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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.

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

Asparagaceae

Maianthemum oleraceum

by G & P Jürgens

(Baker) LaFrankie

Sikkim 2006 58 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Kalipokkri 3100m, May

Description

Maianthemum oleraceum is a robust rhizomatous herb of the eastern Himalaya and western China, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with roughly 259 documented occurrences. It is a woodland species inhabiting moist temperate and subalpine forests, shaded ravines, shrubberies and forest clearings on deep humus-rich soils, often forming loose colonies through its spreading rhizome. In the Indian eastern Himalaya it reaches the upper montane belt, exemplified by the gathering near Kalipokkri in West Bengal at about 3100 m in May, when the species comes into flower at the close of the cool season.

The plant produces stout, erect to arching leafy stems from a thickened creeping rhizome. The leaves are several, alternate, sessile or shortly petiolate, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex and cordate to rounded at the base, with prominent arching venation. The inflorescence is a terminal branched panicle of numerous small flowers, each with six free, spreading, pinkish to greenish-white tepals and six stamens; the flowers are subtended by small bracts. The fruit is a globose berry, green and mottled when young, ripening through red to dark purple, containing few hard seeds.

Maianthemum, treated under Asparagaceae in modern classifications and long placed near Smilacina, comprises rhizomatous forest herbs of the northern hemisphere, of which M. oleraceum is one of the larger Asian species. The fleshy berries are dispersed by birds and small mammals, while clonal rhizome growth allows persistence in shaded understorey. The young shoots and leaves are gathered locally as a potherb, reflected in the epithet oleraceum. Common across its montane range, it is not considered threatened, though it depends on the maintenance of intact temperate forest.

Author: (Baker) LaFrankie · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, LaFrankie revision of Maianthemum (Smilacina)

Asparagaceae

Maianthemum purpureum

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) LaFrankie

BhutanPG2011 169
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June
Nepal 99 100 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3600m, June

Description

Maianthemum purpureum (Wall.) LaFrankie is a montane false Solomon's-seal of the Himalaya and southwestern China, with about 673 records from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Taiwan. It grows in shaded, humus-rich situations: fir and rhododendron forest, subalpine scrub, mossy stream banks and the edges of high meadows, typically in the upper temperate to subalpine belt around 3000 to 3800 m. The plants photographed at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m and south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3600 m, both in June, are typical of its cool, moist, snow-influenced woodland and forest-margin habitats.

The species is an erect rhizomatous perennial arising from a creeping, somewhat fleshy rhizome. The simple, unbranched stem bears several alternate, sessile to subsessile, ovate to elliptic leaves with conspicuous parallel venation. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme or narrow panicle of small flowers; in contrast to typical white-flowered Maianthemum, the perianth here is purple to dull reddish, with six free or shortly united tepals and six stamens. The fruit is a small globose berry that ripens red to purplish-black, each containing one to few seeds.

Long placed in Smilacina (and Tovaria), the species was transferred to a broadly circumscribed Maianthemum, which subsumes those segregate genera on molecular and morphological grounds. Its purple-flowered condition is notable within the predominantly white-flowered genus. The nectariferous flowers attract small insects, and the fleshy berries are dispersed by birds. Widespread across the Sino-Himalayan region and locally common in suitable forest, M. purpureum is not considered threatened, although it depends on the persistence of undisturbed montane woodland.

Author: (Wall.) LaFrankie · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, LaFrankie's revision of Maianthemum (incl. Smilacina)

Orchideaceae

Malaxis muscifera

by GP Jürgens

(Lindl.) Kuntze

BhutanPG2011 788 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3750m July

Description

Malaxis muscifera is a small terrestrial orchid widespread through the Himalaya and adjacent China, recorded from Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar, with some 237 occurrences in GBIF. It grows in moist temperate to subalpine forest and forest margins, among shaded humus, mossy banks and grassy clearings, broadly between about 2,500 and 4,000 m. The plant figured was photographed at Chele-La in western Bhutan at around 3,750 m in July, when the species flowers during the summer monsoon in the cool, damp conditions of the upper conifer and Rhododendron belt.

It is a slender, glabrous perennial herb arising from a small pseudobulb-like, fleshy stem-base. There are usually two, occasionally more, ovate to elliptic, plicate-veined leaves clasping the lower stem by their sheathing bases. The erect stem terminates in a long, dense, many-flowered raceme of minute greenish to yellowish flowers. The narrow sepals and the very slender, thread-like petals spread or reflex, giving the inflorescence its characteristic spidery aspect; the labellum is uppermost through resupination, broadly cordate-auriculate at the base and abruptly contracted to a narrow apex, embracing the short column. The fruit is a small ellipsoid capsule with numerous dust-like seeds.

Malaxis is a large, mainly tropical and warm-temperate genus, and M. muscifera, with its narrowly filiform petals, is among the most distinctive Himalayan representatives, the epithet alluding to the fly-like floral appearance. The flowers are pollinated by small insects, and germination requires mycorrhizal fungi. Frequent and locally abundant across the Himalaya, it is of low conservation concern, though, as an orchid, it is covered by the CITES Appendix II listing of the family.

Author: (Lindl.) Kuntze · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Pridgeon et al. Genera Orchidacearum

Euphorbiaceae

Mallotus nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

Müll.Arg.

Bh09 231 P387
Bhutan Wangdi, 1650m June
Bh09 380 G601
Bhutan Wangdi, 1650m June
Sikkim 2006 255 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Lingza 1250m, May

Description

Mallotus nepalensis is a small tree or shrub of the subtropical to lower-temperate Himalaya and its eastern extensions, documented by GBIF (972 occurrences) across China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and Pakistan. It grows in secondary forest, scrub, forest edges and along streams and clearings, characteristically as a light-demanding component of disturbed and successional vegetation, mostly between about 800 and 2000 m. The collections from Wangdi in Bhutan at 1650 m in June and from Lingza in West Bengal at 1250 m in May illustrate its montane-subtropical distribution along the southern Himalayan front.

The plant is a deciduous shrub or small tree whose young branchlets, petioles and inflorescences are clothed in stellate hairs and reddish, granular peltate glands typical of the genus. The leaves are alternate, long-petiolate, broadly ovate to deltoid, often with two glands at the blade base and a pair of basal lateral nerves, the lower surface pale and gland-dotted. The plant is dioecious; minute apetalous flowers are borne in slender terminal and axillary racemes or panicles, the staminate with numerous stamens, the pistillate with a softly spiny ovary. The fruit is a globose, three-lobed capsule beset with soft processes and covered in red glandular powder.

Mallotus belongs to subfamily Acalyphoideae of the Euphorbiaceae and is characterised by its stellate indumentum and resinous peltate glands, the latter yielding the dye-like powder for which several species are known. Ecologically it behaves as a pioneer, regenerating freely in gaps and along disturbed margins, its capsular fruit and small seeds aiding rapid colonisation. The species is common and of no conservation concern.

Author: Müll.Arg. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Airy Shaw Euphorbiaceae of the Indian subcontinent

Solanaceae

Mandragora caulescens

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Sikkim2004 215 G367
Sikkim/India Gometang 3900m May
Nepal 97 203 P415
Nepal Thudam 3850m April
Nepal 97 202 P414
Nepal Thudam 3850m April

Description

Mandragora caulescens is a stout alpine perennial of the high Himalaya and Tibetan borderlands, distributed across southwestern China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan), northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar; GBIF documents some 540 collections, indicating it is locally frequent within its high-elevation range. It occupies open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, scrub margins and stony pasture, generally between about 2500 and 4500 m, often in moist, well-drained turf. The photographed plants were recorded at Gometang on the Sikkim/India border at about 3900 m in May and at Thudam in eastern Nepal near 3850 m in April, typical of this snowmelt-associated meadow species.

Unlike the stemless Mediterranean mandrakes, this species is caulescent, developing a short, leafy aerial stem from a large, fleshy, often forked taproot. The leaves are clustered, oblong to oblanceolate, tapering to the base, entire or sinuate, and somewhat fleshy. The flowers are solitary on long, decurved or nodding peduncles among the leaves; the corolla is broadly campanulate, dull purple to brownish-violet or rarely greenish, five-lobed, subtended by a deeply lobed persistent calyx. The fruit is a globose, fleshy berry seated in the enlarged calyx.

The placement of Mandragora has long been debated; it is treated here in Solanaceae, in which it is conventionally classified, though some authors segregate it. M. caulescens is the principal Asian representative of the genus and, like its western relatives, contains tropane alkaloids and features in regional ethnomedicine. Widespread across the high Sino-Himalayan ranges, it is not regarded as globally threatened.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Ungricht et al. revision of the genus Mandragora

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis species

by G & P Jürgens
Nepal 99 41 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June
Nepal 99 38 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June
Nepal 99 39 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June

Description

Meconopsis is a genus of approximately 50–80 species of poppy-like herbs predominantly centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, with a single outlying species (M. cambrica) in western Europe. The genus ranges from Pakistan through the Himalayas to southwestern China and northern Myanmar, with its greatest species diversity in southeastern Xizang, northwestern Yunnan, and western Sichuan. Species occupy diverse montane to alpine habitats including forest clearings, scrub, rocky slopes, scree, and high-altitude meadows at elevations from 2,000 to over 5,500 m. The present specimen, photographed in the Nyor Gaad valley of western Nepal at 2,800 m in June, represents a population in the lower elevational range typical for the genus.
Meconopsis species are annual, biennial, or monocarpic to polycarpic perennial herbs, producing rosettes of basal leaves that are variously lobed, pinnatifid, or entire, and typically covered with bristly or plumose hairs. The flowers are borne singly or in racemose to paniculate inflorescences and are characteristically large and showy, 3–10 cm across, with 4–8 petals in shades of blue, purple, red, yellow, or white. The stamens are numerous, with conspicuous yellow to orange anthers. The gynoecium consists of a syncarpous ovary that matures into a capsule dehiscing by apical valves. Identification to species level often requires examination of fruit morphology, indumentum type, and style characters.
Species-level determination in Meconopsis from photographs alone is frequently unreliable, as many taxa overlap in floral colour and vegetative morphology, and the genus has undergone considerable taxonomic revision. Western Nepal harbours several species including M. regia, M. napaulensis, and M. paniculata, among others. Over 9,200 occurrence records in GBIF attest to the genus's wide distribution and collecting interest. Many species are of significant horticultural value, particularly the blue-flowered taxa, while several narrow endemics face conservation concerns due to climate-driven habitat shifts and overcollection. Continued field surveys and molecular phylogenetic studies are essential for resolving species boundaries within this iconic Himalayan genus.

Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Grey-Wilson: The Genus Meconopsis (2014), Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Nepal

Gentianaceae

Megacodon stylophorus

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) Harry Sm.

BhutanPG2011 807 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3900m July

Description

Megacodon stylophorus is a stately giant gentian of the eastern Himalaya and southwestern China. GBIF records it from China, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar, with roughly 450 occurrences, the genus being a small Sino-Himalayan endemic. It grows in moist subalpine meadows, forest clearings, scrub margins and along streamsides between about 3000 and 4300 m. The plant shown was photographed on the Chele-La pass in western Bhutan at 3900 m in July, when its tall flowering stems rise above the surrounding alpine herbage at the height of the monsoon growing season.

It is one of the largest herbaceous gentians, an erect perennial reaching 1-1.5 m from a stout rhizome. The stem bears opposite, sessile, broadly ovate leaves with conspicuous arcuate parallel venation. The large, pendulous, broadly campanulate flowers are borne in the upper leaf axils; the corolla is pale greenish-yellow, intricately net-veined with darker reticulation, and 4-5 cm long. Distinctively the style is long and persistent (the epithet stylophorus, style-bearing), exserted from the corolla, and the fruit is a large septicidal capsule releasing numerous winged seeds adapted to wind dispersal.

Megacodon is a segregate from the broadly defined Gentiana, distinguished by its great stature, reticulate corolla and elongate style, and molecular studies place it among the basal lineages of tribe Gentianeae. Its showy net-veined flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees foraging at high elevation. Though striking and of horticultural interest, it is not regarded as globally threatened, but its dependence on undisturbed, moist subalpine habitats makes it sensitive to overgrazing and shifting monsoon regimes.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Gentianaceae: systematics and natural history

Asteraceae

Melanoseris macrorhiza

by GP Jürgens

(Royle) N.Kilian

Bhutan2012 260
Bhutan Chele-La 3500m, September
Nepal 99 928 ergebnis
West-Nepal Roha 2700m, July

Description

Melanoseris macrorhiza (Royle) N.Kilian is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan blue-flowered lettuce relative recorded from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, China and Myanmar, with around 468 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows on open alpine and subalpine slopes, in moist meadows, among rocks and along forest margins, typically between about 2700 and 4000 m. The collections from Chele-La at 3500 m in September and from Roha in West Nepal at 2700 m in July illustrate its broad Himalayan altitudinal range and its late-summer to autumn flowering.

It is a perennial herb arising, as the epithet macrorhiza indicates, from a stout, thickened taproot or rootstock, with milky latex characteristic of the tribe Cichorieae. The stems are erect and leafy below, becoming branched in the inflorescence. The leaves are lyrate-pinnatifid to runcinate, the basal ones petiolate and the cauline ones often clasping with auriculate bases. The capitula are wholly ligulate, with blue to violet-blue strap-shaped florets and a cylindric involucre of imbricate phyllaries. The fruit is a flattened, ribbed cypsela narrowed toward the apex and bearing a pappus of white, soft bristles.

The species has a complex nomenclatural history, having been placed at various times in Lactuca, Cicerbita and Cephalorrhynchus before transfer to Melanoseris, a predominantly Asian genus segregated within the lettuce alliance on the basis of cypsela and pappus characters supported by molecular data. It is a widespread montane element of no particular conservation concern.

Author: (Royle) N.Kilian · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Kilian revision of Cichorieae (Melanoseris)