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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.

Primulaceae

Primula glabra

by GP Jürgens

Klatt

Bhutan2014 920
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Bhutan2014 1014
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Bh2008 570 P857
Bhutan Chele-La, 3950m June

Description

Primula glabra is a dwarf alpine primrose of the eastern Himalaya, distributed through China (south-eastern Tibet), Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with GBIF logging 196 occurrences across this Sino-Himalayan zone. It is a plant of high alpine turf, moist meadows, rocky slopes, snowmelt flushes and damp gravelly ground above the treeline, broadly between 3800 and 4500 m. The photographed plants from the Chele-La pass in western Bhutan, at 3950-4000 m flowering in May and June, exemplify its preference for cold, open, snow-influenced alpine sites where it blooms among rocks and short turf as the snow melts in early summer.

The species is a small, glabrous (hence the epithet), tufted perennial herb, lacking the farinose (mealy) coating found in many alpine primulas. The leaves form a basal rosette and are oblanceolate to spathulate, entire to finely toothed, narrowing into an indistinct petiole. Flowers are borne in a compact terminal umbel atop a short scape, or sometimes nearly sessile among the leaves. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a salverform corolla, typically pink to purplish or violet with a contrasting paler or yellowish eye, the limb spreading into five notched lobes. The species is heterostylous, producing pin and thrum flowers. The fruit is a small capsule dehiscing to release numerous minute seeds.

Described by Klatt, the species belongs to the vast genus Primula, within the alpine sections (allied to section Minutissimae or related dwarf cushion groups) that radiated extensively across the high Sino-Himalaya. Its heterostylous breeding system promotes outcrossing by long-tongued alpine insects. As a specialist of high, snow-fed alpine habitats it is potentially vulnerable to climatic warming and upslope habitat compression, though its broad regional range currently buffers it; it remains formally unassessed.

Author: Klatt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Primula in Cultivation and the Wild (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula hookeri

by G & P Jürgens

G.Watt

Sikkim 2006 387 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Kishong 3600m, May

Description

Primula hookeri is a diminutive alpine primrose of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar. It is a plant of high alpine meadows, mossy banks, rhododendron scrub margins and moist turf near the treeline and above, typically between about 3300 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from Kishong in West Bengal, India, at around 3600 m and flowering in May, is characteristic of its early-season blooming soon after snowmelt in cool, humid, high-montane meadow where moisture from melting snow and abundant atmospheric humidity sustain the small rosettes.

The species is a small, tufted perennial forming neat basal rosettes. The leaves are obovate to spathulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, crenate to denticulate, glabrous or nearly so, and lack the conspicuous farina of many Himalayan primulas. The flowers are typically solitary or few on short scapes, sometimes nearly sessile among the leaves; the corolla is white to pale lilac with a yellow eye, salverform, with an elongated tube and spreading, notched lobes. The fruit is a small capsule shorter than or about equalling the persistent calyx, releasing numerous minute seeds.

The epithet honours Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, whose mid-nineteenth-century Sikkim explorations transformed knowledge of Himalayan Primula. The species belongs to the small-flowered section Minutissimae (the dwarf alpine primulas), a group of cushion- and turf-forming high-elevation specialists. Like many narrowly montane primulas it is heterostylous, promoting outcrossing. Restricted to fragile high-alpine habitats, such species are potentially sensitive to grazing and warming-induced upslope vegetation shifts, though P. hookeri is not presently regarded as threatened.

Author: G.Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, The Genus Primula (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula listeri

by GP Jürgens

King ex Hook.f.

Nepal 1994 205 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Mewa-Khola 2300m April 
Nepal1992 207 P303 ergebnis
Nepal Suketar 2400m March 
Nepal 2001 88 ergebnis ergebnis
East-Nepal Gupka Pokhari 3000m, April
Nepal 2001 123 ergebnis ergebnis
East-Nepal Gupka Pokhari 3000m, April

Description

Primula listeri is an eastern Himalayan species distributed through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, southern China (Xizang, Yunnan) and northern Myanmar, with GBIF documenting around 102 georeferenced records concentrated along the wetter eastern arc of the range. It occupies shaded, humid montane environments between roughly 2000 and 3000 m, growing on mossy banks, in the leaf litter of broad-leaved and mixed forest, and along seeping rock faces. The populations imaged in East Nepal at Mewa Khola (2300 m, April), Suketar (2400 m, March) and Gupka Pokhari (3000 m, April) typify its phenology, with flowering coinciding with the early pre-monsoon period when soils remain moist and cool.

The plant is a small, delicate perennial herb forming a slender rootstock from which arises a rosette of thin-textured leaves. The leaves are petiolate, ovate to oblong with a crenate to dentate margin, and frequently sparsely farinose or efarinose beneath. Flowers are borne on a slender scape in a loose few-flowered umbel, each subtended by narrow bracts; the calyx is tubular and lobed, and the corolla is rotate with a narrow tube and notched, lilac to pale violet limb-lobes, the throat marked by an annulus. As in many sect. Petiolares allies the species is heterostylous, producing pin and thrum flowers. The fruit is a small capsule dehiscing to release numerous minute seeds.

Taxonomically P. listeri belongs to the species-rich Primula sect. Petiolares, a complex assemblage of vernal-flowering, rosette-forming primroses centred on the eastern Himalaya. Its restricted elevational band and dependence on permanently humid forest microhabitats make it sensitive to forest clearance and desiccation, though it is not formally assessed as threatened. Biogeographically it forms part of the rich Sino-Himalayan endemic flora whose diversification is linked to the monsoon-driven moisture gradient of the eastern ranges.

Author: King ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Richards' Primula (monograph)

Primulaceae

Primula mollis

by GP Jürgens

Nutt. ex Hook.

Bh09 360 G577
Bhutan Wangdi, 2300m June

Description

Primula mollis is a softly hairy perennial of the Eastern Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Burmese ranges, with verified occurrences in China, Myanmar, Bhutan and India (additional GBIF records from Belgium, Britain and the Czech Republic reflect its cultivation by alpine enthusiasts). It grows in damp, shaded situations along forest margins, stream banks and moist rocky banks at moderate elevations, typically between about 2000 and 3000 m. The illustrated plant from near Wangdi in central Bhutan at around 2300 m in June shows the species flowering in the early monsoon, when the humid conditions it favours prevail.

The whole plant is conspicuously clothed in soft spreading hairs, the feature memorialised in the epithet mollis. The leaves form a basal rosette and are ovate to oblong, shallowly lobed and toothed, cordate at the base and borne on hairy petioles. From the rosette rises a stout, hairy scape carrying several superposed whorls (a candelabra arrangement) of flowers. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a salver-shaped corolla that is rose-pink to crimson with a darker or yellowish eye, the limb shallowly notched. The fruit is a small capsule enclosed within the persistent calyx and dehiscing to release numerous angular seeds.

Primula mollis is placed in section Cortusoides (Petiolares group of broader treatments), characterised by soft-textured, lobed, hairy leaves and whorled inflorescences. It is a long-cultivated woodland primula, and ecologically contributes to the herb layer of humid montane forest, where it is pollinated by insects attracted to its bright corollas. Across its range it remains locally frequent and is not considered threatened, though it depends on the persistence of moist, lightly shaded montane habitats.

Author: Nutt. ex Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Richards' monograph Primula

Primulaceae

Primula prenantha

by G & P Jürgens

Balf.f. & W.W.Sm.

Sikkim 2006 435 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 361 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tamrong 2750m, May

Description

Primula prenantha is a small perennial herb distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjacent mountains, with GBIF recording it from China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan across some 93 georeferenced occurrences. It is a plant of moist, cool montane habitats, favouring stream margins, seepage slopes, wet meadows and the edges of evergreen and mixed broad-leaved forest, typically between about 2400 and 3600 m. The photographed population at Tamrong in West Bengal, at roughly 2750 m, flowering in May, is characteristic of this damp temperate belt where snowmelt keeps the ground saturated through the early growing season.

The plant forms a small basal rosette arising from a short rhizome with fibrous roots. The leaves are obovate to oblong-spathulate, narrowing gradually into a winged petiole, with a crenate to denticulate margin and an obtuse apex; the lamina is thin, glabrous and not farinose. From the rosette rises a slender erect scape bearing a terminal umbel of few to several nodding flowers subtended by small linear bracts. The flowers are heterostylous; the calyx is tubular-campanulate and lobed, and the corolla is yellow with a narrow tube and spreading, often emarginate lobes forming a flat or slightly cupped limb. The fruit is a small cylindrical capsule that dehisces by apical valves to release numerous minute seeds.

The species belongs to Primula section Sikkimensis (in the broad sense, allied to the yellow-flowered Petiolares-Sikkimensis assemblage), a group centred on the Sino-Himalayan region whose diversification tracks the uplift of the Himalaya and the associated humid monsoon gradients. Its dependence on cool, perennially moist microhabitats makes it sensitive to changes in snowpack and montane hydrology, and like many Sino-Himalayan primulas it is locally rather than broadly distributed. It is not currently regarded as globally threatened, but its narrow ecological tolerance warrants attention under warming and drying climatic scenarios.

Author: Balf.f. & W.W.Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, John Richards "Primula" (monograph)

Primulaceae

Primula pulchra

by GP Jürgens

G.Watt

Sikkim2004 142 G244
Sikkim/India Singalila 3800m April

Description

Primula pulchra is an eastern Himalayan species distributed across Nepal, India, Bhutan, southern China (Xizang, Yunnan) and northern Myanmar, with GBIF documenting some 39 georeferenced occurrences across this comparatively narrow range. It is a plant of the upper temperate and subalpine zones, typically growing between about 3000 and 4300 m on moist, humus-rich slopes, in open Rhododendron scrub, along stream margins and on grazed alpine meadows that remain snow-covered for much of the winter. The photographed material from the Singalila Ridge on the Sikkim–West Bengal border at roughly 3800 m, flowering in April, is characteristic: the species is among the earliest primulas to bloom as the snowmelt recedes.

It is a small, rosette-forming perennial arising from a short rhizome with fibrous roots. The leaves are obovate to oblong-spathulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, the margin crenate-dentate, and the lower surface typically clad in a pale to yellowish farina. The scape carries a one- to few-flowered umbel subtended by short bracts. Flowers are heterostylous and showy, the corolla rose-purple to violet with a pale or yellow eye, the lobes obcordate and emarginate; the calyx is campanulate and often farinose. The fruit is a small capsule about equalling the persistent calyx, releasing numerous angular seeds.

Primula pulchra belongs to section Petiolares, a large, taxonomically intricate group of Sino-Himalayan primulas characterised by early flowering and resting-bud overwintering. Within it the species is allied to P. calderiana and P. boothii, from which it is separated by leaf shape, farina distribution and corolla detail; intergradation has complicated its delimitation. As a snow-bed and meadow specialist it is sensitive to grazing and to shifts in snow-lie driven by climate warming, though its presence in several protected high-altitude areas affords some security.

Author: G.Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Smith & Fletcher monograph of the genus Primula, Richards 'Primula' (2003)

Primulaceae

Primula sikkimensis

by GP Jürgens

Hook.

Sikkim2011 246
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June
Sikkim2011 65
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June
BhutanPG2011 810 01 01 scaled
Bhutan / also included: Ligularia fischeri
Bh09 34 P64
Bhutan
Sikkim2003 231 P320
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m 08.2003

Description

Primula sikkimensis, the Sikkim cowslip, is a robust perennial of the Himalaya and the eastern Tibetan plateau, recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Myanmar, with 1820 occurrences in GBIF making it one of the better-documented Himalayan primulas. It is a plant of wet alpine habitats: marshy meadows, stream sides, bog margins and damp turf, typically between 3000 and 4500 m, often forming extensive colonies in seepage zones. The Sikkim collections illustrated, from Yumthang at 3700 m in June and Dzongri at 4100 m in August, exemplify its association with permanently moist, cold ground; the caption also notes Ligularia fischeri co-occurring in the same habitat.

The plant arises from a stout rhizome and produces a basal rosette of oblong to oblanceolate leaves, the blades crenate-toothed and tapering to a winged petiole, mealy-farinose at least beneath when young. The stout, erect scape, often 30-90 cm tall, bears a terminal umbel of several to many nodding, fragrant flowers. The corolla is funnelform with a slender tube and spreading limb, pale to sulphur-yellow, the throat dusted with farina; the species is heterostylous, with distinct pin and thrum morphs. The fruit is a cylindrical capsule, somewhat longer than the persistent calyx, releasing numerous small seeds.

Primula (Primulaceae) reaches its greatest diversity in the Sino-Himalaya; P. sikkimensis is the type of section Sikkimensis, a group of moisture-loving, yellow- to whitish-flowered primulas. Its heterostyly enforces outcrossing, and its scent and form suit pollination by long-tongued insects. Widespread and locally abundant, it is not of conservation concern, but as a wetland specialist it is sensitive to drainage, grazing pressure and the desiccation of alpine mires under a warming climate.

Author: Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Primula (A Monograph)

Primulaceae

Primula whitei

by GP Jürgens

W.W. Sm.

Bh2008 131 G220
Bhutan Pele-La, 3000m April
Bh2008 233 P370
Bhutan Pele-La, 3000m April

Description

Primula whitei W.W.Sm. is an eastern Himalayan primrose of comparatively narrow range; GBIF lists about 74 occurrences from Bhutan, neighbouring India, southern China and Myanmar, with records extending into eastern Nepal. It grows in cool, moist habitats of the upper temperate and subalpine zones, on mossy banks, damp rock ledges, shady cliffs and the margins of forest and scrub, broadly between about 3000 and 4000 m. The plants photographed at Pele-La in Bhutan at 3000 m in April flower very early in the season, as snow recedes, on a high pass typical of the humid, cloud-bathed habitats this species requires.

It is a small, farinose perennial herb forming a compact rosette that overwinters as a resting bud. The leaves are obovate to spathulate, with a crenate to dentate margin tapering to a winged petiole, and the undersurface is often dusted with white or yellowish farina. The flowers are borne singly or in a small umbel on a short scape that elongates only slightly after anthesis, so the blooms nestle close to the foliage. The corolla is salverform with a slender tube and spreading limb of obcordate lobes, violet-blue to lilac with a paler or yellowish eye. The species is heterostylous, and the fruit is a small capsule releasing numerous minute seeds.

Primula whitei belongs to section Petiolares, a Sino-Himalayan group of early-flowering, often farinose primulas centred on the eastern Himalaya whose species delimitation has long challenged taxonomists; it has at times been associated with the Primula bhutanica complex. The genus is classically heterostylous, promoting outcrossing between pin and thrum morphs. With its limited range and reliance on cool, perennially humid microhabitats, the species is regionally restricted and potentially sensitive to warming and to desiccation of the high-altitude niches on which Petiolares primulas depend.

Author: W.W. Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Richards' monograph Primula, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Rosaceae

Prunus rufa

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Hook.f.

Bhutan2014 434
Bhutan Pele-La 3000m, May
Bhutan2014 543
Bhutan Pele-La 3000m, May

Description

Prunus rufa, the Himalayan cherry, is a small tree of the eastern Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, Bhutan, northern India, China (south-eastern Tibet) and Myanmar, with GBIF logging 290 occurrences concentrated along this Sino-Himalayan belt. It grows in cool temperate and sub-alpine forest, on open slopes, forest margins and in mixed conifer-broadleaf woodland, broadly between 2700 and 3700 m. The photographed plant from the Pele-La pass in central Bhutan at about 3000 m, flowering in May, illustrates its spring blossoming as new growth emerges in the high passes, where it is valued for its striking bark and early flowers.

The species is a deciduous tree, often 5-12 m tall, conspicuous for its smooth, glossy, coppery to reddish-brown peeling bark, which gives rise to the epithet rufa. Young shoots and leaf undersides are clothed in distinctive rusty (rufous) hairs. The alternate leaves are ovate to elliptic, serrate at the margin, acuminate and short-petiolate. The flowers are solitary or in small clusters, opening with the young foliage; each is pentamerous with five white to pale pink petals, numerous stamens and a single carpel seated in a cupular hypanthium. The fruit is a small ovoid drupe, ripening reddish, with a thin flesh surrounding a single hard stone (endocarp).

Described by Wallich ex Hooker, the species belongs to genus Prunus subgenus Cerasus (the true cherries), within Rosaceae subfamily Amygdaloideae. Its rusty indumentum and burnished bark are diagnostic and make it a notable ornamental, cultivated in temperate gardens for its bark and spring flower. The drupes provide food for birds and mammals, aiding seed dispersal. With a broad Himalayan range it is not globally threatened, though high-elevation forest fragmentation and logging may locally reduce populations.

Author: Wall. ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Plant Hunter's Guide to Asian Prunus (Cerasus monograph)

Melastomataceae

Pseudodissochaeta assamica

by G & P Jürgens

(CB.Clarke) Nayar

Bhutan2012 632
Bhutan Tserang 1600m
Bhutan2012 1239
Bhutan Tserang 1600m

Description

Pseudodissochaeta assamica is a forest shrub of the Sino-Himalayan and Indo-Burmese region, recorded from China, Vietnam, India, Laos, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, with a moderate body of data (c. 126 records in GBIF). It is a plant of warm, humid broad-leaved evergreen and semi-evergreen forest, growing in shaded understorey, along streamsides, ravines and forest margins, typically in the subtropical to lower montane belt around 1000–2000 m. The photographed individual from Tserang in Bhutan, at 1600 m, is representative of this moist, shaded mid-elevation forest habitat where members of the family flourish.

The plant is an erect to scrambling shrub with quadrangular young stems and the opposite, decussate leaves typical of Melastomataceae. The leaves are large, ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, with the characteristic curvinerved (acrodromous) venation of several main veins arising near the base and converging at the apex, the lamina often scabrous or sparsely setose. The flowers are borne in terminal or axillary panicles; each has a campanulate hypanthium, four small petals, and conspicuous stamens that are markedly dimorphic or unequal, with appendaged, often geniculate connectives and poricidal anthers adapted to buzz-pollination. The fruit is an urceolate, several-seeded capsule or berry-like structure crowned by the persistent calyx.

The genus Pseudodissochaeta (tribe Dissochaeteae) was segregated by Nayar from Dissochaeta on differences in stamen and connective structure. This taxon was based on a Clarke name and has a complex synonymy; the source page links to Oxyspora paniculata, an allied melastome with which it has at times been confused, underscoring the taxonomic intricacy of the group. As a fairly widespread forest shrub it is not regarded as threatened, though it depends on intact mid-elevation forest.

Author: (CB.Clarke) Nayar · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Melastomataceae), Flora of Bhutan, A Revision of the Asiatic Melastomataceae