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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.

Araceae

Arisaema nepenthoides

by GP Jürgens

Mart.

Bhutan2014 32
Bhutan, Trashigang 1300m, May
Nepal 97 432 G839
Nepal Tashigaon 3100m May
Nepal 1994 269 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Milka-Danda 3200m May 
Nepal1992 184 P270 ergebnis
Nepal Banyang 1900m March 

Description

Arisaema nepenthoides is a Himalayan cobra lily distributed from Nepal eastward through Sikkim, Bhutan and north-east India to Myanmar and south-western China, with about 322 GBIF occurrences reflecting its montane range. It is a herb of cool temperate to subalpine forest, growing in moist broad-leaved and conifer-Rhododendron forest, shady banks and forest margins, broadly from 1,900 to 3,600 m. The localities recorded for the photographed plants span this range, from Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1,300 m and Banyang in Nepal at 1,900 m to Tashigaon at 3,100 m and Milka Danda at 3,200 m, flowering between March and May as the snows recede.

It is a tuberous perennial arising from a depressed corm, producing a stout, conspicuously mottled pseudostem patterned with brownish-purple and pale markings reminiscent of a snake's skin. Usually two leaves are produced, each pedately divided into several elliptic to oblanceolate leaflets. The inflorescence is a spadix enclosed in a spathe whose tube is greenish and prominently striped, opening into a hooded, incurved limb that recalls the pitcher of a Nepenthes, hence the epithet nepenthoides. The species is dioecious, with the sexes distinguished by the spadix appendage; pollinated female plants develop a dense head of orange-red berries, each with few seeds.

Arisaema is a large genus centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, and A. nepenthoides belongs to a group recognised by its mottled pseudostem and distinctive hooded spathe. Like many relatives it shows sequential gender change, individuals functioning as male when small and as female once the tuber attains sufficient size, an adaptation to resource availability. Pollination is effected by fungus gnats and small flies attracted into the spathe chamber. The conspicuous spathe makes it a sought-after ornamental, but it remains widespread and locally common across the eastern Himalaya and is not considered threatened.

Author: Mart. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Arisaema (Gusman & Gusman), Araceae of the Himalaya

Araceae

Arisaema propinquum

by GP Jürgens

Schott

Nepal 2001 310 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Kharka 3100m, May
Nepal 2009 24 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Koktrok 2600m, May

Description

Arisaema propinquum is a Himalayan tuberous aroid distributed from Pakistan and northern India through Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan into south-western China and Myanmar, with 257 GBIF occurrences across the central and western Himalaya. It grows in moist temperate forest, shrubberies, alpine meadow margins and open slopes, typically between about 2400 and 3700 m. The cited Nepalese collections – from Kharka in the Gorkha district at 3100 m and from Koktrok in Helambu at 2600 m, both in May – place its flowering in the late-spring period as the cobra-lilies emerge with the first monsoon moisture.

It arises from a depressed globose corm and usually produces a single (or paired) leaf divided into three broadly ovate to elliptic leaflets, the lateral ones obliquely based and the whole sometimes flushed purple beneath. The inflorescence is a typical aroid spadix enclosed in a spathe; in A. propinquum the spathe is dark purple with bold whitish or greenish longitudinal stripes, the tube cylindrical and the broad limb arching forward into a long, often filiform tail. The spadix appendage is slender and curved, exserted from the spathe mouth. The fruiting head is a dense ovoid cluster of bright red berries.

Arisaema is a large genus celebrated for paradioecy, in which individuals change sex between female and male states according to size and resources, and for its specialised fly- and fungus-gnat pollination within the trap-like spathe. A. propinquum belongs to the Himalayan striped-spathe assemblage and, while ornamentally prized, remains widespread and is not of conservation concern.

Author: Schott · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Gusman & Gusman monograph of Arisaema

Araceae

Arisaema speciosum

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Mart.

Nepal 97 439 P855
Nepal Tashigaon 3100m May
Sikkim 2006 6 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Maneybhajang 2000m, May

Description

Arisaema speciosum is an eastern Himalayan cobra lily distributed from Nepal through Sikkim and West Bengal in India, Bhutan and into south-central China, with peripheral records in Myanmar and Thailand; GBIF holds nearly 200 occurrences. It grows in cool, humid temperate forest, in the shade of broadleaved and mixed conifer woodland, on rich, moist, humus-laden soils along stream banks, ravines and shaded slopes. The collections illustrated, from Tashigaon in eastern Nepal at about 3100 m and from Maneybhajang in West Bengal at around 2000 m, both in May, reflect its montane belt of roughly 2000-3300 m, where it emerges and flowers as the pre-monsoon rains advance.

The plant arises from a depressed, tuberous corm and produces a single trifoliolate leaf on a stout, mottled petiole; the three leaflets are broadly ovate, acuminate and often suffused dark purplish-red along the margins and central rib. The inflorescence is a spathe with a deep maroon, white-striped tube and an arching, dark purple-brown limb. Most striking is the spadix, whose appendage is prolonged into a very long, pendent, whip-like filiform tail hanging well below the spathe. The plant is typically dioecious, sex expression varying with tuber size, and female spadices ripen into a dense club of bright red berries.

The epithet speciosum, meaning showy, refers to the dramatic spathe and trailing appendage. Within the large Asian genus Arisaema it belongs to a group with trifoliolate leaves and long-tailed spadices. Like its congeners it is protogynous and paradioecious, with pollination effected by fungus gnats lured into the spathe chamber. The species is grown by specialist cultivators, and habitat disturbance and over-collection are potential local conservation concerns.

Author: (Wall.) Mart. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Gusman The Genus Arisaema, Murata monograph of Arisaema

Araceae

Arisaema tortuosum

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Schott

Sikkim2003 53 P72
Sikkim above Yoksam 2500m, August

Description

Arisaema tortuosum, the whipcord cobra lily, is a wide-ranging Himalayan and peninsular Indian aroid recorded from India, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia, with some 780 georeferenced occurrences and a number of records from cultivation in Europe and North America. It grows in moist forest, scrub, grassy clearings and shaded banks across a wide elevational span. The population photographed above Yoksam in western Sikkim at about 2500 m in August illustrates its montane forest habitat, in leaf and inflorescence during the monsoon on humus-rich soils.

The plant arises from a depressed, tuberous corm and produces one or two large, long-petiolate leaves divided into numerous radiating or pedately arranged leaflets. The inflorescence is a spathe enclosing a spadix, the latter prolonged into a remarkably long, erect or sinuous flagelliform appendage that gives the species its name and tortuosum epithet. Flowers are unisexual and borne at the spadix base, the species being protogynous and capable of size-dependent sex change between female, monoecious and male states. Pollinated fungus-gnats are trapped within the chamber. The fruit is a dense cluster of red berries borne on the swelling infructescence.

Arisaema is a large genus of considerable horticultural interest, and A. tortuosum is one of its most widespread and variable members, with several recognised varieties differing in leaflet number and spadix coloration. Its sequential hermaphroditism, in which individuals switch sex according to accumulated resources, is a celebrated example of size-dependent gender lability. Common across its extensive range, it is of least conservation concern.

Author: (Wall.) Schott · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Gusman & Gusman's The Genus Arisaema

Araceae

Arisaema utile

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. ex Engl.

Sikkim2011 221
Sikkim, Yungthang 3350m, June
Sikkim2011 222
Sikkim, Yungthang 3350m, June
Sikkim2004 430 P746
Sikkim/India Lachung 3200m

Description

Arisaema utile is a tuberous geophyte of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, recorded by GBIF in some 84 occurrences from China (Tibet), India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. It is a plant of the subalpine to lower alpine zone, occupying shrubberies, Rhododendron and conifer forest margins, moist meadows and stony slopes broadly between 3000 and 4300 m. The illustrated plants were found in Sikkim at Yungthang (3350 m, June) and Lachung (3200 m), where the species emerges and flowers shortly after snowmelt on cool, humus-rich ground at the upper limit of woody vegetation.

The plant arises from a depressed-globose tuber and typically bears a single trifoliolate leaf, the three leaflets broadly elliptic and often glaucous beneath, the whole sometimes purple-flushed. The inflorescence is a spadix subtended by a spathe whose tube is striped green and dark purple and whose limb is hooded and acuminate, frequently produced into a long filiform tip. The spadix appendix is slender and tail-like, exserted from the spathe mouth. As in the genus, the plant is paradioecious, individual tubers bearing male or female flowers according to size and vigour; pollinated female spadices ripen into a cylindrical infructescence of bright red berries.

Arisaema (Araceae, tribe Areae) is a large genus centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, and A. utile belongs to a Himalayan group characterised by a long-tailed spathe and trifoliolate leaf. GBIF treats the name as accepted. Sex expression shifts with resource status, an adaptation to harsh montane conditions; although collected for traditional use, the species remains locally frequent within its altitudinal band.

Author: Hook.f. ex Engl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Gusman monograph The Genus Arisaema

Aristolochiaceae

Aristolochia griffithii

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson ex Duch.

Bhutan2014 454
Bhutan Tongsa 2000m, May
Bhutan2014 456
Bhutan Tongsa 2000m, May
Sikkim 2006 340 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tolung 2450m, May

Description

Aristolochia griffithii is an eastern Himalayan woody climber distributed through Nepal, Bhutan, north-east India and south-western China (Xizang, Yunnan), with scattered records extending into northern Myanmar and Thailand. In current taxonomic treatments the name returned as a synonym is referred to the accepted Aristolochia griffithii, under which the species is here treated. It grows in moist temperate broadleaved forest, climbing through trees and shrubs along forest margins and stream gorges, generally between about 1,800 and 3,000 m. The photographs from Tongsa in Bhutan at 2,000 m and from Tolung in West Bengal, India, at 2,450 m, both taken in May, document its late-spring flowering in this mid-montane forest belt.

It is a robust perennial liana with woody, twining stems and large, alternate, ovate-cordate leaves with deeply auriculate bases and entire margins. The flowers are solitary and exceptionally large and showy: the perianth is a strongly inflated, S-curved or globose tube expanding into a broad, spreading, conspicuously netted-veined limb mottled dark purple-brown and yellowish, terminating in a long tail-like appendage. The structure functions as a temporary insect trap, with inwardly directed hairs detaining pollinators (chiefly flies) until the anthers dehisce. The fruit is a pendulous, six-valved, septicidal capsule splitting basipetally into a parachute-like structure releasing flat winged seeds.

Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae) is notable for its specialised kettle-trap pollination and for the aristolochic acids that render the tissues toxic; the genus includes important larval hosts for swallowtail butterflies. A. griffithii, among the largest-flowered Himalayan species, is prized horticulturally and is locally uncommon, its dependence on intact montane forest making it sensitive to habitat loss.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson ex Duch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Hwang, Kelly & Gilbert: Aristolochiaceae in Flora of China

Asteraceae

Artemisia austroyunnanensis

by GP Jürgens

Ling & Y.R.Ling

Bhutan2015 310
Bhutan Trongsa 2000m, October

Description

Artemisia austroyunnanensis Ling & Y.R.Ling is a Sino-Himalayan and South-East Asian wormwood distributed from south-western China (notably southern Yunnan, whence the epithet) through Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan, with about 70 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows on dry slopes, forest margins, roadsides, riverbanks and disturbed ground in warm-temperate to lower montane country. The plant recorded at Trongsa at 2000 m in October is consistent with its occurrence in the mid-elevation valleys of the Bhutan Himalaya, flowering toward the close of the growing season.

It is an aromatic perennial herb or subshrub with erect, ribbed and branching stems clothed, like the foliage, in a fine grey or whitish tomentum. The leaves are alternate, once or twice pinnatifid into narrow, often lobed segments, with the lower surface more densely tomentose than the upper. The minute, nodding capitula are numerous and crowded in elongate, paniculate inflorescences; each ovoid to subglobose head has imbricate, woolly-margined phyllaries and is disciform, with outer female florets surrounding inner bisexual disc florets, all wind-pollinated and lacking rays. The fruit is a small, smooth, ellipsoid cypsela without a pappus.

Artemisia is among the largest genera of Asteraceae, and A. austroyunnanensis sits within the subgenus Artemisia of anemophilous, capitulum-clustered species. Its delimitation rests on indumentum, leaf dissection and capitulum structure within a difficult species complex. A regionally distributed plant of disturbed and seasonally dry habitats, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Ling & Y.R.Ling · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Ling taxonomic studies of Artemisia

Asteraceae

Aster albescens

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Wall. ex Hand.-Mazz.

Sikkim2003 379 G532
Sikkim Tista valley 3600m August
Garw 2005 38 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 3200m, September

Description

Aster albescens is a variable shrubby aster widespread through the Himalaya and into China, Myanmar and East Asia, with 1,298 GBIF occurrences from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Japan, Korea and Myanmar. It grows on forest margins, open slopes, shrubberies and stream banks in the upper temperate to subalpine zone, broadly between about 2000 and 4000 m. The images derive from Sikkim's Tista valley at 3600 m in August and from the Valley of Flowers in Garhwal, India, at 3200 m in September, monsoon-watered slopes where this late-summer flowerer is a frequent component of the shrub layer.

Unusually for an aster, it is a woody shrub or subshrub up to about 1-2 m, with erect, branched, often whitish-tomentose stems. The leaves are alternate, ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, shortly petiolate, with serrate to entire margins and a characteristically pale, white-felted lower surface (whence albescens), the upper surface greener and thinly hairy. The capitula are numerous and small, arranged in dense terminal corymbose panicles; each head bears few short white, pinkish or pale purple ray florets around a disc of yellow florets. The cypselae are compressed and pubescent, with a pappus of reddish to brownish barbellate bristles.

Described as Diplopappus albescens by de Candolle and transferred to Aster by Wallich ex Handel-Mazzetti, the species is highly polymorphic and has spawned numerous infraspecific taxa across its range. Its shrubby habit places it among the woody Himalayan-Sino asters retained in Aster sensu lato. Common and ecologically resilient across a broad area, it is not considered threatened.

Author: (DC.) Wall. ex Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Asteraceae of the Himalaya

Asteraceae

Aster flaccidus

by G & P Jürgens

Bunge

Garh 07 531 ergebnis
Garh 07 270 ergebnis
India Garhwal Belak Khal 2900m, June

Description

Aster flaccidus is a widespread alpine daisy of the high mountains of Asia, with extensive GBIF records (over 1600 occurrences) from China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Nepal, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Bhutan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. It is a true alpine of stony meadows, scree, gravelly slopes, moraines and short turf, mostly above the treeline but descending where open ground occurs. The record from Belak Khal in Garhwal, India, at about 2900 m in June is a lower, early-season occurrence; across its range the species ascends well above 4000 m, flowering through the brief alpine summer. Here gbif_status is SYNONYM, with the name Aster flaccidus treated as the accepted taxon.

It is a low, tufted perennial herb arising from a short rhizome, the stems solitary or few, simple, erect and conspicuously clothed in long, soft, white or purplish, often glandular hairs. The basal leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, entire and narrowed to a petiole, the cauline leaves few, sessile and reduced. Each stem terminates in a single large capitulum; the numerous ray florets are violet, blue-purple to lilac and spread around a central disc of yellow tubular florets. The involucre is hemispherical with herbaceous, hairy, purple-margined phyllaries in two or three subequal series. Achenes are flattened and pubescent, surmounted by a pappus of reddish barbellate bristles.

A member of Aster section Alpigenia, A. flaccidus is morphologically variable and has accumulated numerous synonyms and infraspecific names reflecting its vast range and the influence of altitude on stature and indumentum. It is a hardy, cushion-tolerant pioneer of cold, exposed habitats and an important component of alpine sward. Being abundant and broadly distributed it is of least concern, although high-altitude populations may serve as sensitive indicators of climate-driven vegetation change.

Author: Bunge · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Polunin & Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya, Onno revision of Aster Alpigenia

Asteraceae

Aster himalaicus

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2012 53
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 55
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 292
Bhutan Shele-La, 4100m September
Sikkim2003 138 P186
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August

Description

Aster himalaicus is an alpine aster of the eastern and central Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, China, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Pakistan (NP, CN, BT, IN, MM, PK), with around 277 GBIF occurrences indicating a genuinely high-mountain, comparatively restricted range. It grows in alpine meadows, on grassy and stony slopes, moist turf and the margins of dwarf-rhododendron scrub above the treeline. The photographed populations occur on the Shele-La in Bhutan at 4000–4100 m in September and at Dzongri in Sikkim at 3950 m in August, flowering through the late monsoon on open alpine grassland. Note that under GBIF this name carries SYNONYM status, though the accepted name is likewise given as Aster himalaicus.

It is a low perennial herb with a short, woody rhizome bearing solitary or few erect, simple stems usually 5–20 cm tall, more or less hispid with spreading hairs. The leaves are mostly basal and lower-cauline, obovate to oblanceolate or spathulate, tapering to a winged petiole, with entire ciliate margins and sparse hairs. The capitula are large and solitary, terminal and radiate, subtended by an involucre of several series of narrow, often purple-tinged, hairy phyllaries. The ray florets are conspicuous, ligulate and blue-violet to purple, encircling a disc of numerous yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy cypsela crowned by a pappus of fine barbellate bristles in one or two series.

Aster sensu lato in the Himalaya has been much reorganised, several alpine taxa having been segregated into genera such as Aster s.str. of the tribe Astereae; the synonymy attached to this binomial reflects that ongoing taxonomic flux. The large solitary heads borne on dwarf stems are characteristic of cushion-forming alpine asters adapted to short, cool growing seasons. The species is not assessed as threatened, but its dependence on high alpine turf renders it locally vulnerable to grazing pressure and climatic shifts.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Asteraceae monograph (Grierson, revision of Himalayan Aster)