Tag:

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.

Asteraceae

Aster souliei

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

BhutanPG2011 475
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4450m June

Description

Aster souliei is an alpine aster centred on the Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded principally from China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar (CN, BT, MM, IN), with around 549 GBIF occurrences reflecting a range concentrated in the high mountains of the eastern Himalaya and south-west China; scattered records elsewhere (US) represent cultivation. It grows in alpine meadows, on grassy and rocky slopes, screes and open turf above the treeline, where it forms low mats. The photographed plant occurred on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at the Warrtlang-La in Bhutan at 4450 m in June, flowering early in the season at considerable altitude on exposed alpine grassland.

It is a dwarf, mat- or tuft-forming perennial herb arising from a short, thick rhizome, with very short or almost stemless flowering scapes, the whole plant rarely exceeding 5–15 cm. The leaves are chiefly in a basal rosette, spathulate to obovate or oblanceolate, narrowed into a winged petiole, with entire, often ciliate margins and sparsely hairy surfaces. The capitula are large and solitary, terminal and radiate, subtended by an involucre of several series of narrow, frequently purple-flushed and hairy phyllaries. The ray florets are numerous, ligulate and deep blue-violet to purple, surrounding a central disc of yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a compressed, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of fine, barbellate, reddish to whitish bristles.

Described by Franchet from the Sino-Himalayan borderlands, A. souliei belongs to the cushion- and rosette-forming alpine asters of the tribe Astereae that have undergone repeated taxonomic revision in the region. Its near-stemless habit and disproportionately large violet heads are adaptations to the short, cold growing season at high elevation, maximising display to scarce pollinators. Widespread within its montane belt, it is not considered threatened, though like other high-alpine specialists it may be sensitive to warming-driven habitat contraction.

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

Asteraceae

Aster vestitus

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Bhutan2012 114
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September
Bhutan2012 115
Bhutan Shele-La, 3600m September

Description

Aster vestitus is a Sino-Himalayan composite distributed through China, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand, with cultivated material accounting for the British GBIF records; some 247 occurrences are aggregated overall. It is a plant of open subalpine and alpine slopes, forest margins, scrub and grassy banks, generally in the upper montane to alpine zone. The specimen figured was recorded at Shele-La in Bhutan at about 3,600 m in September, when the species comes into flower toward the end of the growing season, its asters providing late-season colour on the high meadows.

It is an erect perennial herb with stems and foliage more or less clothed in a soft, woolly or villous indumentum, as the epithet vestitus (clothed) implies. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate to oblong, sessile or shortly petiolate, the margins entire to obscurely toothed and the surfaces pubescent. The capitula are radiate and borne in a loose corymbose arrangement; the involucral bracts are imbricate in several series. Each head bears an outer ring of pistillate ray florets with violet to pale purple ligules surrounding numerous yellow, tubular, bisexual disc florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy achene (cypsela) crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Aster in the broad sense is a large genus undergoing taxonomic recircumscription, with many Asiatic species now distributed among segregate genera; A. vestitus belongs to the predominantly Sino-Himalayan assemblage of woolly-stemmed alpine asters. The radiate capitula are insect-pollinated, while the pappus-bearing cypselas are dispersed anemochorously. Widespread and locally frequent across its montane range, the species is of no particular conservation concern.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson's revisionary studies of Himalayan Aster (Compositae)

Campanulaceae

Asyneuma fulgens

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Briq.

BhutanPG2011 840
Bhutan Paro-Chu, 2400m July

Description

Asyneuma fulgens is a bellflower-family herb widely distributed across the Himalaya and adjacent Asia, well represented in GBIF with about 276 occurrences from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and beyond. It is a plant of open, sunny situations, occurring on grassy and rocky slopes, banks, clearings, scrub and roadside verges in the warm-temperate to lower subalpine belt. The plant photographed along the Paro-Chu in Bhutan at about 2400 m in July was recorded in the monsoon flowering season, consistent with its preference for moist but well-drained montane slopes in the lower part of its altitudinal range.

It is an erect perennial herb, often slender and somewhat wiry, with simple or sparingly branched stems arising from a thickened rootstock and exuding latex when cut, as is typical of the family. The leaves are alternate, the lower ones petiolate and ovate to lanceolate, the upper sessile and narrower, with toothed margins. The flowers are borne in elongate, often interrupted spike-like or racemose inflorescences; each has a five-lobed calyx and a deeply five-parted, star-shaped corolla in shades of blue, violet or purple, the linear lobes spreading at anthesis. The style is exserted with a lobed stigma, and the fruit is a capsule dehiscing by lateral pores to shed many small seeds.

Asyneuma is segregated from Phyteuma and Campanula chiefly by its deeply divided, rotate corolla and the manner of capsule dehiscence. The genus is centred on Eurasia, with a notable Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan representation. As a widespread, ecologically tolerant species occupying disturbed as well as natural slopes, A. fulgens is not of conservation concern, and it provides a nectar and pollen resource for bees and other insect visitors in montane meadows.

Author: (Wall.) Briq. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hooker Flora of British India, Lammers World Checklist of Campanulaceae

Euphorbiaceae

Baliospermum calycinum

by GP Jürgens

Müll.Arg.

Bhutan2012 684
Bhutan Tserang 850m, September

Description

Baliospermum calycinum is a broadly distributed spurge of the Indo-Himalayan and Southeast Asian region, with more than 550 georeferenced occurrences across China, Thailand, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Bhutan, Laos and Bangladesh. It is a plant of warm, subtropical forest margins, scrub, ravines and disturbed ground at low to moderate elevations. The specimen recorded near Tsirang (Tserang) in southern Bhutan at about 850 m in September reflects its typical lowland habitat, fruiting toward the end of the monsoon on moist, fertile soils in partly shaded settings.

It is a monoecious, somewhat woody undershrub or robust herb exuding a watery to milky sap typical of the Euphorbiaceae. The leaves are alternate, large, the lower ones often broadly ovate and palmately lobed while the upper become narrower and merely toothed, with glandular teeth and a serrate margin. The small, apetalous unisexual flowers are borne in axillary racemiform inflorescences, with female flowers below and numerous male flowers above; the species is distinguished by its conspicuously developed, persistent calyx. The fruit is a three-lobed schizocarpic capsule splitting into three two-valved cocci that eject the smooth, mottled seeds.

Within Euphorbiaceae the genus Baliospermum comprises a small number of Asian species long valued in traditional medicine for the purgative and irritant properties of the seed oil. Taxonomic confusion with related taxa such as B. montanum has historically obscured its limits, and modern treatments rely on calyx, leaf-lobing and capsule characters for separation. Common and weedy across its wide range, it is of least conservation concern.

Author: Müll.Arg. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Radcliffe-Smith's account of Euphorbiaceae

Acanthaceae

Barleria cristata

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Bhutan2012 1062
Bhutan Koma-Chu-Valley 800m, September
Bhutan2015 173 scaled
Bhutan Zhemgang 910m, October

Description

Barleria cristata is a widespread species distributed from the Indian subcontinent through Southeast Asia to southern China, occurring in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. It has also become naturalized in parts of the tropics worldwide, including Australia, Brazil, and the Philippines. The species inhabits open and disturbed forests, rocky slopes, stream banks, and forest margins at elevations from near sea level to approximately 1,800 m. In Bhutan, it is found in the warm broadleaved forests of the southern foothills, as documented from the Koma-Chu Valley at 800 m and near Zhemgang at 910 m, where it flowers from September to October.
The plant is an erect to spreading shrub or subshrub, 0.5–1.5 m tall, with quadrangular stems that are pubescent when young. Leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, 5–12 cm long, with an acuminate apex and entire margins, bearing scattered hairs on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a dense, terminal or axillary spike, subtended by conspicuous, ovate, spinose-tipped bracts that give the species its epithet "cristata" (crested). Flowers are bilabiate, 3–4 cm long, typically violet to pale blue or occasionally white. The calyx is deeply four-lobed with two larger outer lobes and two smaller inner ones. The fruit is an oblong capsule containing two to four flattened, hygroscopic seeds that are explosively dehiscent when wetted.
Barleria is a large pantropical genus of approximately 300 species, with its centre of diversity in Africa and Asia. B. cristata is among the most commonly cultivated ornamental species in the genus and has escaped cultivation in numerous tropical regions, raising concerns about its invasive potential in some areas. Ecologically, it provides nectar resources for butterflies and long-tongued pollinators. The species exhibits considerable variation in flower colour across its range, which has led to the description of several infraspecific taxa, though most are not currently recognized.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of China Vol. 19

Fabaceae

Bauhinia variegata

by GP Jürgens

L.

Bhutan2014 45
Bhutan Trashigang 1200m, May
Bhutan2014 46
Bhutan Trashigang 1200m, May
Nepal 1994 170 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Mewa-Khola
1850m April

Description

Bauhinia variegata, the orchid tree or kachnar, is a deciduous tree native to tropical and subtropical Asia and now pantropically naturalised, reflected in GBIF's nearly 5000 occurrences spanning India, Nepal, China, Myanmar, Thailand and Pakistan as well as introduced ranges in Brazil, the United States, Mexico, South Africa, Australia and Spain. In the Himalayan foothills it occupies warm, seasonally dry broadleaf forest, riverine slopes and disturbed ground from the plains to about 1900 m. The photographed trees from Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1200 m in May and from the Mewa-Khola in eastern Nepal at 1850 m in April illustrate its lower-montane habitat, where it flushes conspicuous blossoms in the dry pre-monsoon months on largely leafless branches.

It is a small to medium tree with grey-brown bark and a spreading crown. The alternate leaves are broadly ovate-cordate, bilobed for up to one-third their length into two rounded lobes giving the characteristic camel-footprint outline, with palmate venation. The showy, fragrant flowers are borne in short axillary or terminal racemes; each has five obovate, clawed petals ranging from white through pink to mauve-purple, the uppermost broader and streaked with deeper veining, and typically three to five fertile stamens. The fruit is a flat, dehiscent, woody legume up to 30 cm long containing several compressed seeds.

A member of Fabaceae (Caesalpinioideae), Bauhinia is the type genus of the diagnostically bilobed-leaved tribe Cercideae. The species is extensively cultivated as an ornamental and avenue tree, while its flower buds, bark and young pods are used as vegetables and in traditional medicine. Widespread, weedy and able to fix little nitrogen yet tolerant of poor soils, it is of Least Concern and locally invasive beyond its native range.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Larsen & Larsen revision of Bauhinia

Begoniaceae

Begonia annulata

by GP Jürgens

K.Koch

Bhutan2015 146
Bhutan Galephug 700m, October

Description

Begonia annulata is a Himalayan and Indo-Burmese begonia ranging through India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar; GBIF lists about 109 occurrences, the lower figure reflecting its restriction to humid lowland and submontane forest. It grows in warm, shaded, perpetually moist habitats, on damp rocks, mossy banks, ravines and forest-floor seepages in evergreen broadleaved forest of the foothills and outer ranges. The photograph from Galephug in southern Bhutan at about 700 m in October shows it in the low, humid subtropical belt along the Himalayan front, fruiting late in the year where high rainfall and dense canopy sustain its succulent growth.

It is a fleshy perennial herb with an erect to ascending, jointed, translucent stem arising from a creeping rhizome or tuberous base. The leaves are alternate, conspicuously asymmetric (oblique) at the base as is typical of the genus, ovate to broadly ovate with an acuminate apex and toothed margin, palmately veined and often bearing scattered hairs, the petioles and nodes sometimes ringed (annulate, the source of the epithet). Plants are monoecious, the flowers white to pale pink and unisexual, borne in axillary cymes; staminate flowers with several stamens and pistillate flowers with a conspicuously winged inferior ovary. The fruit is a three-winged, unequally winged capsule containing very numerous minute seeds.

Begonia is one of the largest angiosperm genera, strongly radiated in the wet forests of tropical Asia, and B. annulata represents the shade- and moisture-demanding rhizomatous group of the eastern Himalaya. Its asymmetric leaves, winged capsules and dust-fine seeds are hallmarks of the family. While not formally assessed as threatened, such narrowly humid-forest specialists are sensitive to lowland deforestation and habitat drying along the Himalayan foothills.

Author: K.Koch · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India (Hooker), Tebbitt Begonias: Cultivation, Identification and Natural History

Begoniaceae

Begonia cathcartii

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2004 342 G603
India West-Bengal, Utaray 2100m April
Sikkim2004 116 P199
Sikkim West-Bengal, Yoksam, 1950m April

Description

Begonia cathcartii is a perennial herb of the moist eastern Himalaya and neighbouring montane Southeast Asia, recorded from northern India (Sikkim, Darjeeling), Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia; GBIF documents about 138 occurrences. It is a plant of shaded, humid broadleaved forest, growing on damp banks, mossy boulders and stream sides where humidity remains high, chiefly between about 1500 and 2700 m. The photographed material came from the Darjeeling hills at Utaray near 2100 m and from Yoksam in Sikkim at about 1950 m, both in April, matching the cool, dripping understorey it favours during the pre-monsoon flush.

The plant is a fleshy, somewhat succulent herb with an erect or ascending, sparingly branched stem arising from a rhizomatous or tuberous base. As in the genus the leaves are alternate, markedly asymmetric (oblique) at the base, broadly ovate, acuminate, with a toothed and often shallowly lobed margin and conspicuous stipules. The flowers are monoecious and borne in axillary cymes, white to pale pink; the staminate flowers bear several stamens while the pistillate flowers sit above a winged inferior ovary. The fruit is a three-winged capsule, with one wing usually larger, releasing very numerous minute seeds.

Begonia (Begoniaceae) is one of the largest angiosperm genera, and B. cathcartii belongs to its rich Sino-Himalayan rhizomatous assemblage, named for J. F. Cathcart. Its monoecious flowers, unequal capsule wings and asymmetric leaves are characteristic of the family. Dependent on humid forest microhabitats, it is locally frequent and not formally assessed as threatened, but sensitive to forest clearance and desiccation.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Hooker Begonias of the Himalaya in Flora of British India

Begoniaceae

Begonia josephi

by GP Jürgens

A.DC.

Bhutan2012 487
Bhutan Pele-La 2850m, September

Description

Begonia josephi is a Himalayan herb distributed through India, Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, with 177 GBIF occurrences across the region. It is a plant of cool, humid, shaded montane habitats — mossy rock faces, banks, ravines and the floor of broadleaved and mixed forest — in the temperate zone, generally between about 2000 and 3200 m, a higher and cooler niche than many of its lowland congeners. The illustrated plant from the Pele-La in central Bhutan at around 2850 m, in September at the end of the monsoon, is characteristic of its preference for moist, montane forest reaching its flowering peak late in the wet season.

It is a tuberous perennial herb arising from a depressed underground tuber, with one or few erect, succulent, often reddish stems. The leaves are alternate and conspicuously asymmetric (oblique-based) as in the genus, broadly ovate to suborbicular, palmately veined, irregularly toothed and frequently bronze- or red-tinged, sometimes with a paler zone. The monoecious, zygomorphic flowers are pink to rose and arranged in axillary cymes; staminate flowers bear a cluster of stamens while pistillate flowers carry an inferior, unequally 3-winged ovary. The fruit is the typical winged, dehiscent capsule releasing copious minute seeds.

Belonging to the tuberous Himalayan begonias of section Platycentrum and allied groups, B. josephi shows the strongly seasonal phenology of monsoon-climate species, dying back to its tuber through the dry winter and re-emerging with the rains. The genus Begonia is hyperdiverse and the Eastern Himalaya a significant centre of endemism; like other shade-demanding forest begonias the species depends on intact humid forest cover, leaving it locally vulnerable to deforestation despite a fairly wide overall range.

Author: A.DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Begoniaceae monographic studies

Begoniaceae

Begonia megaptera

by G & P Jürgens

A.DC.

Bhutan2012 480 ergebnis
Bhutan, Wangdi 1800m, September
Bhutan2012 481
Bhutan, Wangdi 1800m, September

Description

Begonia megaptera is a tuberous begonia native to the eastern Himalaya and adjacent regions, recorded from Nepal, northeast India (Sikkim, Darjeeling, Meghalaya), Bhutan, and Myanmar, with occasional records from Sri Lanka. It inhabits moist, shaded environments including rock crevices, mossy banks, stream margins, and damp earth walls in warm broadleaved and subtropical forests at elevations of 900–2,500 m. The species has been documented near Wangdi in Bhutan at 1,800 m, where it flowers during the monsoon and post-monsoon period in September.
The plant is a perennial herb arising from a globose tuber, with erect or ascending, succulent, sparsely branched stems 20–50 cm tall, tinged red and bearing scattered hairs. Leaves are alternate, broadly ovate to suborbicular, distinctly asymmetric, 8–20 cm long and nearly as wide, with a cordate base, irregularly serrate to dentate margins, and palmately veined undersurface often flushed reddish-purple. Stipules are large, ovate, and persistent. The inflorescence is a dichasial cyme bearing both male and female flowers; male flowers have two large, broadly ovate, white to pale pink tepals and numerous yellow stamens, while female flowers have five unequal tepals and a prominently three-winged inferior ovary — the epithet "megaptera" (large-winged) refers to the conspicuously enlarged wing on the fruit. The capsule is pendulous, with one wing much larger than the other two, up to 3 cm broad.
Begonia megaptera belongs to Begonia section Platycentrum and is distinguished by its notably large, unequal capsule wings and broad, nearly orbicular leaves. With only 63 occurrence records in GBIF, it remains a rather uncommon species. Begonia is one of the largest angiosperm genera, with over 2,000 species, and the eastern Himalayan region represents a secondary centre of diversity. B. megaptera contributes to the rich lithophytic and epipetric flora characteristic of humid gorge habitats in the region.

Author: A.DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Doorenbos et al.: The Sections of Begonia (1998), Hughes et al.: Asian Begonia (2015)