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Myanmar

Flowers of the Myanmar Himalaya — 604 species recorded from northern Myanmar (Burma) and the eastern Himalayan borderlands, a biodiversity hotspot linking the Himalaya to the mountains of Yunnan and Southeast Asia. The region’s forests and alpine slopes hold a rich flora of rhododendrons, orchids, balsams and gentians. Every page gives a botanical description, distribution, habitat and flowering time with the original photograph.

Fabaceae

Crotalaria sessiliflora

by GP Jürgens

L.

Bhutan2012 625
Bhutan Wangdi 2800m, September

Description

Crotalaria sessiliflora is a wide-ranging Asian-Australasian rattlepod, recorded by GBIF (3102 occurrences) from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Nepal, the Philippines, Myanmar, Bhutan, Malaysia and Indochina. It is a plant of open, sunny, seasonally dry habitats, occupying grasslands, hill slopes, fallow fields, roadsides and waste ground from the lowlands up into the lower mountains, roughly to 2800 m. The photographed plant from near Wangdi in western Bhutan at about 2800 m, flowering in September, sits at the upper elevational margin of the species and reflects its late-monsoon flowering across the eastern Himalaya.

The species is an erect annual herb, usually 30-100 cm tall, with stems and foliage clothed in long, spreading brownish hairs. The leaves are simple (unifoliolate), narrowly linear to oblanceolate, sessile or shortly petiolate, with conspicuous setose stipules. The flowers are borne in dense, head-like or short terminal racemes, often crowded and almost sessile as the epithet indicates, each subtended by leafy bracts. The papilionate corolla is blue, violet or pale purple, the standard hairy outside. As in Crotalaria the stamens are monadelphous with dimorphic anthers. The fruit is a small, inflated, oblong pod enclosed by the persistent calyx, the loose seeds rattling within when ripe.

Described by Linnaeus, the species belongs to the large pantropical genus Crotalaria (Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, tribe Crotalarieae). Like its relatives it forms root nodules with rhizobial bacteria, fixing atmospheric nitrogen and enriching soils, and is sometimes grown as a green manure. The plant contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is used in traditional Asian medicine, though these compounds render it potentially toxic to livestock. With an extensive range and weedy tendencies it is of least conservation concern.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Monograph of the genus Crotalaria (Polhill)

Fabaceae

Crotalaria tetragona

by GP Jürgens

Andrews

Bhutan2012 1148
Bhutan Trashiyangtse 1780m, October

Description

Crotalaria tetragona Andrews is a tall rattlepod widely distributed across tropical and subtropical Asia, native from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh through southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Malesian region; GBIF lists about 405 occurrences, with records from Brazil, Jamaica, Colombia and Mauritius indicating introduction and naturalisation. It grows in open grassland, forest margins, scrub and disturbed roadside ground in the warm subtropical and submontane zone, generally below about 2000 m. The photographed plant from Trashiyangtse in eastern Bhutan at around 1780 m, flowering in October, reflects its occurrence in warm, lower-elevation valley habitats.

The species is a robust erect perennial herb or subshrub with conspicuously four-angled, often winged stems, the epithet tetragona alluding to this quadrangular form. The leaves are simple, elliptic to lanceolate and entire. The flowers are borne in long terminal racemes and are large and bright yellow, with the standard frequently veined reddish-brown; the calyx is deeply lobed and the keel beaked in the papilionaceous arrangement. The fruit is a large, inflated, oblong pod that turns blackish and rattles when the loose seeds detach at maturity, giving the genus its common name.

Crotalaria (Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, tribe Crotalarieae) is a large pantropical genus of nitrogen-fixing legumes, several used as green manure and fibre plants. C. tetragona is locally common and weedy, of least conservation concern, and like its congeners may contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids rendering it toxic to livestock.

Author: Andrews · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Polhill monograph Crotalaria in Africa and Asia

Brassicaceae

Crucihimalaya himalaica

by GP Jürgens

(Edgew.) Al-Shehbaz, O’Kane & R.A.Price

Bh09 187 G324
Bhutan Phajoding, 3700m June
Nepal 99 155 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3400m, June

Description

Crucihimalaya himalaica is a widespread alpine crucifer of the High Asian mountains, strongly represented in GBIF with about 704 occurrences spanning India, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Iran and Myanmar. It is a plant of open, often disturbed high-elevation ground, growing on stony slopes, screes, moraine, grazed turf, fallow and the margins of cultivation in the subalpine and alpine belts. The plants photographed at Phajoding in Bhutan at about 3700 m and south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3400 m, both in June, illustrate its characteristic occupation of open alpine slopes early in the growing season across the breadth of the range.

It is an annual to short-lived perennial herb with a basal rosette of oblanceolate to spathulate leaves bearing toothed or lyrate-pinnatifid margins, the herbage often clothed in branched (stellate or dendritic) and simple hairs. The erect, sparingly leafy stems terminate in racemes of small flowers with four free sepals and four white to pale lilac petals arranged in the cruciform pattern of the family, and six stamens in the usual tetradynamous arrangement. The fruit is a slender, linear, elongate silique that ascends to spreading and dehisces by two valves from a persistent septum to release the seeds.

The genus Crucihimalaya was segregated from Arabis and allied genera on molecular and morphological grounds by Al-Shehbaz, O'Kane and R.A.Price, and it is closely related to Arabidopsis, making the group of interest in comparative and evolutionary genomics. As an abundant, ecologically flexible species thriving in both natural and anthropogenically disturbed alpine habitats, C. himalaica is of no conservation concern, and its wide range reflects effective dispersal and tolerance of harsh, open mountain conditions.

Author: (Edgew.) Al-Shehbaz, O'Kane & R.A.Price · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Al-Shehbaz Brassicaceae of the Himalaya

Zingiberacaea

Curcuma aromatica

by GP Jürgens

Salisb.

Bhutan2014 285
Bhutan Trithangebe near a farmhouse 800m, May
Nepal1992 189 P276 ergebnis
Nepal Banyang 2100m March 
Nepal1992 190 P277 ergebnis
Nepal Banyang 2100m March 
Nepal 2001 30 ergebnis ergebnis
East-Nepal Korong 1150m, April

Description

Curcuma aromatica, wild or yellow zedoary, is a South and Southeast Asian rhizomatous herb with a broad distribution documented by 490 GBIF occurrences across China (CN), India (IN), Hong Kong (HK), Bhutan (BT), Sri Lanka (LK), Myanmar (MM), Thailand (TH), Nepal (NP), Vietnam (VN), Bangladesh (BD), Laos (LA), Pakistan (PK), Indonesia (ID), Korea (KR), Malaysia (MY) and Taiwan (TW), with cultivated records in Japan (JP), Colombia (CO) and Britain (GB). It grows in moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forest, scrub and forest margins, often near habitation as a semi-cultivated medicinal plant. The illustrated collections span Bhutan at Trithangebe near a farmhouse at 800 m in May and the Nepalese sites of Banyang at 2100 m in March and Korong in East-Nepal at 1150 m in April.

It is a stout perennial arising from a fleshy, aromatic, internally orange-yellow rhizome bearing sessile and stalked tubers. The pseudostem supports large oblong to oblong-lanceolate leaves, pubescent beneath. The inflorescence appears before or with the leaves as a lateral spike, its lower fertile bracts green and the upper sterile coma bracts tinged pink to rose; the flowers are pale yellow with a tubular calyx, a hooded dorsal corolla lobe and a deflexed, emarginate yellow labellum. Fruit is a capsule, though spread is mainly clonal.

Widely employed in traditional medicine and as a cosmetic and culinary turmeric substitute, C. aromatica is rich in aromatic essential oils and curcuminoids. It is frequently confused with C. zedoaria, from which it differs in floral and rhizome characters. The family is cited verbatim as Zingiberacaea (Zingiberaceae).

Author: Salisb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Revision of the genus Curcuma (Skornickova et al.)

Zingiberacaea

Curcuma zedoaria

by GP Jürgens

(Christm.) Roscoe

Bhutan2014 287

Description

Curcuma zedoaria, white turmeric or zedoary, is a tropical and subtropical species of probable northeast Indian and Southeast Asian origin that is now pantropically cultivated and naturalised. Its 694 GBIF occurrences span an extensive range including India (IN), China (CN), Thailand (TH), the Philippines (PH), Taiwan (TW), Indonesia (ID), Bangladesh (BD), Vietnam (VN), Malaysia (MY), Myanmar (MM), Sri Lanka (LK) and Japan (JP), alongside introductions to the Neotropics in Costa Rica (CR), Brazil (BR), Colombia (CO), French Guiana (GF), Panama (PA) and Ecuador (EC), and the United States (US). It thrives in warm, humid lowland and lower-montane situations, in moist forest understorey, clearings and as a cultivated medicinal and ornamental rhizomatous herb.

It is a robust herbaceous perennial arising from a large, fleshy, aromatic, yellowish-internally rhizome with cylindrical tuberous roots. The pseudostem is formed by the sheathing leaf bases, bearing oblong-lanceolate leaves that often display a characteristic reddish-purple midrib stripe. The inflorescence emerges separately from the rhizome, a spike of imbricate green and pink coma bracts subtending small pale-yellow flowers; each flower has a tubular calyx, a corolla with a hooded dorsal lobe, and a showy three-lobed labellum derived from staminodes. The fruit is a trilocular capsule, though propagation is chiefly vegetative.

Long used in traditional Asian medicine for its bitter, camphoraceous rhizome, zedoary is valued as a digestive and source of essential oils. Its taxonomy within the variable genus Curcuma has been complicated by sterile triploid cultivated clones and by confusion with allies such as C. aromatica and C. caesia. The family is given verbatim as Zingiberacaea (Zingiberaceae).

Author: (Christm.) Roscoe · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Thailand, Revision of the genus Curcuma (Skornickova et al.)

Convolvulaceae

Cuscuta reflexa

by GP Jürgens

Roxb.

Bhutan2012 1238
Bhutan Trashigang 1150m, October

Description

Cuscuta reflexa, the giant or Asian dodder, is a widely distributed parasitic vine ranging across South, Central and Southeast Asia and beyond, with GBIF documenting more than 1000 occurrences from India, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand and Myanmar among others. It occurs from the plains into the lower hills, the photographed plant deriving from Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1150 m in October. As an obligate stem holoparasite it has no true habitat preference of its own but follows that of its hosts, smothering shrubs, hedges and trees along forest margins, scrub, roadsides and cultivated ground in warm subtropical settings.

The plant is a leafless, rootless twining parasite with stout, fleshy, glabrous stems coloured yellow, orange or reddish, attaching to hosts by means of haustoria that penetrate the vascular tissue. Leaves are reduced to minute scales and chlorophyll is largely absent. The flowers are comparatively large for the genus, white to creamy, fragrant, and crowded in dense lateral racemes; the campanulate corolla has reflexed lobes (hence the epithet) and bears characteristic infrastaminal scales within the tube. The fruit is a globose capsule capped by the persistent corolla and opening circumscissily to release several seeds.

Cuscuta (now placed within an enlarged Convolvulaceae rather than a segregate Cuscutaceae) comprises around 200 holoparasitic species. C. reflexa is economically significant as a pest of cultivated and ornamental plants, yet is simultaneously valued in traditional South Asian medicine. Far from threatened, it is locally abundant and weedy; its parasitism exerts measurable effects on host vigour and on plant-community structure where it proliferates.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of British India (Hooker), Yuncker Monograph of the Genus Cuscuta

Convolvulaceae

Cuscuta reflexa

by GP Jürgens

Roxb.

Bhutan2015 57
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 2000m, October
Bhutan2015 58
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 2000m, October

Description

Cuscuta reflexa, the giant or Asiatic dodder, is a parasitic twiner widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka through Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand to China, with introduced records reaching Britain, Kenya, Mauritius, Iraq, Korea and the United States; its more than 1000 GBIF occurrences reflect both abundance and weediness. It occurs from the plains into the lower mountains, scrambling over shrubs, hedges, trees and crops in open scrub, forest margins, gardens and waste ground. The plant photographed at Wangdue Phodrang in Bhutan at about 2000 m in October sits at the upper part of its range, which extends from near sea level to roughly 3000 m.

It is a leafless, rootless holoparasite whose body consists of slender, much-branched, twining stems that are yellow to orange and essentially without chlorophyll, attaching to the host by intrusive haustoria that tap the vascular tissue. Leaves are reduced to minute scales. The flowers are small, white to creamy, fragrant and bell-shaped, borne in dense lateral racemose or spike-like clusters; the campanulate corolla has five reflexed lobes (the source of the epithet reflexa) and encloses scale-like infrastaminal appendages. The fruit is a globose capsule that opens by a circumscissile lid to release several small seeds.

Though listed here under Convolvulaceae, Cuscuta is frequently segregated into its own family Cuscutaceae; molecular evidence nests the genus firmly within Convolvulaceae, validating the family placement given. C. reflexa is the largest-stemmed Asian dodder and an agriculturally significant parasite that can damage ornamentals, hedges and tree crops, while also being widely employed in traditional medicine. Its broad, partly anthropogenic distribution and its appearance as an introduced weed in distant regions mark it as a successful generalist parasite.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Yuncker monograph of Cuscuta, Stefanovic Convolvulaceae phylogeny

Campanulaceae

Cyananthus incanus

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Bhutan2012 84
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September
Bhutan2012 87
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September
Sikkim2003 136 G184
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August

Description

Cyananthus incanus is a low alpine perennial of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Tibet, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 777 occurrences in GBIF. It grows on open alpine turf, stony slopes, screes and the margins of dwarf rhododendron scrub, generally between 3500 and 4500 m, in well-drained sites of the upper alpine zone. The photographs from the Shele La in Bhutan at about 4100 m in September and from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3950 m in August show the plant flowering through the late-monsoon and early-autumn season typical of the high eastern Himalaya.

The plant is a mat-forming or loosely tufted perennial with a stout, woody rootstock from which radiate slender, prostrate to ascending stems. The small leaves are alternate, ovate to obovate, entire or slightly toothed, and clothed in greyish hairs, the indumentum reflected in the epithet incanus. The flowers are solitary and terminal, comparatively large for the plant; the calyx is densely hairy and tubular, and the broadly bell-shaped to funnelform corolla is blue to purplish-blue with five spreading lobes and a conspicuous tuft of hairs (a beard) closing the throat, a hallmark of the genus. The fruit is a capsule splitting from the apex to release numerous small seeds.

Cyananthus is a small Sino-Himalayan genus of the Campanulaceae distinguished from Campanula by its terminal solitary flowers, a deeply lobed corolla and the bearded throat. The cushion or mat habit and woolly leaves are typical adaptations to the cold, wind-exposed and sun-drenched conditions of the alpine zone. Several species, including C. incanus, are prized in alpine and rock gardens for their intense blue flowers. Locally frequent across its range, it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lammers' classification of the Campanulaceae

Campanulaceae

Cyananthus inflatus

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Bhutan2012 258
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 106
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September

Description

Cyananthus inflatus is an annual herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded by GBIF in some 605 occurrences from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar. It occupies open alpine and subalpine ground, including grassy slopes, screes, disturbed banks and the margins of trails and meadows, broadly between 3000 and 4300 m. The illustrated plant was photographed in Bhutan at the Shele-La at 4000 m in September, flowering late in the season as autumn approaches, when many alpine annuals complete their cycle on cool, well-drained slopes.

The plant is a slender, branching annual with ascending to decumbent stems bearing alternate, small, ovate to spathulate leaves that are entire or slightly toothed and sparsely hairy. The flowers are terminal and solitary on the branch tips, subtended by a leafy involucre. The calyx is conspicuously inflated and tubular, becoming swollen and membranous in fruit, clothed in dark or appressed hairs. The corolla is broadly campanulate, pale to deep blue, five-lobed and bearded within at the throat with a tuft of hairs characteristic of the genus. The fruit is a capsule enclosed by the persistent inflated calyx, splitting to shed numerous small seeds.

Cyananthus (Campanulaceae) is a Sino-Himalayan genus of around twenty species notable for its bearded corolla throat and superior to half-inferior ovary, distinguishing it from the related Codonopsis and Campanula. The epithet inflatus refers to the swollen fruiting calyx, a diagnostic feature within the annual group. GBIF treats the name as accepted. As a wide-ranging, often weedy annual of disturbed alpine ground, it is locally common and of no conservation concern.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Lammers studies of Campanulaceae

Campanulaceae

Cyananthus lobatus

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Benth.

Bhutan2012 75
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September
Sikkim2003 114 G154
Sikkim below Dzongri 4000m 08.2003
Sikkim2003 130 P176
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m 08.2003

Description

Cyananthus lobatus is a well-known Himalayan trailing bellflower distributed from Nepal through India, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China) into Myanmar, with the genus's comparatively abundant 515 GBIF records (additional European and North American codes reflect its popularity in cultivation). It grows in the alpine and upper subalpine zones on open grassy slopes, rock ledges, screes and moist turf, broadly between about 3000 and 4500 m. The plants illustrated, from the Shele-La in Bhutan at around 4100 m in September and from Dzongri in Sikkim near 4000 m in August, occupy this late-summer to autumn alpine habitat.

It is a low, mat-forming or sprawling perennial herb arising from a stout rootstock, with prostrate to ascending, often reddish stems bearing small, alternate, obovate leaves that are usually lobed or toothed and somewhat fleshy. The flowers are solitary and terminal, large and showy for the plant's size; the broadly funnelform to bowl-shaped corolla is deep blue to violet-blue, five-lobed, and conspicuously bearded with white hairs in the throat, subtended by a swollen, hairy calyx tube. The fruit is a capsule enclosed in the persistent calyx, releasing numerous small seeds.

Cyananthus is a Sino-Himalayan genus distinguished from other Campanulaceae by its terminal solitary flowers, throat beard and superior ovary, and C. lobatus is its most familiar species, long valued as a choice late-flowering rock-garden plant, which explains its wide ex-situ record base. Its prostrate, cushiony habit suits exposed high-altitude ground. The species is widespread and locally common across the Himalaya and is not considered threatened, although alpine grazing and warming-driven upslope vegetation shifts could affect individual populations.

Author: Wall. ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lammers Revision of Campanulaceae