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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.

Orchideaceae

Goodyera fusca

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

Sikkim2003 457 K631.2
Sikkim Chopta Valley 3900m August

Description

Goodyera fusca is a terrestrial orchid of the higher Himalaya, ranging through Nepal, China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar (NP, CN, BT, IN, MM), with about 101 recorded occurrences. It grows in cool, shaded humus among mossy rocks, in subalpine Rhododendron and conifer thickets and at the upper forest margin, generally in the upper temperate to subalpine zone. The plant illustrated was found in the Chopta Valley of Sikkim at 3900 m in August, an elevation and late-summer flowering period typical of the species, where it occupies damp, sheltered pockets of leaf litter and bryophyte cover beneath open scrub near the treeline.

It is a small, erect herb arising from a creeping, fleshy, few-noded rhizome rooting at the nodes. The leaves are few and clustered toward the stem base, ovate to elliptic, somewhat fleshy, and in many populations marked with the reticulate veining characteristic of the 'jewel orchids'. The inflorescence is an erect, glandular-pubescent spike bearing a secund to spiralled series of small, dull brownish to greenish flowers, each subtended by a lanceolate bract. The dorsal sepal and petals are connivent to form a hood over the column, the lateral sepals spreading, and the saccate, concave lip lacks a free spur. The fruit is a small, erect, ribbed capsule releasing dust-fine seeds.

Goodyera (subtribe Goodyerinae, tribe Cranichideae of the Orchidaceae) is a chiefly Asian genus of forest-floor orchids whose germination and establishment depend on association with mycorrhizal fungi. The small, drab, nectar-bearing flowers are pollinated by small bees and other insects, and the minute seeds are wind-dispersed. As an obligately mycotrophic forest understorey orchid, G. fusca is vulnerable to disturbance of its humus-rich habitat, though across its wide Himalayan-Chinese range it is not currently regarded as threatened.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Genera Orchidacearum (Goodyerinae)

Orchideaceae

Goodyera hemsleyana

by G & P Jürgens

King & Pantl.

Bhutan2012 347
Bhutan Dochu-La 3000m, September

Description

Goodyera hemsleyana is a terrestrial orchid of the cool, humid temperate forests of the eastern Himalaya and adjoining southwestern China. Documented occurrences (21 GBIF records) span India, Nepal, China, Bhutan and Myanmar, following the moist mid- to upper-montane belt of the Sino-Himalayan region. The species favours the deep, mossy humus and leaf litter of shaded broadleaved and mixed conifer forest, typically between about 2500 and 3500 m. The illustrated material was gathered at Dochu-La in western Bhutan at roughly 3000 m in September, a pass clothed in cloud forest where rhododendron and fir provide the shade and atmospheric moisture this orchid requires.

The plant is a small, creeping geophyte arising from a slender, fleshy, decumbent rhizome that roots at the lower nodes. The leaves are few, gathered toward the base, ovate to elliptic, and characteristically marked with a fine reticulate venation that distinguishes the 'jewel orchid' alliance. The erect inflorescence is a pubescent scape bearing a rather lax, secund raceme of small white to greenish-white flowers. Each flower shows the connivent dorsal sepal and petals forming a hood over the column, spreading lateral sepals, and a saccate, concave lip with an incurved, often shortly bifid apex; the ovary is glandular-hairy and twisted.

Goodyera is a large, near-cosmopolitan genus within tribe Cranichideae, subtribe Goodyerinae, and G. hemsleyana belongs to the assemblage of Himalayan species described from the King & Pantling collections. Like its congeners it is mycoheterotrophic in establishment, dependent on rhizoctonia-type fungal symbionts in the forest humus, which restricts it to undisturbed old-growth stands. Though not formally assessed as threatened, its reliance on intact mossy forest makes it sensitive to logging and grazing pressure across its range.

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

Malvaceae

Grewia serrulata

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2014 718
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 2000m, May

Description

Grewia serrulata is a shrub or small tree of the Indomalayan tropics, distributed through India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bhutan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan and Thailand, with around 382 GBIF occurrences. It is a plant of warm subtropical to tropical hill forest, growing in open woodland, forest margins, scrub, ravine slopes and along roadsides and clearings, generally on well-drained ground in the foothill and lower montane belt. The record from Wangdi Phodrang in Bhutan at about 2000 m in May illustrates its occurrence in the warm temperate to subtropical zone of the eastern Himalayan foothills, flowering in the pre-monsoon season.

The plant is a much-branched shrub or small tree with young branchlets bearing stellate pubescence. The alternate, simple leaves are ovate to oblong-lanceolate with an asymmetric, rounded to subcordate base, an acuminate apex, a finely serrulate margin (as the epithet denotes) and prominent palmate basal venation, the lower surface often paler and stellate-hairy. The flowers are borne in small axillary or leaf-opposed cymes; each has five sepals, five spreading yellow to whitish petals each with a basal nectariferous gland, and a prominent central androgynophore bearing numerous stamens around a superior ovary. The fruit is a small, lobed, fleshy drupe, becoming reddish to purplish-black at maturity and bearing few stones.

Described by de Candolle, Grewia serrulata belongs to a large genus formerly placed in Tiliaceae but now subsumed, following molecular phylogenetics, within the broadly circumscribed Malvaceae (subfamily Grewioideae); the input family is retained accordingly. The genus is well known for its tough bast fibres and edible drupes, and several species are gathered for fruit, fodder and fibre. As a widespread, adaptable component of secondary and disturbed forest, G. serrulata is not regarded as threatened, though locally valued for its useful products.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of British India, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Bayer & Kubitzki treatment of Malvaceae

Orchideaceae

Gymnadenia orchidis

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

BhutanPG2011 801 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3800m July
also included: Anaphalis busua (D.Don) DC. and Anemone demissa Hook.f. & Thomson
Nepal 99 371 ergebnis
West-Nepal Linji-Khola 3400m, June
Nepal 99 474 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3200m, June

Description

Gymnadenia orchidis is a terrestrial orchid of the Himalaya and adjacent China, distributed through China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan, with GBIF documenting some 795 occurrences. It is a plant of open alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes, forest clearings and damp turf, growing in full sun to light shade on humus-rich soils. The species occupies the upper montane to alpine zone; the photographed material from the Chele-La pass in Bhutan at about 3800 m in July, sharing its habitat with Anaphalis busua and Anemone demissa, and from the Linji-Khola and Churta-Khola valleys of West Nepal at 3200-3400 m in June, illustrates its summer flowering across this high-elevation belt.

The plant arises from palmately lobed, fleshy root-tubers and bears an erect, leafy stem. The leaves are several, oblong to lanceolate, sheathing at the base and reduced upward to bracts. The inflorescence is a dense, cylindrical terminal spike of many small flowers, ranging in colour from purple and pink-magenta to occasionally white. Each flower has spreading lateral sepals, a hooded arrangement of the dorsal sepal and petals, and a trilobed labellum bearing a slender, decurved spur about equalling or shorter than the ovary, containing nectar. The pollinaria have naked, exposed viscidia characteristic of the genus. The fruit is a small, erect capsule.

The species belongs to Gymnadenia, a genus of nectar-spurred terrestrial orchids closely allied to Dactylorhiza and Platanthera; it has at times been segregated into Habenaria or treated under broader generic concepts, reflecting ongoing debate over the limits of the orchidine genera. Pollinated by long-tongued insects attracted to its spur nectar, it remains widespread and locally common in Himalayan alpine grasslands, although meadow degradation and grazing may affect individual populations.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Orchids of Sikkim and Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb)

Asteraceae

Gynura bicolor

by G & P Jürgens

(Roxb. ex Willd.) DC.

Bhutan2012 1313
Bhutan Pemagatse 1800m, October

Description

Gynura bicolor is a soft-stemmed composite of warm-temperate to subtropical Asia, native through China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Nepal, Thailand, Myanmar and Bhutan, and very widely cultivated and naturalised across the Pacific, Americas and elsewhere; GBIF lists over 600 occurrences reflecting both wild and grown plants. It occupies forest margins, moist shaded slopes, streamsides and disturbed ground, generally below about 2000 m. The photographed plant is from Pemagatse in Bhutan at 1800 m in October, growing in humid subtropical hill forest at the lower edge of the survey area.

The species is an erect to ascending perennial herb with fleshy, somewhat succulent, often purplish stems. The leaves are alternate, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, irregularly toothed to lyrately lobed, and strikingly bicolorous, green above and deep purple beneath, the source of the epithet. The capitula are discoid, lacking ray florets, and gathered in lax terminal corymbs; each head holds numerous orange to reddish tubular florets within a cylindrical involucre of narrow phyllaries, the long styles exserted with hairy, recurved branches. The fruit is a ribbed cypsela bearing a copious white pappus of fine bristles.

Gynura belongs to the tribe Senecioneae, and G. bicolor is well known as the edible "Okinawan spinach" or hong feng cai, grown as a leaf vegetable and used in traditional medicine, which accounts for its extensive cultivated distribution. It is of no conservation concern, being a vigorous, easily propagated plant tolerant of disturbance.

Author: (Roxb. ex Willd.) DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Revision of the Genus Gynura (Senecioneae)

Orchideaceae

Habenaria dentata

by G & P Jürgens

Schltr.

Bhutan2012 624
Bhutan Dochu-La 2800m, September
Bhutan2012 957
Bhutan Dochu-La 2800m, September

Description

Habenaria dentata is a wide-ranging terrestrial orchid of tropical and subtropical Asia, documented in GBIF across 933 occurrences from China, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and beyond. It grows in grassy slopes, open forest, scrub and forest-margin clearings from the lowlands to about 2800 m. The photographed plant was found at Dochu-La in Bhutan at about 2800 m in September, at the upper edge of its range, flowering at the close of the monsoon when soil moisture remains high in the cool mid-montane zone.

It is a tuberous terrestrial herb arising from underground ellipsoid tubers, with an erect leafy stem 30-60 cm tall bearing several oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, clasping cauline leaves. The inflorescence is a dense terminal raceme of showy white flowers; the dorsal sepal and petals converge to form a hood, while the conspicuous three-lobed labellum has the lateral lobes broadly dilated and fringed-dentate along the margins, giving the epithet dentata, and bears a long, slender, downcurved spur. The column is short with the rostellum and pollinaria typical of Habenaria, and pollination is effected by long-tongued, often nocturnal moths attracted to the white, spurred flowers.

Habenaria (Orchidaceae, subtribe Orchidinae) is a large, cosmopolitan genus of terrestrial orchids best diversified in the tropics, and like all orchids it is listed on CITES Appendix II. Seed germination depends on symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi. Despite its broad distribution and relative frequency, populations are reduced locally by grassland conversion and collection, but the species is not globally threatened.

Author: Schltr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Orchids of Bhutan, CITES Appendix II listing

Boraginaceae

Hackelia uncinata

by G & P Jürgens

(Royle ex Benth.) C.E.C.Fisch.

Nepal 99 112 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3600m, June
Garh 07 336 ergebnis
India Garhwal Mahji 2650m, June

Description

Hackelia uncinata (Royle ex Benth.) C.E.C.Fisch. is a perennial herb of the Himalaya and Central Asian mountains, with GBIF recording some 417 occurrences across China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Mongolia and Russia. It grows in forest clearings, on shaded banks, among subalpine scrub and in moist meadow on the cooler slopes of the temperate to subalpine zone, flowering in early summer. The cited collections, from south of Rara Lake in west Nepal at 3600 m in June and from Mahji in Garhwal (Indian Himalaya) at 2650 m in June, illustrate its preference for partly shaded, humus-rich montane sites where it forms loose stands.

The plant produces erect to ascending, pubescent stems from a perennial rootstock, bearing alternate, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic leaves that are softly hairy, the lower ones petiolate and the upper sessile. The small flowers are arranged in lax, branched, scorpioid cymes; the corolla is rotate to shortly funnelform, pale blue to violet, with five lobes and prominent throat appendages (fornices). The diagnostic feature, reflected in the epithet uncinata, lies in the four nutlets, whose margins bear a row of glochidiate (hooked, barbed) prickles that catch on fur and clothing, effecting epizoochorous dispersal.

Hackelia, segregated from Lappula and the broader stickseed assemblage, is distinguished by nutlet ornamentation and is centred on the temperate mountains of Asia and the Americas. The hooked nutlets are an effective adaptation for animal-mediated dispersal across open montane terrain. The species is widespread and not of conservation concern, occurring frequently in both natural and lightly disturbed habitats throughout its broad Himalayan and Central Asian range.

Author: (Royle ex Benth.) C.E.C.Fisch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Boraginaceae of the Western Himalaya, Brand monograph on Hackelia and Lappula

Gentianaceae

Halenia elliptica

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Bhutan2012 18
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September
Bhutan2012 52
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September

Description

Halenia elliptica is a widespread Asian gentian-relative ranging across the Himalaya and the mountains of central and eastern Asia, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Taiwan (CN, IN, NP, BT, MM, KZ, MN, RU, TW, with further records), and one of the most abundantly collected species treated here, with about 4437 occurrences. It grows in moist alpine and subalpine meadows, on grassy slopes, forest clearings, streamsides and open disturbed ground over a wide altitudinal span. The plant illustrated was found at Shele-La in Bhutan at 3600 m in September, an elevation and late-season flowering typical of its appearance in the autumn alpine turf and roadside banks of the high passes.

It is an erect, glabrous annual or biennial with a four-angled, often branched stem. The leaves are opposite, sessile or shortly petiolate, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate with three to five prominent longitudinal veins. The flowers are borne in terminal and axillary cymes; the most distinctive feature is the corolla, which is four-lobed and blue to purplish, each lobe bearing at its base a slender, backward-projecting nectar spur, so that the open flower carries four divergent spurs, the character that defines the genus. The four stamens alternate with the lobes, and the superior, bicarpellate ovary ripens into a many-seeded capsule.

Halenia (subfamily Gentianoideae, tribe Gentianeae of the Gentianaceae) is unusual within its family for the conspicuously spurred corolla, an adaptation offering nectar to long-tongued pollinating insects and a notable instance of nectar-spur evolution within the otherwise spurless gentians. The species is highly variable across its enormous range. As a common, weedy, broadly distributed colonist of disturbed montane habitats, H. elliptica is of no conservation concern, and it is also gathered for use in Tibetan and Chinese traditional medicine.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Gentianaceae monograph (Halenia revision)

Zingiberacaea

Hedychium densiflorum

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Sikkim2003 54 P73
Sikkim avove Yoksam 2600m 08.2003

Description

Hedychium densiflorum Wall. is a robust rhizomatous ginger native to the eastern Himalaya, ranging through China (CN), India (IN), Nepal (NP), Bhutan (BT) and Myanmar (MM); GBIF records 255 occurrences, with additional points from cultivation in Britain, North America and elsewhere reflecting its popularity as a hardy ornamental. In the wild it grows in moist temperate forest, shaded banks and clearings, frequently as an epilithic or terrestrial herb among rocks. It was photographed in Sikkim above Yoksam at 2600 m in August, in the cool, monsoon-drenched broadleaf forest belt that typifies its habitat.

The plant grows from a stout, aromatic, creeping rhizome, producing tall leafy pseudostems formed by overlapping leaf-sheaths. The leaves are distichous, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate and shortly petiolate, with a conspicuous membranous ligule. The inflorescence is a dense, narrowly cylindrical terminal spike, much denser than in most congeners, from which the epithet derives; the bracts are imbricate and each subtends one or more flowers. The flowers are slender and orange to soft yellow, with a long corolla tube, narrow petals, a prominent exserted filament bearing the anther, and a bilobed or entire labellum. The fruit is a globose capsule splitting to reveal seeds enclosed in a bright arillus.

Hedychium belongs to tribe Zingibereae and is centred on the Indo-Malayan and Himalayan region, where many species are pollinated by moths and butterflies attracted to the long-tubed, often fragrant flowers. H. densiflorum and its selections such as 'Assam Orange' and 'Stephen' are widely grown for their hardiness. The original family field, spelled "Zingiberacaea", is retained verbatim though the correct orthography is Zingiberaceae. The species faces localised pressure from forest disturbance but remains common across its range.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Zingiberaceae monograph (Schumann; T. L. Wu & K. Larsen)

Zingiberacaea

Hedychium ellipticum

by G & P Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex Sm.

Bhutan2012 469
Bhutan Wangdi 2500m, September

Description

Hedychium ellipticum is a rhizomatous perennial of the family Zingiberaceae, one of the ornamental ginger lilies native to the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia. GBIF data document its occurrence across Bhutan, Nepal, northeast India, Myanmar, Thailand and southern China, with additional records reflecting cultivated material outside its native range. It grows in moist, shaded broad-leaved and evergreen forest, on humus-rich banks, ravine sides and rocky slopes, typically between about 1,000 and 2,400 m. The plant photographed near Wangdue Phodrang (Wangdi) in Bhutan at around 2,500 m in September represents the upper part of this altitudinal band, where flowering coincides with the late monsoon.

The species develops a stout, horizontally creeping rhizome from which arise erect, leafy pseudostems up to 1–1.5 m tall. The leaves are distichous, sessile or shortly petiolate, with elliptic to oblong-elliptic blades that are glabrous above and may be pubescent beneath, tapering to an acuminate apex, with a conspicuous ligule at the leaf sheath. The inflorescence is a dense terminal spike bearing imbricate green bracts, each subtending one or more flowers. The flowers are showy and fragrant, white with a long, slender corolla tube; the labellum is broad and bilobed and the filament conspicuously exserted, the whole flower built on the characteristic Hedychium plan with a single fertile stamen. The fruit is a globose capsule splitting to reveal seeds enveloped in a bright orange-red aril.

Hedychium is a horticulturally important genus, and several Himalayan species including H. ellipticum and the related H. spicatum are used in traditional medicine and as a source of aromatic rhizomes. The flowers are adapted to pollination by long-tongued insects and hawkmoths, attracted by scent and the slender nectar tube. Within the genus the elliptic leaf form and white, exserted-stamen flowers distinguish this species; care is needed in herbarium identification because it has frequently been confused with allied taxa of the H. spicatum complex.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Nepal, Wood: A Revision of Hedychium (Zingiberaceae)