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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.

Proteaceae

Helicia nilagirica

by G & P Jürgens

Bedd.

Bhutan2012 667
Bhutan Tserang 1100m, September

Description

Helicia nilagirica is an evergreen tree or large shrub of subtropical and tropical montane Asia, distributed from southern and northeastern India and the Nilgiri hills (whence the epithet) through Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, southern China, Vietnam and Cambodia; GBIF lists some 944 occurrences, the species being relatively well collected. It grows in evergreen and semi-evergreen broadleaved forest, on hill slopes, ridges and along forest streams, chiefly between about 800 and 2000 m. The photographed individual was recorded in eastern Bhutan at Tserang around 1100 m in September, a humid forest setting typical of this warm-temperate to subtropical Proteaceae.

It is a tree with smooth to finely fissured bark and coriaceous foliage. The leaves are alternate, often clustered toward the branch tips, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, leathery, entire or with a few coarse teeth toward the apex, glabrous and glossy above. The flowers are small and borne in slender, elongate, axillary racemes; as in the genus they are bisexual with four tepals that recurve at anthesis, the four stamens inserted on the tepals, and a hypogynous disk. The fruit is a hard, globose to ellipsoid, indehiscent drupe-like nut with a single large seed.

Helicia (Proteaceae) is the largest Old World genus of the family, centred on tropical Asia and reaching its northern limit in the eastern Himalaya. H. nilagirica is among the more widespread Asian species, and its racemose inflorescences and one-seeded indehiscent fruits typify the genus. Broadly distributed and locally common, it is not considered globally threatened, though populations depend on subtropical broadleaved forest affected by clearance.

Author: Bedd. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Sleumer revision of Asian Proteaceae

Zingiberacaea

Hellenia speciosa

by GP Jürgens

(J.Koenig) Govaerts

Bhutan2012 720
Bhutan Galephu 850m, October

Description

Hellenia speciosa is a robust rhizomatous herb of tropical and subtropical Asia, very widely distributed from India and Sri Lanka through Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and southern China to New Guinea and Australia, and widely cultivated and naturalised in the Neotropics and Pacific; its more than 6600 georeferenced records reflect this broad range and horticultural spread. It grows in moist forest understorey, forest margins, stream banks and disturbed ground, generally from near sea level to about 1200 m. The plant photographed at Galephu in southern Bhutan at 850 m in October grows in the warm subtropical foothill forest at the Himalaya's lowland fringe.

It is a tall, leafy herb 1-3 m high with a creeping fleshy rhizome and stout, characteristically spirally twisted leafy stems. The leaves are large, oblong-lanceolate, spirally arranged, with conspicuous sheaths. The inflorescence is a dense terminal cone-like spike of bright red, imbricate bracts from which emerge the showy flowers; each has a large, crinkled, funnel-shaped white labellum with a yellowish centre, subtended by a single fertile stamen with a petaloid filament. The fruit is a globose to ovoid red capsule containing numerous black, arillate seeds.

Formerly placed in Costus as Costus speciosus, the species was transferred to Hellenia by Govaerts; the input labels the family "Zingiberacaea" (Zingiberaceae), retained here verbatim, though the spiral-leaved costaceous gingers are now usually treated as a distinct family. The rhizome, rich in diosgenin, is widely used in traditional medicine and as a steroid precursor. The flowers are bee-pollinated and the bright capsules attract birds. Widespread, weedy and frequently cultivated, H. speciosa is of no conservation concern.

Author: (J.Koenig) Govaerts · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Specht's monograph of Costus and allied genera (Costaceae)

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)

Plantaginaceae

Hemiphragma heterophyllum

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2015 39
Bhutan Dochu-La 2700m, October
Sikkim2004 301 G524
Sikkim/India Choka 3800m May
Nepal 1994 90 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Jaljale Himal
3100m April

Description

Hemiphragma heterophyllum is a widespread Asian creeping herb extending along the Himalaya from Pakistan through Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and northeast India to China and Taiwan, and southward into the mountains of Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, with naturalised records elsewhere; GBIF logs 2751 occurrences across this broad range. It grows on open banks, grassy slopes, mossy rocks, forest paths and disturbed ground in the temperate to alpine zone, roughly 2500 to 4000 m. The cited records from Dochu-La in Bhutan (2700 m, October), Choka in Sikkim (3800 m, May) and the Jaljale Himal in eastern Nepal (3100 m, April) demonstrate its wide elevational and seasonal amplitude.

It is a small, mat-forming perennial herb with slender, much-branched, prostrate and rooting stems. The leaves are conspicuously dimorphic, as the epithet heterophyllum indicates: those on the main stems are broad, orbicular to reniform and crenate, while the clustered axillary fascicles bear numerous narrow, needle-like (acicular) leaves. The flowers are small, solitary and nearly sessile in the leaf axils, with a campanulate calyx and a pink to white rotate-campanulate corolla. The fruit is the most striking feature: a fleshy, berry-like, bright scarlet to orange globose capsule that is exserted among the foliage and conspicuous in fruit.

The sole species of the genus Hemiphragma, it is now placed in Plantaginaceae following the dismemberment of the traditional Scrophulariaceae, having formerly been assigned to that family. Its brightly coloured fleshy fruits suggest endozoochorous dispersal by birds, unusual within its largely dry-fruited relatives. The species is abundant, ecologically versatile and frequently colonises trodden or disturbed habitats, so it is of least conservation concern; its capacity to establish outside its native range is reflected in scattered exotic records.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Genera Plantarum and Hooker's Flora of British India

Orchideaceae

Hemipilia chusua

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Y.Tang & H.Peng

Sikkim2003 150 P201
Sikkim Dzongri, 4100m August
BhutanPG2011 792
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Kem-La, 4300m July
BhutanPG2011 677
BhutanPG2011 392
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Kem-La, 4300m July

Description

Hemipilia chusua is a terrestrial orchid widely distributed across temperate and alpine Asia, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Russia, Japan and Korea, with over 1700 GBIF occurrences making it one of the best-documented orchids of the region. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadow, open turf, grassy slopes and the margins of dwarf-shrub heath, typically between about 2500 and 4500 m. The illustrated plants from Dzongri in Sikkim at 4100 m, flowering in August, and from Kem-La on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at 4300 m in July, exemplify its high-altitude grassland habitat.

It is a slender terrestrial herb arising from small ovoid to ellipsoid tubers, with an erect, glabrous stem bearing one or few leaves. The leaves are lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, sheathing at the base and somewhat clasping the stem. The inflorescence is a lax, few-flowered terminal raceme of showy rosy-purple to magenta flowers; the lip (labellum) is broad, three-lobed and bears a slender, downward-pointing spur longer than the ovary, while the lateral sepals spread and the dorsal sepal and petals form a loose hood. The fruit is an erect, ribbed dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Long familiar as Orchis or Ponerorchis chusua, the species was transferred to Hemipilia by Tang and Peng following molecular reappraisal of the orchidine alliance. Though wide-ranging and locally abundant, like all wild orchids it is listed under CITES Appendix II, and its alpine populations are vulnerable to collection, grazing pressure and the upslope shift of montane vegetation under climate change.

Author: (D.Don) Y.Tang & H.Peng · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Pearce & Cribb The Orchids of Bhutan

Orchideaceae

Hemipilia puberula

by G & P Jürgens

(King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng

BhutanPG2011 66 ergebnis
Bhutan Menchuang, 2650m June

Description

Hemipilia puberula is a terrestrial orchid of the temperate Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded from China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar, with 41 GBIF occurrences indicating a relatively restricted eastern Himalayan and southwest Chinese distribution. It grows on grassy and rocky slopes, in open forest margins and among scrub in the cool montane to subalpine zone, generally between about 2400 and 3500 m. The illustrated plant was found at Menchuang in Bhutan at around 2650 m in June, in the upper temperate belt where flushed slopes and forest edges support a scattered terrestrial orchid flora.

The plant develops from a small ovoid or ellipsoid tuber and typically bears one (sometimes two) basal leaf that is ovate to elliptic and frequently spotted or mottled with purplish blotches above. The slender erect stem carries a lax raceme of a few showy flowers. These are rosy-purple to pinkish-lilac, with spreading sepals and petals and a prominent, broad, flabellate lip that is often notched or lobed at the apex and bears a slender backward-pointing spur; the epithet puberula refers to the fine minute pubescence on the plant. The fruit is an erect ribbed capsule.

The basionym authority (King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng reflects the modern recircumscription of Hemipilia to include species formerly placed in Chusua and segregated from Ponerorchis, supported by molecular phylogenetic study. The genus belongs to tribe Orchideae and is a Sino-Himalayan group of tuberous terrestrial orchids. With its limited range and showy flowers, H. puberula is locally uncommon and potentially vulnerable to grazing and collection, and is regulated under CITES Appendix II.

Author: (King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb), Tang, Xiang & Peng (Hemipilia phylogeny)

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 pumila

by GP Jürgens

D.Don A.Dietr.

Sikkim2003 23 G27
Sikkim Rathong-Chu 1200m, August
Garw 2005 214 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Simkarok 2680m, September
Bhutan2015 89
Bhutan Galephug 600m, October

Description

Henckelia pumila is a small gesneriad of the eastern and central Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Burma, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand and Vietnam, with close to 600 occurrences in GBIF. It is a plant of shaded, humid habitats, growing on moist rock faces, mossy boulders, stream banks and shaded earth cuttings within evergreen broad-leaved and subtropical hill forest. Its wide altitudinal amplitude is reflected in the collection localities given for the illustrated material, ranging from the Rathong Chu in Sikkim at 1200 m in August and Galephug in Bhutan at only 600 m in October up to Simkarok in Indian Garhwal at 2680 m in September, indicating tolerance of both warm subtropical and cool temperate forest understorey.

The plant is a small perennial or facultatively annual herb with a short, often weak stem and crowded, opposite or subopposite leaves that are ovate to elliptic, crenate-serrate and softly hairy, frequently somewhat fleshy and unequal in a pair. The flowers are borne singly or in few-flowered cymes on slender peduncles from the leaf axils. The corolla is tubular and weakly two-lipped, white to pale lilac or bluish, often with a yellow throat or coloured markings, with the lower lip the more spreading. There are two fertile stamens with coherent anthers, and the ovary is superior, developing into the slender, elongate, twisted or straight loculicidal capsule typical of the genus.

The family is given as Didymocarpinae on the source page, the subtribal name within the Gesneriaceae to which Henckelia belongs; the species is correctly a member of the Gesneriaceae. The genus Henckelia has been substantially recircumscribed following molecular study, with numerous Asiatic didymocarpoid species transferred into and out of it, and H. pumila sits within this Sino-Himalayan radiation of rock-dwelling gesneriads. Its capacity to colonise moist shaded rock and its broad elevational range make it locally frequent, and it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: D.Don A.Dietr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, A Revision of the Genus Henckelia (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 digitatum

by GP Jürgens

(G.Don ex Loudon) Lowry & G.M.Plunkett

Bhutan2014 71
Bhutan Trashigang 1350m, May

Description

Heptapleurum digitatum is an Indo-Himalayan and Indo-Malesian tree distributed from the eastern Himalaya through northeastern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand into the Malesian region, with GBIF recording around 116 occurrences across India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. It is a plant of warm subtropical to lower montane broadleaf forest, occurring in the foothill belt; the illustrated material comes from Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1350 m, flowering in May. It favours humid, evergreen and semi-evergreen forest, ravine slopes and stream banks, where it grows as an understorey to canopy tree, sometimes epiphytic or hemi-epiphytic when young.

The species is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree with stout, often sparsely branched stems bearing conspicuous leaf scars. The leaves are large, alternate, long-petiolate and digitately (palmately) compound, with several to many oblong-elliptic, entire, glabrous, coriaceous leaflets radiating from the petiole apex, the whole giving the characteristic umbrella-plant silhouette of the genus. The numerous small flowers are five-merous, with minute petals and an inferior ovary, arranged in umbellules grouped into large, much-branched terminal panicles. The fruit is a small, subglobose, slightly ribbed drupe with several pyrenes, attractive to birds.

The combination (G.Don ex Loudon) Lowry & G.M.Plunkett reflects the segregation of the Asian "Schefflera" lineages, this species having long been treated under Schefflera. Heptapleurum sensu stricto is now recognised as a large palaeotropical genus within Araliaceae. Widespread and frequent in suitable forest, the species is not considered threatened, and its bird-dispersed drupes and accessible nectar make it an important resource in subtropical forest food webs.

Author: (G.Don ex Loudon) Lowry & G.M.Plunkett · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of British India (Hooker), Lowry & Plunkett revision of Schefflera/Heptapleurum (Araliaceae), Frodin & Govaerts World Checklist of Araliaceae