Tag:

Nepal

Flowers of Nepal — 1313 wild plant species documented from the Nepalese Himalaya, from subtropical foothills to high alpine meadows above 4,000 m. Nepal’s dramatic elevation gradient makes it one of the richest botanical regions on Earth, home to rhododendrons, primulas, gentians and the famed blue poppies (Meconopsis). Every entry gives a botanical description, native distribution, habitat and flowering season, alongside the original field photograph and the location where it was taken.

Violaceae

Viola hookeri

by GP Jürgens

Thomson ex Hook.f.

Sikkim2004 73 P128
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2700m April
Sikkim 2006 160 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Molley 3200m, May

Description

Viola hookeri Thomson ex Hook.f. is a small Himalayan violet of the eastern ranges, occurring in Sikkim, Darjeeling and adjacent India, Nepal and Bhutan. The GBIF figures attached to this record (over 3.8 million occurrences across chiefly European and North American countries) pertain to the genus Viola as a whole, not to this species, whose true range is confined to the temperate eastern Himalaya. It grows in cool, moist, shaded forest, on mossy banks and along path margins. The photographed plants are from the Sikkim-West Bengal border at Bersay (2,700 m, April) and from Molley (3,200 m, May), placing it in the upper temperate to subalpine forest belt.

It is a small acaulescent perennial herb forming a basal rosette from a slender rhizome, without elongated leafy stems. The leaves are long-petiolate, the lamina ovate to cordate-reniform with a crenate margin and a stipulate base. The solitary flowers are borne on slender axillary peduncles and have the characteristic zygomorphic violet structure: five unequal petals, the lowest spurred, white to pale lilac and often violet-veined, with the lower lateral petals sometimes bearded. As in many violets, cleistogamous flowers may also be produced. The fruit is a small, ellipsoid, three-valved loculicidal capsule that splits explosively to eject the smooth seeds.

Viola (Violaceae) is a near-cosmopolitan genus with a strong Himalayan radiation of acaulescent, rosette-forming species adapted to montane woodland. V. hookeri belongs to this eastern Himalayan group, in which basal rosettes, spurred flowers and frequent cleistogamy reflect adaptation to shaded, seasonally cool conditions. The species is not formally assessed but, like its relatives, depends on intact temperate forest.

Author: Thomson ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Hooker Flora of British India, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Becker conspectus of Viola

Violaceae

Viola moupinensis

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Sikkim2004 339 G600
Sikkim/India Choka 3000m May

Description

Viola moupinensis Franch. is a stemless perennial violet of the Sino-Himalayan mountains, distributed according to GBIF across China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan. It inhabits cool, moist temperate and subalpine forests, shaded grassy slopes, forest margins and stream sides, typically between about 2,000 and 3,500 m. The May record from Choka in Sikkim at 3,000 m reflects its flowering during the spring monsoon onset in mossy, humus-rich woodland, where it grows among ferns and other shade-tolerant herbs in the understorey of mixed conifer and broad-leaved forest.

The species is an acaulescent (rosette-forming) perennial arising from a short, stout rhizome bearing fibrous roots. The leaves are basal, long-petiolate, with broadly cordate to reniform-cordate blades that are crenate-serrate at the margin and somewhat pubescent, often enlarging considerably after flowering. The solitary, long-pedunculate flowers are pale violet to whitish with darker purple veining on the lower petals; the lowermost petal bears a short, blunt spur. As is typical of Viola, the plant also produces self-pollinating cleistogamous flowers later in the season, and the fruit is an ellipsoid, three-valved capsule that dehisces explosively to disperse the seeds, which are further dispersed by ants via their elaiosomes.

Viola moupinensis belongs to section Viola and is closely allied to the temperate stemless violets of Eurasia. Its combination of showy chasmogamous and reliable cleistogamous flowers ensures reproductive success in shaded, insect-poor forest understoreys. As a frequent and adaptable woodland species across a broad elevational and geographic range, it is not of conservation concern but is a valued component of Himalayan spring flora.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Wang Wencai: Violaceae monographic studies

Violaceae

Viola wallichiana

by GP Jürgens

Ging.

Sikkim2011 165
Sikkim Vista-valley 2500m, June
Sikkim2011 167
Sikkim Vista-valley 2500m, June
Sikkim 2006 460 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ruigi-Chu 2100m, May

Description

Viola wallichiana is a small perennial herb of the Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, northern India, Sikkim, Bhutan and southwestern China, with peripheral or introduced records noted from Australia; GBIF holds about 79 collections, reflecting a relatively localised eastern Himalayan range. It grows in shaded, moist temperate forest, on mossy banks, humus-covered slopes and shaded rock ledges, typically between about 2000 and 3000 m. The photographed plants were found in Sikkim's Vista valley at around 2500 m in June and in the West Bengal hills at Ruigi-Chu near 2100 m in May, on the cool, sheltered, leaf-littered forest floor it inhabits through late spring and the early monsoon.

The plant is a low, stemless to short-stemmed perennial arising from a slender rhizome, sometimes spreading by short stolons. The leaves are basal or nearly so, long-petiolate, the blade ovate to cordate or reniform with a crenate margin and conspicuous fringed stipules. The flowers are solitary on slender axillary peduncles, zygomorphic and spurred in typical violet fashion, pale violet to bluish or whitish with darker veining on the lower petal, the spur short. Cleistogamous flowers may also be produced. The fruit is a small loculicidal capsule that splits into three valves, ejecting the seeds elastically.

Viola (Violaceae) is a large, cosmopolitan genus, and V. wallichiana belongs to the temperate Himalayan group of rosulate, spurred-flowered violets, commemorating Nathaniel Wallich. Its cordate basal leaves, fringed stipules and pale veined flowers distinguish it from congeners. It is a typical understorey forb of mid-elevation forest, locally common but not assessed as threatened.

Author: Ging. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Becker conspectus of Himalayan Viola

Rubiaceae

Wendlandia heynei

by GP Jürgens

(Schult.) Santapau & Merchant

Nepal 97 42 P62
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1050m April
Nepal 97 43 P63
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1050m April
Sikkim 2006 273 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Lingza 1300m, May

Description

Wendlandia heynei is a shrub or small tree of the Indian subcontinent and its Himalayan foothills, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan. GBIF holds some 179 occurrences, the bulk across peninsular and north-eastern India and the lower Himalaya. It is a plant of warm-temperate to subtropical broad-leaved forest, forest margins, ravines and secondary scrub on hill slopes, typically from the plains up to roughly 1500 m. The populations imaged in eastern Nepal at Mewa-Khola (1050 m, April) and in the Darjeeling region of Indian West Bengal at Lingza (1300 m, May) illustrate its place in the moist hill forests of the eastern Himalayan tract, flowering as the pre-monsoon season advances.

The plant is evergreen to semi-deciduous, with terete, often puberulous young branchlets. The leaves are opposite or sometimes ternate, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, entire and acuminate, with interpetiolar stipules typical of the Rubiaceae. The small flowers are crowded in large, much-branched terminal panicles or thyrses that give the tree a frothy, plumose appearance. Each flower has a short-lobed calyx, a white, funnel- to salver-shaped corolla with a slender tube and five spreading lobes, and five included or shortly exserted stamens; the ovary is inferior and bilocular. The fruit is a minute, globose, septicidal capsule containing numerous small angular seeds.

Wendlandia (tribe Wendlandieae) is a genus of around ninety species centred on tropical and subtropical Asia, distinguished by its dense paniculate inflorescences and small capsular fruits. The epithet honours Heyne, and the species has accumulated several synonyms reflecting its wide variability across the subcontinent. As a common, adaptable component of disturbed and secondary hill forest it is not of conservation concern; locally its wood and bark have minor uses.

Author: (Schult.) Santapau & Merchant · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of British India, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, revision of the genus Wendlandia (Cowan)

Thymelaeaceae

Wikstroemia canescens

by G & P Jürgens

Meisn.

Nepal 99 57 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2700m, June
Nepal 99 935 ergebnis 1
West-Nepal Suli-Khola 2700m, July
Nepal 99 933 ergebnis
West-Nepal Ski-Khola 2700m, July
Garw 2005 236 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Guni 2350m, September

Description

Wikstroemia canescens (Meisn.) is a Himalayan to East Asian shrub of the family Thymelaeaceae, distributed from Pakistan and the northwest Himalaya through India, Nepal and Myanmar to China, Sri Lanka and Japan. The fewer than 600 GBIF records indicate a scattered but characteristically montane occurrence. It inhabits open slopes, forest margins, scrubland and rocky banks in the temperate zone, generally between 1,500 and 3,000 m. The several West Nepal localities at around 2,700 m, recorded from June through July, together with the Garhwal collection from Guni at 2,350 m in September, span its full flowering and fruiting season across the central and western Himalaya.

The plant is an erect, branching shrub up to about 2 m tall, with tough, fibrous bark and young branchlets covered in a fine greyish pubescence, hence the epithet canescens. The leaves are subopposite to alternate, shortly petiolate, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, entire-margined and somewhat silky beneath. The small, tubular flowers lack petals and consist of a yellow to greenish-yellow, four-lobed calyx tube; they are clustered in short, terminal, head-like or umbellate inflorescences. The fruit is a small, dry to fleshy drupe.

Like many Thymelaeaceae, Wikstroemia canescens possesses an exceptionally strong inner bark rich in long fibres, and in the Himalaya it is used locally for cordage and in the traditional manufacture of hand-made paper, a use shared with the related Daphne species. The genus is closely allied to Daphne, the two differing chiefly in floral merosity and indumentum, and generic boundaries within the group remain debated. The species is widespread and not currently considered threatened.

Author: Meisn. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Halda: The Genus Daphne and allied Thymelaeaceae (2001)

Lythraceae

Woodfordia fruticosa

by GP Jürgens

Kurz

Bhutan2014 147
Bhutan Trashigang 1470m, May
Nepal 2001 461 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Gunda 1700m, May

Description

Woodfordia fruticosa is a widespread Old World shrub ranging from the Indian subcontinent through China and Southeast Asia to Madagascar and tropical Africa, with GBIF documenting around 1657 occurrences across India, China, Madagascar, Nepal, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Thailand. It is a plant of warm, seasonally dry habitats, characteristically colonising open hill slopes, rocky outcrops, scrub, forest margins and disturbed ground from the lowlands into the lower hills. The plants recorded at Trashigang in Bhutan at about 1470 m and at Gunda in Gorkha, Nepal at about 1700 m, both in May, illustrate its presence in the subtropical mid-hill zone, where it flushes with bright flowers at the onset of the warm season.

It is a much-branched deciduous shrub with long, often arching or pendulous branches and grey-brown bark. The leaves are opposite or subopposite, sessile to subsessile, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, entire-margined, dull green above and densely whitish- or rusty-tomentose and gland-dotted beneath. The flowers are clustered in short axillary cymes and are conspicuously bright red to orange-red; each has a tubular, slightly curved, ribbed calyx (hypanthium) with short triangular lobes, minute or vestigial petals, and numerous long-exserted stamens, giving the inflorescence a brush-like appearance. The fruit is a small ellipsoid capsule enclosed within the persistent calyx tube, releasing numerous tiny seeds.

The tubular red flowers and copious nectar of W. fruticosa make it strongly ornithophilous, attracting sunbirds and other nectar-feeding birds that act as pollinators, while it is also valued by beekeepers. Dried flowers (known as dhataki) are widely used in traditional medicine and notably as a natural fermentation agent in Ayurvedic preparations, owing to abundant tannins and polyphenols. The sole or near-sole member of its genus, the species is robust, fast-colonising and locally abundant, and is not of conservation concern.

Author: Kurz · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Graham Revision of the Lythraceae of the Indian Subcontinent

Apocynaceae

Wrightia arborea

by GP Jürgens

(Dennst.) Mabb.

Bhutan2014 261
Bhutan Trithangebe 700m, May
Nepal 97 564 P1097
Nepal Sabha-Khola 550m May

Description

Wrightia arborea is a small deciduous tree of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, distributed across India, Thailand, China, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and much of the surrounding region, with about 709 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows in dry to moist deciduous forest, woodland and scrub, mainly in the warm subtropical lowlands and foothills. The trees illustrated were photographed at Trithangebe in Bhutan (700 m) and along the Sabha-Khola in Nepal (550 m) in May; across its range it typically occurs below about 1200 m on a variety of well-drained soils.

The species is a small tree exuding milky latex, with opposite, simple, elliptic to ovate leaves that are softly hairy, acuminate and pinnately veined. The flowers are borne in terminal cymes and are showy and fragrant, with a salverform white to creamy or pale yellow corolla ageing to pink or dull orange; a conspicuous fringed corona of scales surrounds the throat, a diagnostic feature of the genus. The fruit consists of two slender, elongate follicles that are united or cohering at the tip and split to release numerous flattened seeds, each bearing an apical tuft of silky hairs (coma) for wind dispersal.

Wrightia (Apocynaceae, subfamily Apocynoideae) is a genus of latex-bearing trees and shrubs notable for the ornate coronal scales of its flowers. W. arborea yields a fine, close-grained pale wood traditionally prized for carving and turnery, and various parts have been used in folk medicine and as a source of dye. Adaptable and widely distributed, the species is common across its range and is not considered to be of conservation concern, though local populations depend on the persistence of deciduous forest and woodland habitat.

Author: (Dennst.) Mabb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Flora of Bhutan, Ngan Revision of the Genus Wrightia

Asteraceae

Youngia racemifera

by GP Jürgens

(Hook.f.) Babc. & Stebbins

Bhutan2015 494
Bhutan Phobjika 2620m, October
Bhutan2012 173
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September

Description

Youngia racemifera is a Sino-Himalayan species recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Myanmar, GBIF holding around 209 occurrences across this eastern montane range. It is a plant of open temperate to subalpine habitats, growing on grassy and shrubby slopes, forest clearings, banks and disturbed ground where light is abundant and soils are moist but well drained. The cited localities, Phobjika in central Bhutan at 2620 m in October and the Haar Valley in the west at 3200 m in September, place it in the upper temperate to subalpine belt, flowering and fruiting through the late summer and autumn as the monsoon wanes and the high valleys cool.

It is an erect perennial or biennial herb with a leafy, branching, glabrous to sparsely hairy stem exuding milky latex when broken, as is typical of the tribe. The lower leaves are oblanceolate and runcinate-pinnatifid to lyrate, narrowed to a winged base, the upper leaves smaller and less divided, sometimes amplexicaul. The numerous small capitula are arranged in an elongate, racemose to paniculate synflorescence, reflected in the epithet. Each head is homogamous and ligulate, containing several yellow ray florets only; the involucre is cylindric with a single main row of phyllaries and small outer bracts. The cypselae are narrowly fusiform and ribbed, surmounted by a pappus of soft white barbellate bristles.

Youngia (tribe Cichorieae) is a genus of around thirty species centred on East Asia and the Himalaya, distinguished from related lettuce-like genera by its small few-flowered capitula and beakless ribbed cypselae. Based on a Hooker name and transferred by Babcock and Stebbins in their classic study of the group, Y. racemifera is treated as accepted. Its bright yellow ligulate heads attract small bees and flies. As a tolerant plant of open and disturbed montane habitats, it is widespread and of no conservation concern.

Author: (Hook.f.) Babc. & Stebbins · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Babcock & Stebbins' monograph of Crepidinae (Youngia)

Rutaceae

Zanthoxylum oxyphyllum

by GP Jürgens

Edgew.

Sikkim2003 369 P518
Sikkim Lachen Tista Tal 3500m August

Description

Zanthoxylum oxyphyllum Edgew. is an aromatic shrub or small tree of the Rutaceae, distributed along the Himalaya from northern India and Nepal through Bhutan to southwestern China and Myanmar (GBIF: c. 372 occurrences). It grows in temperate to subalpine forests, on open slopes, forest margins and in shrubberies, typically between about 1,800 and 3,500 m. The photographed plant from Lachen in the upper Tista Valley of Sikkim, at around 3,500 m and recorded in August, represents the upper elevational range of the species in the eastern Himalaya, where it occurs in cool, moist montane scrub.

The plant is a deciduous, prickly shrub or small tree bearing recurved spines on the stems and often on the rachis and midrib of the leaves, as is typical of the genus. The leaves are alternate, imparipinnate, with several pairs of opposite, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate leaflets that are crenate and gland-dotted, releasing a pungent citrus aroma when crushed owing to abundant translucent oil cavities. The plant is functionally dioecious, with small greenish or yellowish unisexual flowers borne in axillary or terminal cymose panicles. The fruit is a small reddish follicle that splits to expose a single shiny black seed, and the carpels, like the foliage, are richly pellucid-punctate.

Zanthoxylum oxyphyllum belongs to the pantropical genus Zanthoxylum, whose species are noted for their pungent, numbing fruits (the Sichuan-pepper group) and their alkaloid- and essential-oil chemistry. The fruits and bark are used locally as a spice and in traditional medicine. The species is widespread and not regarded as threatened.

Author: Edgew. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Hartley: A revision of the Malesian species of Zanthoxylum

Amaryllidaceae

Zephyranthes candida

by G & P Jürgens

(Lindl.) Herb.

Bhutan2012 1104
Bhutan Khoma 950m, October

Description

Zephyranthes candida is native to the marshlands and riverbanks of the Río de la Plata region in Argentina and Uruguay, but has become one of the most widely naturalised bulbous plants in tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa, and Oceania. GBIF documents over 2,810 occurrences spanning more than 20 countries, with substantial records from the United States, Japan, India, China, and Australia. In the eastern Himalayas, it occurs as a naturalised garden escape in warm valleys and lowland settlements at elevations below 1,500 m. At Khoma in eastern Bhutan at 950 m, it grows along roadsides, field margins, and around homesteads, flowering abundantly in October during the late monsoon and post-monsoon period.
Zephyranthes candida is a bulbous perennial herb. The bulb is ovoid, 2–3 cm in diameter, with a dark brown tunic. Leaves are basal, linear, rushlike, 15–30 cm long and 2–4 mm wide, dark green, semi-erect, and persistent through much of the year. The scape is slender, hollow, 15–25 cm tall, bearing a single erect flower subtended by a tubular spathe. The flower is actinomorphic, crocus-like, 3–5 cm across, with six white tepals that are broadly elliptic and slightly tinged green at the base externally. Stamens are six, subequal, with yellow anthers. The ovary is inferior, trilocular; the fruit is a depressed-globose capsule containing flattened black seeds.
Despite its alien origin, Zephyranthes candida has become thoroughly established across warm regions of the Himalayan foothills and is now a familiar element of the naturalised flora of Bhutan, Nepal, and northeast India. Its rapid vegetative spread via daughter bulbs, tolerance of a wide range of soil moisture conditions, and prolific seed production contribute to its success as a coloniser of disturbed habitats. The species is taxonomically placed in Zephyranthes sensu lato; some recent molecular treatments have subsumed it within an expanded Habranthus, though most regional Floras retain the traditional placement.

Author: (Lindl.) Herb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Meerow & Snijman: Amaryllidaceae in Kubitzki: Families and Genera of Vascular Plants Vol. 3 (1998)