink to purple with a darker throat, the limb shallowly lobed. As in Argyreia, the fruit is an indehiscent berry enclosed by the enlarged, somewhat fleshy persistent sepals, containing a few hard seeds.

Argyreia is distinguished from the related Ipomoea chiefly by its baccate, non-capsular fruit. A. hookeri is one of numerous Himalayan species of the genus and is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental climber. The genus is noted for indole alkaloid content, and several species feature in ethnobotanical use. The species remains locally frequent across its wide range.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 16, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Staples: Revision of Asiatic Convolvulaceae

Convolvulaceae

Argyreia wallichii

by GP Jürgens

Choisy

Bhutan2012 1233
Bhutan Tashigang 1900m, October

Description

Argyreia wallichii is an Indo-Himalayan and Southeast Asian woody climber distributed through China, northeastern India, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, with GBIF recording about 219 occurrences. It is a plant of warm subtropical to lower montane forest and its margins, the illustrated material coming from Tashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1900 m, flowering in October. It scrambles over shrubs, hedges and trees along forest edges, clearings, roadsides and stream banks on moist, fertile soils in the foothill and lower hill zone, behaving as a vigorous liana in disturbed and secondary vegetation.

The species is a large twining perennial vine with stout stems clothed, like the foliage, in dense silvery or rusty appressed hairs. The leaves are alternate, long-petiolate, broadly ovate to suborbicular with a deeply cordate base and acuminate apex, dark green above and conspicuously silvery-tomentose beneath. The showy flowers are borne in dense, head-like axillary cymes subtended by large, persistent, leafy bracts; the funnelform (infundibular) corolla is rosy-pink to purple with a darker throat, and the five stamens are inserted within the tube. The fruit is a small, berry-like indehiscent capsule, more or less enclosed by the enlarged, persistent and often coloured calyx, attractive to birds.

Argyreia (the woolly morning glories, allied to Ipomoea within Convolvulaceae) is a palaeotropical genus centred on Asia, distinguished by its frequently fleshy or berry-like fruits and persistent bracts. A. wallichii is widespread and locally common, not regarded as threatened, and is of ethnobotanical note in the region; like other members of the family it is pollinated chiefly by bees and larger insects visiting its open funnel-shaped corollas.

Author: Choisy · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India (Hooker), Staples revision of Asian Argyreia (Convolvulaceae)

Araceae

Arisaema concinnum

by GP Jürgens

Schott

Bhutan2014 461
Bhutan Tongsa 2000m, May
Bhutan2014 462
Bhutan Tongsa 2000m, May
Sikkim2004 118 P202
India West-Bengal, Utaray 2200m April

Description

Arisaema concinnum Schott is a tuberous aroid of the temperate Himalaya, ranging through India, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan. It is recorded from Bhutan at Tongsa near 2000 m, flowering in May, and from Utaray in West Bengal at about 2200 m in April, within the warm to cool temperate forest belt. The species grows in moist, shaded broadleaved and mixed forest, on humus-rich slopes, in ravines and along streamsides, typically between 1800 and 3000 m, where deep leaf litter and consistent monsoonal moisture favour its growth. Its roughly 216 GBIF records reflect a fairly wide but localised montane distribution.

The plant arises from a depressed globose tuber, producing usually a single large radiate leaf divided into numerous (commonly 7–15) lanceolate, acuminate leaflets arranged in a spreading pedate fan. The inflorescence is the characteristic aroid spadix enclosed in a spathe; in this species the spathe tube is greenish and the limb is striped green and white and drawn out into a long, slender, tail-like apex, while the appendix of the spadix is slender and exserted. As in most Arisaema the plants are paradioecious, shifting sex with size and vigour. Pollinated female inflorescences develop a dense club of red berries, each containing few seeds.

Arisaema concinnum belongs to a large, taxonomically intricate genus centred on the Sino-Himalaya, where rapid diversification and sex-lability have produced many closely allied species. Pollination is effected by fungus gnats lured into the spathe, a system in which the female trap can be lethal to the visiting insect. Widespread across its range, the species is not considered threatened, though forest clearance and tuber collection may locally reduce populations.

Author: Schott · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, The Genus Arisaema (Gusman & Gusman)

Araceae

Arisaema consanguineum

by GP Jürgens

Schott

Bhutan2014 114
Bhutan Kadi 1600m, May
Bh09 254 P423
Bhutan Phobjika, 2900m June
Nepal 99 234 ergebnis
West-Nepal Gattalekh 2800m, June

Description

Arisaema consanguineum Schott is a widespread tuberous aroid of the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Japan, with cultivated records reaching Europe and North America; GBIF documents over 2000 occurrences. It grows in shaded forest, forest margins, bamboo thickets, scrub and grassy slopes, generally between about 1500 and 3300 m. The illustrated plants were recorded at Kadi (1600 m, May) and Phobjika (2900 m, June) in Bhutan and at Gattalekh in West Nepal (2800 m, June), spanning the warm-temperate to cool-temperate montane zone where this jack-in-the-pulpit emerges with the early monsoon.

The plant arises from a depressed-globose tuber, producing a stout pseudostem sheathed by the mottled petiole bases. There is usually a single radiate (pedately compound) leaf bearing numerous narrow, lanceolate leaflets that frequently terminate in long, threadlike drip-tips and are sometimes silvery-banded. The inflorescence is a spadix enclosed by a green to purplish, white-striped spathe whose limb arches forward; the spadix appendage is slender and elongate. Plants are typically dioecious, sex expression varying with tuber size. The fruit is a dense cylindrical infructescence of red berries borne on the persistent spadix.

A member of the species-rich genus Arisaema, this taxon belongs to the radiate-leaved Sino-Himalayan group and is prized in horticulture for its striking foliage. Sex change linked to plant vigour is an ecological hallmark of the genus, and the showy berries are bird-dispersed. The species is common and adaptable, not of conservation concern, though wild tubers are locally harvested for traditional medicine.

Author: Schott · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Gusman & Gusman The Genus Arisaema

Araceae

Arisaema costatum

by GP Jürgens

Mart.

Nepal 97 313 P617
Nepal Honngaon 2300m May
Nepal 1994 192 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Mewa-Khola
2100m April
Nepal 2009 98 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Samathang 2410, May

Description

Arisaema costatum is a tuberous aroid of the central and eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF from Nepal, China, India and Bhutan across about 99 occurrences. It is a herb of moist, shaded broadleaved and mixed forest, forest margins, ravines and damp humus-rich slopes at mid montane elevations. The photographed plants come from Nepal at Honngaon (2300 m, May), eastern Nepal in the Mewa-Khola (2100 m, April) and the Helambu at Samathang (2410 m, May), a consistent band of cool, humid forest understorey where this cobra-lily emerges with the spring rains.

The plant arises from a depressed globose tuber and typically produces a single large pedate leaf divided into numerous lanceolate, acuminate leaflets, the central one largest, the lamina conspicuously ribbed, the costae giving rise to the epithet costatum. The inflorescence is a spadix enveloped by a spathe whose tube is greenish and the limb dark purple to maroon, strongly striped with white, and drawn out into a long, slender, pendent filiform tail. Arisaema species are commonly paradioecious, individuals shifting sex with size and vigour: smaller plants bear staminate flowers, larger ones pistillate. Pollinated by fungus-gnats lured into the spathe, fertile plants ripen a dense club of bright red berries.

GBIF accepts the name. The genus Arisaema is a centre of Himalayan diversity, with A. costatum among its most striking species for the boldly white-striped, long-tailed spathe. The size-dependent sex change is an adaptive reproductive strategy linked to tuber resources. Widespread within suitable forest, the species is not regarded as threatened, though forest clearance locally reduces its habitat.

Author: Mart. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Gusman monograph of Arisaema

Araceae

Arisaema echinatum

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Schott

Sikkim2004 326 P587
Sikkim/India Kokchurong 3400m May
Sikkim2004 327 P588
Sikkim/India Kokchurong 3400m May
Garh 07 86 ergebnis
India Garhwal Trijugi Narayan 2450m, June

Description

Arisaema echinatum is a tuberous aroid of the Himalaya, distributed through China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 44 georeferenced records spread along the temperate to subalpine Himalayan belt. It grows in moist, shaded forest, among rhododendron and conifer scrub and on humus-rich banks, generally between 2400 and 3500 m. The cited collections from Kokchurong in Sikkim (3400 m, May) and from Trijugi Narayan in Garhwal (2450 m, June) bracket its altitudinal range and show its emergence and flowering through the late spring and early monsoon as the soil warms.

The plant arises from a depressed-globose tuber and usually bears one or two pedately compound leaves, each divided into several oblong-elliptic, acuminate leaflets borne on a long sheathing petiole. The inflorescence comprises a spathe with a cylindrical tube and an incurved, acuminate limb, enclosing the spadix; the diagnostic feature is the sterile appendix of the spadix, which is roughened or echinate with projecting papillae or processes, giving the species its name. As in most Arisaema the plants are sequentially hermaphrodite, shifting sex with size. The infructescence is a dense head of crowded scarlet berries.

Arisaema echinatum, transferred to the genus by Schott from Wallich's basionym, belongs to the taxonomically intricate Himalayan section of the genus, where appendix morphology is a key diagnostic. Pollination is by small flies and fungus gnats lured into and temporarily trapped by the spathe, and the bright berries are bird-dispersed. With a restricted montane range and few records, it is potentially sensitive to forest loss, though it has not been formally assessed for conservation.

Author: (Wall.) Schott · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Gusman & Gusman The Genus Arisaema

Araceae

Arisaema griffithii

by GP Jürgens

Schott

Bhutan2014 360
Bhutan Tumching-La 3100m, May
Bhutan2014 830
Bhutan Thimphu 2450m, May
Sikkim2004 399 P681
Sikkim/India Lachung 3200m
Nepal 2001 104 ergebnis ergebnis
East-Nepal Gupka Pokhari 3050m, April

Description

Arisaema griffithii is an eastern Himalayan tuberous geophyte distributed through Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling in India, Bhutan, and into adjacent southern China (Xizang, Yunnan) and northern Myanmar, with georeferenced records also from Bangladesh. It is a plant of the cool temperate zone, growing in shaded moist forest, shrubberies, forest clearings and grassy slopes broadly between 2400 and 3600 m. The images document its altitudinal span, from Bhutan's Tumching-La at 3100 m and Thimphu at 2450 m flowering in May, to Lachung in Sikkim at 3200 m and Gupka Pokhari in east Nepal at 3050 m in April.

The plant arises from a depressed tuber and typically bears two trifoliolate leaves with broadly ovate to rhombic, acuminate leaflets, the lateral pair often oblique. The species is celebrated for its remarkable inflorescence: the spathe is large and deeply purple, conspicuously net-veined with pale reticulation, with the tube broadly funnel-shaped and the lamina arched and downturned, its margins recurved. The spadix appendix is exserted and elongated into a long, pendent whip-like flagellum. The plants are dioecious, with small unisexual flowers crowded at the base of the spadix, and the female inflorescence develops a cluster of red berries at maturity.

Within Araceae, A. griffithii belongs to section Sinarisaema and is one of the most distinctive members of the genus, named for William Griffith. Its drooping, intricately veined spathe lures fungus-gnat and small fly visitors into the inflorescence. Prized among specialist gardeners, it remains locally frequent and is not considered globally threatened, though vulnerable to habitat loss and tuber collection.

Author: Schott · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Gusman & Gusman 'The Genus Arisaema: A Monograph for Botanists and Nature Lovers'

Araceae

Arisaema nepenthoides

by GP Jürgens

Mart.

Bhutan2014 32
Bhutan, Trashigang 1300m, May
Nepal 97 432 G839
Nepal Tashigaon 3100m May
Nepal 1994 269 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Milka-Danda 3200m May 
Nepal1992 184 P270 ergebnis
Nepal Banyang 1900m March 

Description

Arisaema nepenthoides is a Himalayan cobra lily distributed from Nepal eastward through Sikkim, Bhutan and north-east India to Myanmar and south-western China, with about 322 GBIF occurrences reflecting its montane range. It is a herb of cool temperate to subalpine forest, growing in moist broad-leaved and conifer-Rhododendron forest, shady banks and forest margins, broadly from 1,900 to 3,600 m. The localities recorded for the photographed plants span this range, from Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1,300 m and Banyang in Nepal at 1,900 m to Tashigaon at 3,100 m and Milka Danda at 3,200 m, flowering between March and May as the snows recede.

It is a tuberous perennial arising from a depressed corm, producing a stout, conspicuously mottled pseudostem patterned with brownish-purple and pale markings reminiscent of a snake's skin. Usually two leaves are produced, each pedately divided into several elliptic to oblanceolate leaflets. The inflorescence is a spadix enclosed in a spathe whose tube is greenish and prominently striped, opening into a hooded, incurved limb that recalls the pitcher of a Nepenthes, hence the epithet nepenthoides. The species is dioecious, with the sexes distinguished by the spadix appendage; pollinated female plants develop a dense head of orange-red berries, each with few seeds.

Arisaema is a large genus centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, and A. nepenthoides belongs to a group recognised by its mottled pseudostem and distinctive hooded spathe. Like many relatives it shows sequential gender change, individuals functioning as male when small and as female once the tuber attains sufficient size, an adaptation to resource availability. Pollination is effected by fungus gnats and small flies attracted into the spathe chamber. The conspicuous spathe makes it a sought-after ornamental, but it remains widespread and locally common across the eastern Himalaya and is not considered threatened.

Author: Mart. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Arisaema (Gusman & Gusman), Araceae of the Himalaya

Araceae

Arisaema speciosum

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Mart.

Nepal 97 439 P855
Nepal Tashigaon 3100m May
Sikkim 2006 6 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Maneybhajang 2000m, May

Description

Arisaema speciosum is an eastern Himalayan cobra lily distributed from Nepal through Sikkim and West Bengal in India, Bhutan and into south-central China, with peripheral records in Myanmar and Thailand; GBIF holds nearly 200 occurrences. It grows in cool, humid temperate forest, in the shade of broadleaved and mixed conifer woodland, on rich, moist, humus-laden soils along stream banks, ravines and shaded slopes. The collections illustrated, from Tashigaon in eastern Nepal at about 3100 m and from Maneybhajang in West Bengal at around 2000 m, both in May, reflect its montane belt of roughly 2000-3300 m, where it emerges and flowers as the pre-monsoon rains advance.

The plant arises from a depressed, tuberous corm and produces a single trifoliolate leaf on a stout, mottled petiole; the three leaflets are broadly ovate, acuminate and often suffused dark purplish-red along the margins and central rib. The inflorescence is a spathe with a deep maroon, white-striped tube and an arching, dark purple-brown limb. Most striking is the spadix, whose appendage is prolonged into a very long, pendent, whip-like filiform tail hanging well below the spathe. The plant is typically dioecious, sex expression varying with tuber size, and female spadices ripen into a dense club of bright red berries.

The epithet speciosum, meaning showy, refers to the dramatic spathe and trailing appendage. Within the large Asian genus Arisaema it belongs to a group with trifoliolate leaves and long-tailed spadices. Like its congeners it is protogynous and paradioecious, with pollination effected by fungus gnats lured into the spathe chamber. The species is grown by specialist cultivators, and habitat disturbance and over-collection are potential local conservation concerns.

Author: (Wall.) Mart. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Gusman The Genus Arisaema, Murata monograph of Arisaema