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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.

Ranunculaceae

Stauntonia latifolia

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) R.Br. ex. Wall.

Bhutan2012 357
Bhutan Dochu-La 2900m, September
Bhutan2014 609
Bhutan Phobjika 3100m, May
Sikkim2004 26 P41
Sikkim West-Bengal, Sambon 1850m April

Description

Stauntonia latifolia is a Himalayan woody climber distributed through China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, with GBIF aggregating some 517 occurrences across the warm temperate belt. It is a liana of moist broad-leaved and mixed forest, scrambling over shrubs and into the canopy along forest margins, ravines and streamsides typically between about 1500 and 3100 m. The accompanying records span this range well, from Sambon on the Sikkim–West Bengal border at 1850 m in April, through the Dochu-La in Bhutan at 2900 m in September, to Phobjika at 3100 m flowering in May, reflecting an extended phenology across elevation and longitude in the eastern Himalaya.

The family is here cited as Ranunculaceae, but the plant in fact belongs to the Lardizabalaceae; the description follows the true affinity. It is an evergreen twining climber with palmately compound leaves of three to seven leathery, entire, ovate to elliptic leaflets borne on long petioles. The plant is functionally monoecious, the flowers unisexual and borne in axillary racemes; they are greenish-white to purplish, lacking true petals, the showy parts being six sepals in two whorls, with six stamens in male flowers and three carpels in female ones. The fruit is a fleshy, oblong, purple berry-like follicle, edible and sweet, containing numerous black seeds embedded in a juicy pulp.

The taxon was described by Wallich and is widely treated under the synonym Holboellia latifolia, the generic limits between Holboellia and Stauntonia having been repeatedly debated and revised; under recent circumscriptions the Himalayan plant is placed in Stauntonia. The Lardizabalaceae are a small east-Asian and Chilean family of considerable phylogenetic interest as an early-diverging lineage of the Ranunculales. The succulent fruits are locally gathered and eaten and serve to disperse the seeds via birds and mammals; the species is common and faces no significant conservation concern.

Author: (Wall.) R.Br. ex. Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, monographic studies of Lardizabalaceae (Holboellia and Stauntonia)

Asteraceae

Stenoseris graciliflora

by GP Jürgens

(Wall. ex DC.) C.Shih

Bhutan2012 428
Bhutan Wangdi 3300m, June

Description

Stenoseris graciliflora is a slender herbaceous composite of the temperate to subalpine Himalaya, ranging through China, India, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan, with 160 GBIF records tracing its distribution along the moist montane forest belt and adjoining clearings. It typically grows in forest margins, shrubberies and grassy openings on humus-rich soils between roughly 2500 and 3800 m. The illustrated plant was collected near Wangdi in western Bhutan at about 3300 m in June, in the upper temperate zone where the monsoon supports a tall-herb flora amid fir and rhododendron forest.

In GBIF the name is treated as a synonym, with Stenoseris graciliflora maintained as the accepted name for this entity. The plant is an erect perennial with slender, often leafy and branching stems exuding milky latex when broken, as is typical of the lettuce tribe. The leaves are thin, the lower ones often lyrate-pinnatifid and narrowing to a winged petiole, the upper smaller and clasping. The inflorescence is a lax, narrow panicle of small, few-flowered capitula, each enclosed by a cylindrical involucre of imbricate phyllaries; the florets are all ligulate and pale blue to lilac. The fruit is a flattened, ribbed cypsela bearing a soft white pappus of fine bristles.

Stenoseris is a small genus of the tribe Cichorieae (Lactuceae), segregated from Cicerbita and Lactuca on the basis of its slender capitula, achene morphology and pappus characters. The basionym authority (Wall. ex DC.) C.Shih reflects the species' long taxonomic passage among these closely allied genera. As a widespread montane herb it is not regarded as threatened, though it serves as a useful indicator of intact, humid temperate forest understorey.

Author: (Wall. ex DC.) C.Shih · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Compositae of the Himalaya (Cichorieae monographs)

Malvaceae

Sterculia lanceolata var. coccinea

by GP Jürgens

(Jack) Phengklai

Bhutan2015 230
Bhutan Zhemgang 950m, October

Description

Sterculia lanceolata var. coccinea is a tree of tropical and subtropical Asia, ranging from the Indian subcontinent (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka) through Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) and southern China into Malesia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines), as reflected in the 322 GBIF records. It occurs in evergreen and semi-evergreen lowland to lower-montane forest, along streams and forest margins, typically below about 1500 m. The photographed tree from Zhemgang in central Bhutan at around 950 m, fruiting in October, sits at the warm-temperate northern edge of the species' range, where the bright fruiting display is conspicuous in autumn.

The variety is a small to medium tree with a slender bole and spreading crown. The leaves are alternate, simple, elliptic-lanceolate to oblong, entire, glabrescent and pinnately veined, on slender petioles — the lanceolate blade distinguishing this species from the palmately lobed S. villosa. The small flowers are apetalous with a campanulate, lobed calyx and are borne in axillary panicles; the variety coccinea is named for its scarlet colouring. The fruit is the diagnostic cluster of woody, beaked follicles that ripen a vivid red ('coccineus') and split open to reveal glossy black seeds against the crimson inner wall.

Now classified in Malvaceae subfamily Sterculioideae (formerly Sterculiaceae), Sterculia lanceolata is a variable species, and this variety, based on the basionym described by Jack and recombined by Phengklai, segregates the scarlet-fruited Malesian-Indochinese populations. The boldly coloured dehisced follicles are bird-dispersed, the contrasting red and black serving as a visual lure. Widespread and occurring in both primary and secondary forest, the taxon is not regarded as threatened.

Author: (Jack) Phengklai · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Thailand, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Kostermans Sterculiaceae monograph

Malvaceae

Sterculia villosa

by GP Jürgens

Roxb.

Bhutan2014 253
Bhutan Karu-Chu 1800m, May
Bhutan2014 264
Bhutan Karu-Chu 1800m, May

Description

Sterculia villosa is a deciduous tree widely distributed across tropical and subtropical Asia, from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka eastward through Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, southern China and into Malesia (Malaysia, Indonesia), with the 452 GBIF records reflecting both this native range and cultivated or naturalised occurrences elsewhere. It is a tree of monsoon and deciduous forest, riverine valleys and disturbed slopes at low to moderate elevations, generally below about 1500 m though reaching higher in warm valleys. The photographed individual from the Karu-Chu valley in Bhutan at around 1800 m, flowering in May before or with the new leaves, marks the upper, warm-temperate edge of its range.

The tree has a straight bole, grey bark and stout branches, the young parts densely clad in soft tawny villous hairs from which the epithet derives. The large, alternate leaves are palmately lobed with 5-7 broad lobes, cordate at the base and long-petioled, hairy beneath. The flowers, borne in much-branched velvety panicles, are apetalous, with a campanulate, lobed, reddish to greenish-yellow calyx; the species is andromonoecious with a central androgynophore. The fruit is the characteristic sterculiaceous group of large, woody, beaked, velvety follicles that dehisce to expose black seeds against a red interior.

Formerly placed in Sterculiaceae, the genus Sterculia is now treated within an enlarged Malvaceae (subfamily Sterculioideae), as adopted here. S. villosa is economically valued for its strong bast fibre, used for ropes and cordage, and yields a gum; its bark and seeds feature in local medicine. As a fast-growing, light-demanding species of disturbed and secondary forest it is widespread and not of conservation concern, though it is locally significant in agroforestry and as a host for lac and silk insects.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Flora of China, Kostermans Sterculiaceae monograph

Liliaceae

Streptopus simplex

by G & P Jürgens

D.Don

CA5B74EED12643D5951B19E897481F0A
Bhutan Chogcham, 3300m June
Sikkim2003 474 P657
Sikkim Lachung Valley 3200m August

Description

Streptopus simplex, a twistedstalk of the Sino-Himalayan region, is distributed across China (CN), Nepal (NP), Bhutan (BT), India (IN), Myanmar (MM) and Japan (JP), with 726 GBIF occurrences indicating it is a frequent component of high forest. It grows in shaded, humid temperate and subalpine coniferous and broadleaf forest, in bamboo thickets, ravines and on mossy slopes, typically between about 3000 and 4000 m. The illustrated plants came from Chogcham in Bhutan at around 3300 m in June and the Lachung Valley of Sikkim at about 3200 m in August, spanning the early- and late-monsoon flowering and fruiting seasons.

It is a slender perennial herb arising from a short creeping rhizome, with an erect, simple or sparingly branched stem. The leaves are alternate, sessile and somewhat clasping, ovate to lanceolate with entire margins and parallel venation. The flowers are solitary and nodding, borne on slender pedicels that hang beneath the leaves; the perianth consists of six free, campanulate to spreading tepals, white to pink and often purple-spotted within. There are six stamens, and the ovary is superior. The fruit is a globose, fleshy red berry containing several seeds, providing dispersal by birds and other animals.

Streptopus is now placed in Liliaceae sensu lato (the family cited verbatim here), within the Lilioid monocots; some treatments segregate it variably among the lily allies. The genus has a disjunct circumboreal and montane Asian-American distribution, and S. simplex represents its Himalayan and East Asian extension, of biogeographic interest as part of the temperate forest-floor herb flora.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Monograph of the genus Streptopus

Acanthaceae

Strobilanthes atropurpurea

by G & P Jürgens

Nees

Garw 2005 247 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Sitel 1850m, September

Description

Strobilanthes atropurpurea Nees is a robust perennial herb of the Acanthaceae, distributed along the Himalaya from Pakistan and India through Nepal and Bhutan to southwestern China, with further records reaching Myanmar and Vietnam (GBIF: c. 328 occurrences). It is a characteristic understorey and forest-margin plant of moist temperate broad-leaved and mixed forests, favouring shaded, humid ravines and stream banks. The illustrated plant from Sitel in Garhwal, western India, at about 1,850 m and flowering in September, reflects its typical late-monsoon flowering in the mid-montane forest belt.

The plant is an erect, branched herb or subshrub reaching 0.5–1.5 m, with quadrangular stems often swollen at the nodes. The leaves are opposite and decussate, the pairs frequently unequal (anisophyllous), ovate to elliptic, acuminate, with crenate-serrate margins and prominent venation; cystoliths are usually visible as fine streaks on the leaf surface. The inflorescence is a terminal or axillary spike or panicle of cymose clusters subtended by bracts. The flowers have a tubular-funnelform corolla that is deep violet to purple, five-lobed and slightly two-lipped, with four didynamous stamens. The fruit is an explosively dehiscent capsule bearing few seeds on hooked retinacula.

Strobilanthes is a large, taxonomically difficult genus noted for gregarious, often plietesial (mast) flowering, in which many individuals bloom synchronously after several years and then die. Such cohort dynamics complicate field identification and herbarium representation. The species is locally common and not considered threatened, though its forest habitat is subject to regional degradation.

Author: Nees · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Wood & Scotland: Strobilanthes monograph

Acanthaceae

Strobilanthes echinata

by GP Jürgens

Nees

BhutanPG2011 806 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3800m July

Description

Strobilanthes echinata Nees is a shrubby herb of the acanthus family widely distributed through tropical and subtropical Asia, with GBIF documenting 319 occurrences from India (IN), Bhutan (BT), China (CN), Myanmar (MM), Thailand (TH), Vietnam (VN), Indonesia (ID), Malaysia (MY), Laos, Cambodia and Bangladesh. It is a plant of moist forest understorey, shaded slopes, ravines and clearings ranging from the warm lowlands to high temperate elevations. It was photographed in Bhutan on the Chele-La at 3800 m in July, near the upper limit of its range, where it grows in the cool, humid forest belt. The source URL references Strobilanthes wallichii, indicating a synonymous or closely allied treatment.

The plant is a perennial herb or soft shrub with quadrangular, often anisophyllous-leaved stems. The leaves are opposite and decussate, ovate to elliptic, acuminate and toothed, with cystoliths visible as fine streaks, the paired leaves of a node frequently unequal in size as is characteristic of the genus. The flowers are borne in dense, often spiciform or capitate inflorescences subtended by conspicuous, sometimes spiny-tipped or bristly bracts, the epithet echinata alluding to this prickly aspect. The corolla is tubular and curved, five-lobed and blue to violet or pale lilac. The fruit is an elongate, two-valved, explosively dehiscent capsule bearing a few flattened seeds.

Strobilanthes is a large and taxonomically difficult Asian genus famous for its mass-flowering, plietesial life cycle in which whole populations bloom synchronously after several years and then die. Its centre of diversity lies in the Indo-Burmese and Sino-Himalayan region, making it an important element of Asian forest floras. The bird- and insect-pollinated flowers and explosively dispersed seeds aid colonisation of forest gaps. While many species are narrow endemics of conservation concern, S. echinata is comparatively widespread.

Author: Nees · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Strobilanthes monograph (Y. F. Deng & J. R. I. Wood revision)

Acanthaceae

Strobilanthes hamiltoniana

by GP Jürgens

(Steud.) Bosser & Heine

Bhutan2012 992
Bhutan Trithangebe 1100m, October
Bhutan2012 993
Bhutan Trithangebe 1100m, October

Description

Strobilanthes hamiltoniana (Steud.) Bosser & Heine is a shrubby Acanthaceae of the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burmese region, native to India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and China, but widely naturalised and cultivated, as reflected in its GBIF total of nearly 779 occurrences spanning many tropical islands and the Americas. In its native range it grows along forest margins, streamsides, ravines and shaded roadbanks in the warm subtropical hill zone, flowering in the late monsoon and autumn. The illustrated plant from Trithangebe in Bhutan at 1100 m in October shows it in its characteristic low-elevation forest-edge habitat at the onset of its flowering season.

The species is an erect, much-branched perennial shrub with four-angled stems and opposite, petiolate, ovate-lanceolate leaves that are acuminate and finely toothed, the pairs typically anisophyllous. The inflorescences are slender, lax, often drooping panicles bearing numerous flowers; each corolla is tubular and gracefully curved, pale violet to mauve-blue with a paler tube, the limb shortly five-lobed, and the androecium of four stamens. The fruit is the typical acanthaceous club-shaped capsule that dehisces explosively to disperse the seeds, which are borne on hooked retinacula.

Strobilanthes is a large and taxonomically difficult Asian genus famed for the gregarious, mast (plietesial) flowering of many species, in which whole populations bloom synchronously after a span of years and then die. S. hamiltoniana is popular in ornamental horticulture for its arching sprays of bloom and consequently appears far beyond its native limits. It is not of conservation concern, being common and readily cultivated.

Author: (Steud.) Bosser & Heine · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Acanthaceae of the Indian Subcontinent, Carine & Scotland revision of Strobilanthes

Styracaceae

Styrax japonicus

by G & P Jürgens

Siebold & Zucc.

Sikkim 2006 330 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tolung 2450m, May

Description

Styrax japonicus, the Japanese snowbell, is a deciduous shrub or small tree of the Styracaceae, distributed through temperate East Asia and extending into the eastern Himalaya. GBIF data (over 16,000 occurrences) reflect its native range across Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Myanmar and the eastern Himalaya, together with extensive cultivation in temperate gardens worldwide. In the wild it grows in deciduous and mixed broadleaved forest, on slopes, along streams and at forest margins, in the warm-temperate to lower montane belt. The collection from Tolung in West Bengal at 2,450 m in May illustrates its occurrence in the moist montane forests of the eastern Himalaya at flowering time.

The tree reaches up to about 10 m, with smooth grey bark and slender, often horizontally spreading branches. The leaves are alternate, simple, ovate to elliptic, with a finely serrate margin and an acuminate apex. The flowers are pendulous and borne singly or in few-flowered racemes from the leaf axils on slender pedicels; the white, bell-shaped corolla is deeply five-lobed and fragrant, subtended by a small cupular calyx, with about ten stamens forming a central column of yellow anthers. The fruit is an ovoid to subglobose, greyish, slightly tomentose drupaceous capsule containing usually a single hard seed.

The Styracaceae is a small family of woody plants notable as a source of aromatic balsamic resins (benzoin, storax) yielded by certain Styrax species. S. japonicus is among the most widely planted ornamentals of the family, valued for its profuse, snowbell-like spring flowers. Its disjunct occurrence in the eastern Himalaya is of biogeographic interest, reflecting the floristic links between the Sino-Japanese region and the eastern Himalaya; though broadly secure, its forest populations there depend on intact montane woodland.

Author: Siebold & Zucc. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Hwang & Grimes: Styracaceae – Flora of China account

Styracaceae

Styrax serrulatus

by GP Jürgens

Roxb.

Nepal 97 399 P770
Nepal Arun-Valley 1750m April
Nepal 97 400 P771
Nepal Arun-Valley 1750m April

Description

Styrax serrulatus is a small tree or shrub of the eastern Himalaya and mainland Southeast Asia, distributed from India and Nepal through Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and southern China to Malaysia and Indonesia, with around 395 GBIF records (the few from Korea and the United States reflecting cultivation). It grows in subtropical to lower-temperate broad-leaved evergreen and mixed forest, forest margins and along streams, generally between about 1,000 and 2,400 m. The plant photographed in the Arun Valley of eastern Nepal at 1,750 m, flowering in April, exemplifies its spring anthesis in the warm, humid mid-elevation forests of the eastern Himalaya.

The plant is a deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub or small tree, the young branchlets, buds and lower leaf surfaces clothed in characteristic stellate hairs. The leaves are alternate, simple, elliptic to ovate-oblong with finely serrulate margins (as the epithet indicates), shortly petiolate and acuminate. The flowers are borne in short axillary or terminal racemes; each is white and fragrant, with a five-lobed campanulate calyx and a five-lobed, deeply divided corolla, the ten stamens united at the base into a short tube. The fruit is a subglobose, dry to leathery drupe-like capsule, often crowned by the persistent calyx, containing one or few seeds.

Styrax is the principal genus of the family Styracaceae, several species of which yield aromatic resins (benzoin). The genus has a notable disjunct distribution between eastern Asia and the Americas, and S. serrulatus belongs to its species-rich Asian assemblage. Widespread and occurring in both primary and secondary forest, it is not considered threatened.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Hwang & Grimes: Styracaceae monographic treatments