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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.

Schoepfiaceae

Schoepfia griffithii

by GP Jürgens

Tiegh. ex Steenis

Bh2008 527 P803
Bhutan Limbukha 1400m, May
Bh2008 528 P804
Bhutan Limbukha 1400m, May

Description

Schoepfia griffithii is a small tree or shrub of the family Schoepfiaceae, a hemiparasitic member of the sandalwood order Santalales. Its GBIF records are confined to Bhutan, India, China and Myanmar, indicating a restricted eastern Himalayan to northern Indochinese distribution. It occurs in subtropical and warm-temperate broad-leaved forest, on hill slopes, ridges and forest margins, typically between about 1,000 and 1,800 m. The collection illustrated from Limbukha in western Bhutan at around 1,400 m in May is representative of this mid-elevation evergreen forest, where the plant flowers in spring.

The species is a slender, much-branched shrub or small tree with smooth bark and glabrous twigs. The leaves are alternate, simple and entire, ovate to elliptic, leathery and shortly petiolate, with a somewhat acuminate apex. The flowers are small and borne in short axillary racemes or fascicles; the corolla is tubular to campanulate, usually creamy to greenish-yellow, with a small number of lobes and stamens inserted opposite the lobes, set on a partly inferior ovary surrounded by a small disk. The fruit is a small ovoid drupe-like structure enclosed by the persistent, accrescent perianth and receptacle, ripening to a coloured fleshy body attractive to birds.

As a root hemiparasite Schoepfia attaches to the roots of neighbouring trees through haustoria while remaining photosynthetic, a habit shared across the Santalales. The segregation of Schoepfiaceae from the older broadly circumscribed Olacaceae follows molecular phylogenetic studies that resolved the order into more natural families. With a narrow range and a habitat under pressure from forest clearance, S. griffithii is of biogeographic interest as a relatively poorly known component of the eastern Himalayan parasitic flora.

Author: Tiegh. ex Steenis · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Nickrent: Phylogeny of Santalales, Flora of Bhutan supplementary checklist

Rubiaceae

Scleromitrion verticillatum

by G & P Jürgens

(L.) R.J.Wang

Sikkim 2006 280 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Chaana 1650m, May

Description

Scleromitrion verticillatum is a widespread herb of tropical and subtropical Asia, with 629 GBIF occurrences spanning India, Nepal, China, Taiwan, Japan and a broad swathe of Southeast Asia from Myanmar and Vietnam through Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. It grows as a weedy annual or short-lived perennial of open, disturbed and seasonally moist ground, including roadsides, grassy banks and waste places from the lowlands into the lower hills. The plant recorded at Chaana in West Bengal at 1650 m in May reflects its presence in the eastern Himalayan foothills, where it flowers with the onset of the warm, pre-monsoon season.

The species is an erect to ascending herb with quadrangular, often scabrid stems that may be roughened on the angles. The leaves are opposite, sessile or nearly so, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, with entire, frequently scabrid margins and interpetiolar stipules bearing setae characteristic of the tribe Spermacoceae. The small white flowers are borne in dense axillary clusters or verticillate glomerules, each with a four-lobed calyx, a tubular four-lobed corolla, four epipetalous stamens and a bifid style. The fruit is a small, subglobose to ellipsoid capsule that dehidces septicidally to release numerous minute, angular seeds.

Scleromitrion was segregated from the broadly circumscribed Hedyotis-Oldenlandia complex on the basis of molecular and capsular characters, and S. verticillatum was formerly placed in Hedyotis and Oldenlandia. The genus belongs to the tribe Spermacoceae within Rubioideae. As a ruderal coloniser of open habitats, the species is ecologically successful and locally common, posing no conservation concern across its extensive range.

Author: (L.) R.J.Wang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Wang's revision of Scleromitrion and Spermacoceae

Loranthaceae

Scurrula pulverulenta

by GP Jürgens

G. Don

Bhutan2012 1241
Bhutan Tashigang 1900m, October
Bhutan2012 1242
Bhutan Trashigang 1900m, October

Description

Scurrula pulverulenta G.Don is a hemiparasitic mistletoe of the Loranthaceae distributed through the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burmese region. GBIF (about 126 occurrences) records it from India, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Thailand and Bangladesh, where it grows as a branch parasite on a range of woody hosts in broad-leaved and subtropical hill forest. It occurs chiefly in warm-temperate to subtropical montane zones; the collections from Tashigang (Trashigang) in eastern Bhutan at 1,900 m, flowering in October, illustrate its autumn anthesis in mid-elevation forest where it depends on suitable phorophytes for establishment.

The plant is a much-branched aerial shrublet attached to its host by a haustorial union, drawing water and minerals while photosynthesising in its own leaves. Young branches, leaves and inflorescences are densely covered with a rusty or greyish stellate-mealy indumentum, the source of the epithet "pulverulenta" (powdery). Leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, leathery and short-petiolate. The flowers are borne in short axillary racemes; the corolla is tubular and curved, four-lobed and typically reddish to orange, characteristic of bird-pollinated Loranthaceae. The fruit is the distinctive Scurrula "club-shaped" (pyriform, narrowed to the base) berry, with viscid pulp.

The genus Scurrula is defined within the Loranthaceae by its club-shaped fruit and the curved, often tetramerous corolla, and is closely allied to Taxillus and Dendrophthoe. Its sticky, viscin-coated seeds are dispersed by frugivorous birds (notably flowerpeckers), which wipe them onto host branches, completing an obligate host-parasite-disperser interaction. As a branch parasite, Scurrula pulverulenta is ecologically significant in Himalayan forest dynamics and is of interest in studies of mistletoe host specificity and pollination.

Author: G. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of China Vol. 5, GBIF, Barlow: Loranthaceae of Asia and Malesia

Crassulaceae

Sedum filipes

by G & P Jürgens

Hemsl. ex F.B. Forbes & Hemsl.

Bhutan2012 150
Bhutan Haarvalley 3500m, October

Description

Sedum filipes Hemsl. ex F.B.Forbes & Hemsl. is a slender, succulent herb of the Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded by GBIF from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar. It is a plant of moist, shaded rock ledges, mossy boulders, stream banks and forest margins in the subalpine and lower alpine belts, occurring from around 2,500 to 4,000 m. The October collection from the Haa valley in western Bhutan at 3,500 m reflects its preference for cool, humid microhabitats, where it often grows in thin soil pockets over rock alongside ferns, bryophytes and other small montane herbs at the close of the monsoon season.

The species is a delicate, glabrous annual or short-lived perennial with thread-like, often reddish, ascending or decumbent stems, as the epithet filipes (slender-stalked) implies. The fleshy leaves are alternate, flat to slightly terete, spathulate to obovate, narrowed to the base and entire. The inflorescence is a lax, few-flowered cyme bearing small, yellow, star-shaped flowers; each flower is typically five-merous, with lanceolate sepals, narrowly lanceolate petals, ten stamens and free or basally united carpels that ripen into erect, beaked follicles releasing minute seeds.

Within Crassulaceae the genus Sedum in its broad traditional sense is highly polymorphic, and slender Himalayan taxa such as S. filipes have at times been segregated into genera such as Sinocrassula or treated within narrowly defined sections. Its succulent CAM-related physiology allows survival on exposed, drought-prone rock surfaces, making it a characteristic colonist of rocky subalpine habitats and a useful indicator of undisturbed montane rock communities.

Author: Hemsl. ex F.B. Forbes & Hemsl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, 't Hart & Eggli: Evolution and Systematics of the Crassulaceae

Crassulaceae

Sedum multicaule

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Lindl.

Sikkim2003 385 P543 ergebnis
Sikkim Talim (Zemu-valley) 3280m, August

Description

Sedum multicaule is a widespread Himalayan stonecrop ranging from Pakistan eastwards through India, Nepal, Bhutan and into China and Myanmar, and is well collected with around 618 GBIF records. A succulent of rocky habitats, it colonises moist cliffs, boulders, mossy banks, walls and stony slopes, often growing as a lithophyte in the spray of streams across the temperate to subalpine belt, broadly between about 2000 and 4000 m. The documented gathering from Talim in the Zemu valley of Sikkim at 3280 m in August reflects its preference for damp rock faces during the summer growing season.

It is a perennial, somewhat tufted herb with numerous slender, often reddish stems, as the epithet "multicaule" implies, that are decumbent at the base then ascending. The fleshy leaves are alternate, linear to oblong and terete or semi-terete, frequently spurred at the base and crowded along the stems. The inflorescence is a terminal cyme of several branches bearing many small, sessile, star-shaped flowers; these are typically five-merous with narrow, acute yellow petals, ten stamens and free or shortly united carpels. The fruit comprises spreading, many-seeded follicles.

Sedum in the broad sense belongs to the Crassulaceae and exhibits the CAM photosynthesis and water-storing succulence that suit it to seasonally dry, exposed rock surfaces. The Himalayan members form a taxonomically complex assemblage, several segregated by modern authors into related genera. Of no conservation concern given its abundance and broad altitudinal and geographic range, S. multicaule is a characteristic and resilient element of montane rock-crevice vegetation.

Author: Wall. ex Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Crassulaceae monograph (Ohba / 't Hart)

Anacardiaceae

Semecarpus anacardium

by G & P Jürgens

L.f.

Bhutan2014 678
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 1100m, June
Bhutan2014 677
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 1100m, June

Description

Semecarpus anacardium, the marking-nut tree, is a tree of the South and Southeast Asian tropics extending into the southern Himalayan foothills. GBIF (some 1,524 occurrences) records it natively from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, with cultivated or introduced material in the Neotropics and on islands such as Mauritius. It grows in deciduous and semi-evergreen forest, savanna woodland and forest margins, mostly below 1,200 m. The photographed tree is from Wangdue Phodrang in western Bhutan at about 1,100 m, in June, near the upper limit of its subtropical range along the inner Himalayan valleys.

It is a medium-sized deciduous tree with a spreading crown and grey bark exuding an acrid, blackening resin. The leaves are large, simple, obovate to oblong, clustered towards the branch ends, coriaceous and rounded at the apex, with prominent venation. The flowers are small, greenish-white and borne in terminal panicles. The fruit is a drupe seated on a fleshy, orange, swollen hypocarp (the enlarged receptacle); the drupe itself is ovoid and turns black, its pericarp containing the caustic resin.

The black juice is the source of the indelible "marking-nut" dye used traditionally to mark cloth, and the nut is important in Ayurvedic medicine, though the resin is a potent contact irritant rich in urushiol-type phenolics, like others in the Anacardiaceae. The fleshy hypocarp is edible when roasted. The species is common across its range and of no conservation concern, exemplifying the Indo-Malesian tropical element penetrating the lower Himalaya.

Author: L.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Ding Hou: Anacardiaceae (Flora Malesiana)

Asteraceae

Senecio scandens

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don

Bhutan2012 109
Bhutan Chogcham 2900m, June

Description

Senecio scandens, the climbing groundsel, is a widely distributed scrambling composite of South, East and Southeast Asia, with 5,659 GBIF occurrences across China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines, plus scattered records as an introduction elsewhere. It grows in forest margins, thickets, hedgerows, ravines and disturbed slopes over a very broad altitudinal range from the foothills to over 3000 m. The plant pictured was recorded at Chogcham in Bhutan at 2900 m in June, an upper-temperate setting where this vigorous scrambler clambers over shrubs and forms tangled masses.

It is a perennial herb or subshrub with elongate, climbing or trailing, much-branched stems that can reach several metres. The leaves are alternate, ovate-lanceolate to triangular, often hastate or with a few basal lobes or teeth, acuminate at the apex and shortly petiolate. The numerous yellow capitula are arranged in broad terminal and axillary corymbose panicles; each radiate head has about eight to ten short ray florets around a yellow disc, subtended by a calyculate involucre of narrow phyllaries with conspicuous outer bracteoles. The cypselae are cylindrical and ribbed, bearing a copious white pappus of fine capillary bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Described by Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don, the species belongs to the large, cosmopolitan genus Senecio (tribe Senecioneae). Like many of its relatives it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is used in traditional Asian herbal medicine, particularly in Chinese pharmacopoeia. Abundant, fast-growing and tolerant of disturbance, it is in no way threatened and can behave weedily where introduced.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Senecioneae of the World (Nordenstam), Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton)

Malvaceae

Sida mysorensis

by GP Jürgens

Herb.Madr. ex Wight & Arn.

Bhutan2012 976
Bhutan Trithangebe 1000m, October
Bhutan2012 806 Kopie
Bhutan Trithangebe 1000m, October
also included: Drymaria cordata

Description

Sida mysorensis is an Old World tropical, weakly pantropical weedy herb, GBIF recording some 630 occurrences across South and Southeast Asia (India, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia), the Himalayan states (Nepal, Bhutan) and naturalised in the Neotropics (Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala). It is a plant of warm low to mid elevations, colonising roadsides, waste ground, fallow fields and forest margins. The Bhutanese record from Trithangebe at about 1000 m, flowering in October beside Drymaria cordata, is characteristic of its association with humid, weedy subtropical foothills after the monsoon.

It is an erect to ascending annual or short-lived perennial herb or subshrub, 30–120 cm tall, the stems and foliage softly pubescent to stellate-tomentose and often viscid. The leaves are alternate, ovate to cordate, crenate-serrate and stipulate. Flowers are small, solitary or few in the leaf axils; the corolla is yellow to pale orange, of five obovate petals around a staminal column typical of Malvaceae. The fruit is a schizocarp of several reticulate mericarps, each usually bearing short apical awns aiding dispersal.

Described from a Madras herbarium specimen by Wight and Arnott, S. mysorensis belongs to the large, taxonomically complex genus Sida, in which softly hairy, axillary-flowered species are frequently confused. It is of no conservation concern, being a widespread ruderal and minor agricultural weed, and like many Sida species has been used in folk medicine and as a bast fibre. Ecologically it is an early colonist of disturbed tropical ground.

Author: Herb.Madr. ex Wight & Arn. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Malvaceae of the World (Bayer & Kubitzki treatment)

Caryophyllaceae

Silene nigrescens

by GP Jürgens

(Edgew.) Majumdar

Sikkim2003 215 G299
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m, August
Sikkim2003 216 P300
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m, August

Description

Silene nigrescens is an alpine campion of the Himalaya and adjacent mountains, ranging across China, Nepal, India and Bhutan and into Myanmar; GBIF records about 410 occurrences concentrated in the eastern and central Himalaya. It grows in high alpine meadows, grassy slopes, screes and stony pastures, generally between about 3500 and 4800 m. The illustrated plant was photographed at Dzongri in Sikkim at around 3900 m in August, during the monsoon flowering season when these dark-flowered campions colour the short turf of the eastern Himalayan uplands above the rhododendron scrub.

The species is a perennial herb growing from a slender, branched rootstock, forming low tufts of ascending to erect stems that are often glandular-hairy above. The leaves are opposite, sessile, narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, the lower ones crowded near the base. The flowers are nodding and few, with an inflated, ten-nerved, often dark-purple to nearly blackish calyx that gives the species its name; the petals are dingy purple to brownish with a bilobed limb and a small ligulate scale at the throat. The flower has three styles, and the capsule dehisces by six teeth, releasing numerous reniform seeds.

Described as (Edgew.) Majumdar from an Edgeworth basionym, Silene nigrescens belongs to the high-alpine, dark-calyx group of Himalayan Silene whose species limits are notoriously difficult owing to variation in vestiture and flower colour. Its broad eastern-Himalayan to southwest Chinese distribution makes it secure, and it forms part of the characteristic flora of monsoon-influenced alpine meadows, pollinated mainly by insects drawn to its sombre nodding flowers.

Author: (Edgew.) Majumdar · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Bocquet: Revision of Himalayan Silene

Smilacaceae

Smilax munita

by G & P Jürgens

S.C.Chen

Sikkim 2006 446 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Kishong 2700m, May

Description

Smilax munita is an eastern Himalayan greenbrier distributed from Nepal through Sikkim and West Bengal in India to Bhutan, north-eastern Myanmar and adjacent China, with around 90 GBIF records reflecting a fairly restricted montane range. It is a climber of temperate broad-leaved and mixed forest, forest margins and thickets, scrambling over shrubs and small trees, typically between about 2,000 and 3,000 m. The plant photographed at Kishong in West Bengal, India, at 2,700 m flowering in May is characteristic of the cool, humid Sikkim-Himalayan forest belt where the genus is well represented.

The plant is a dioecious, woody to subwoody perennial climber arising from a creeping rhizome, the stems armed with stout, scattered prickles (reflected in the epithet munita, "armed"). The leaves are alternate, simple, leathery, ovate to elliptic with several prominent arcuate-convergent main veins, and bear a pair of slender tendrils at the base of the petiole that serve for climbing. The flowers are small, unisexual and greenish, borne in axillary umbels; the perianth consists of six tepals, with six stamens in male flowers and a superior three-locular ovary in female flowers. The fruit is a small globose berry, ripening dark, containing few seeds.

Smilax is the sole large genus of the monocot family Smilacaceae, a lineage of vining herbs and lianas with reticulate-veined leaves and basal tendrils unusual among monocots. Many congeners yield the medicinal "sarsaparilla," and Himalayan species are locally used. The combination of prickly stems, coriaceous tri- to multiveined leaves and the high-montane distribution distinguishes S. munita within the eastern Himalayan members of the genus.

Author: S.C.Chen · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Koyama: Smilacaceae of Eastern Asia