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.

Asteraceae

Aster stracheyi

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 345
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4400m June
Nepal 99 530 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3750m, June

Description

Aster stracheyi is a dwarf, mat-forming alpine daisy of the high Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan and China, with around 202 GBIF occurrences. In GBIF the name is returned with synonym status, the accepted name nonetheless being Aster stracheyi, under which it is here treated. It is a plant of high alpine turf, screes, gravelly flats and stony slopes well above the treeline, typically between about 3700 and 5000 m. The photographed plants are from Jule-Tso in Bhutan at 4400 m and from Churta-Khola in west Nepal at 3750 m, both flowering in June at the start of the high-alpine season.

The species is a low, cushion- to mat-forming perennial herb spreading by slender creeping rhizomes or stolons, the short flowering stems clothed in small, crowded leaves. The leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, entire, somewhat fleshy and often ciliate, forming dense basal tufts. The capitula are solitary and almost sessile among the leaves, radiate, with a single series of narrow lilac to pale purple ray florets surrounding a compact disc of yellow tubular florets; the involucre is hemispherical with herbaceous, often purple-tinged phyllaries. The fruit is a flattened, hairy cypsela bearing a pappus of barbellate bristles.

Aster in the broad sense is a large and much-revised genus of the tribe Astereae, and A. stracheyi, named for Richard Strachey, exemplifies the cushion-forming high-elevation asters of the Sino-Himalaya, an adaptation to cold and exposure. Restricted to remote alpine ground, it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Revision of Himalayan Aster (Astereae)

Asteraceae

Aster thomsonii 

by G & P Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Garw 2005 40 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 2900m, September
Garw 2005 25 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 2900m, September

Description

Aster thomsonii is a western and central Himalayan daisy ranging through India, Pakistan and Nepal, with roughly 223 GBIF records. It inhabits open slopes, forest clearings, meadows and shrubby banks in the temperate and subalpine zone. The material from the Valley of Flowers in Garhwal at about 2900 m, flowering in September, is characteristic of its preference for moist, well-lit montane sites where it blooms late in the growing season as the monsoon recedes, often forming scattered colonies among grasses and other tall herbs.

The plant is a perennial herb with erect, often branched stems bearing alternate, simple leaves that are ovate to lanceolate, the lower ones petiolate and the upper sessile and somewhat clasping, with toothed margins and a thinly hairy surface. The flower heads are radiate and solitary or few at the branch tips, with an involucre of imbricate, herbaceous phyllaries. The ray florets are female and ligulate, lilac to pale blue-violet, surrounding a central disc of numerous yellow, tubular, bisexual florets. The fruit is a flattened, hairy achene crowned by a pappus of fine barbellate bristles that aids wind dispersal.

Though catalogued here under the name Aster thomsonii C.B. Clarke, this name is treated as a synonym in current taxonomic databases, with Aster thomsonii cited as the accepted name following the ongoing recircumscription of Aster and its segregate genera in the eastern Old World. Such reassignments reflect molecular evidence that the traditional broad Aster is polyphyletic. The species remains a widespread and unthreatened component of Himalayan herbaceous vegetation.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora Simlensis, Grierson's revision of Himalayan Aster

Asteraceae

Aster tricephalus

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Bhutan2015 326
Bhutan Trongsa 2200m, October
Sikkim2011 182
Sikkim Lachung 2600m, June
Sikkim2011 188
Sikkim Lachung 2600m, June
Bh09 311 G477
Bhutan Yetong-La, 2900m June

Description

Aster tricephalus is a Himalayan species ranging through India, Nepal, Pakistan, China and Bhutan, GBIF recording some 87 occurrences along the temperate Himalayan chain. It grows on open grassy and shrubby slopes, in forest clearings, along banks and in subalpine meadows where it benefits from full sun and moist, well-drained soils. The cited gatherings span its altitudinal range: Trongsa in central Bhutan at 2200 m in October, Lachung in Sikkim at 2600 m in June, and the Yetong-La at 2900 m in June. This spread of localities, flowering from early summer through to autumn, reflects its presence across the temperate to lower subalpine belt of the Eastern Himalaya.

It is a perennial herb arising from a short rhizome, with erect, leafy, often pubescent stems. The leaves are alternate, the lower ones oblanceolate and narrowed to the base, the upper smaller, sessile and somewhat clasping, with entire or slightly toothed margins and scabrid or hairy surfaces. The capitula are radiate and few, sometimes clustered into a small terminal group as the epithet suggests; the involucre is campanulate with imbricate, herbaceous phyllaries in several rows. The ray florets are female and ligulate, mauve to purplish-blue, surrounding numerous yellow tubular disc florets. The cypselae are flattened and hairy, bearing a pappus of fine barbellate bristles.

Aster in the strict modern sense (tribe Astereae) is centred on Eurasia, and many Himalayan species formerly placed here have been variously reassigned among segregate genera, so the generic placement of montane taxa such as A. tricephalus remains under continuing taxonomic scrutiny. Attributed to C. B. Clarke, it is treated as an accepted species. Its violet-rayed heads attract a range of bees, hoverflies and butterflies. As a widespread plant of open montane habitats it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson's revision of Himalayan Aster (Astereae)

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)

Fabaceae

Astragalus chlorostachys

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

Bhutan2015 515
Bhutan Phobjika 2600m, October
Bh09 300 G494
Bhutan Kiki-La, 2100m June

Description

Astragalus chlorostachys is a perennial legume of the inner valleys and dry montane slopes of the Himalaya and Central Asia, ranging through India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and China, with around 270 documented occurrences (records from Belgium and Switzerland representing herbarium and cultivated material). It favours open grassy slopes, forest margins, scrub and disturbed ground in the warm- to cool-temperate belt, broadly between about 2000 and 3000 m. The photographed plants were recorded in Bhutan at Phobjika at 2600 m in October and at the Kiki-La at 2100 m in June, indicating a long flowering and fruiting season through the growing months.

The species is an erect to ascending herb with several stems arising from a woody rootstock, the herbage finely appressed-pubescent. The leaves are imparipinnate with numerous opposite, oblong to elliptic leaflets. The flowers are crowded into dense, elongate, spike-like axillary racemes (the green-tinged inflorescence reflected in the epithet chlorostachys); the calyx is tubular and pubescent, and the papilionaceous corolla is small, yellowish to greenish-white or pale lilac. The fruit is a small, sessile or shortly stipitate pod, more or less inflated and pubescent, dehiscent at maturity.

Astragalus is among the largest genera of flowering plants, and its Himalayan members are taxonomically intricate; A. chlorostachys is placed among the densely spicate-flowered milkvetches of the region. Like many of its congeners it is a nitrogen-fixing pioneer of disturbed and grazed terrain, providing fodder and contributing to soil enrichment. It is common across a wide range and is not considered to be of conservation concern.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Astragalus monograph (Podlech & Zarre)

Fabaceae

Astragalus concretus

by GP Jürgens

Benth.

Bhutan2012 349
Bhutan Wangdi 2000m, September
Sikkim 2006 466 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ruhig-Chu 2100m, May

Description

Astragalus concretus is a Himalayan milkvetch recorded from Nepal, India, China, Pakistan and Bhutan, with about 147 georeferenced occurrences concentrated along the central and eastern ranges; scattered records from the United States, Russia and Belgium derive from herbarium and database holdings rather than wild populations. It favours open, sunny banks, dry slopes, scrub margins and disturbed ground in the subtropical to lower temperate zone, broadly between 1500 and 2500 m. The cited gatherings from Wangdue in Bhutan at 2000 m in September and from the Rishi Chu valley in West Bengal at 2100 m in May indicate a tolerance of warm mid-elevation habitats.

It is a perennial or robust herb with ascending to spreading stems. The leaves are imparipinnate with several pairs of oblong to elliptic leaflets, the foliage typically appressed-pubescent. The flowers are borne in axillary racemes; the papilionaceous corolla, of purplish to pale colouring, shows the standard, wing and keel petals characteristic of the genus, subtended by a campanulate, toothed calyx. The fruit is a legume pod, in this species somewhat inflated and incompletely two-celled by intrusion of the ventral suture, the feature reflected in the epithet.

Astragalus is among the largest of all plant genera, and its Himalayan members are taxonomically intricate, separated largely on pod and indumentum characters. As a nitrogen-fixing legume, A. concretus contributes to soil enrichment on poor, eroding slopes. It is not regarded as threatened, occurring widely across disturbed and natural openings throughout its range.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Astragalus and Oxytropis monographs of Podlech and Maassoumi

Fabaceae

Astragalus sikkimensis

by G & P Jürgens

Benth. ex. Bunge

9F417E3DE29B4FE4ABBB6A304481347F
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Astragalus sikkimensis is a Himalayan milkvetch recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan and China, with about 68 GBIF occurrences distributed across the central and eastern range. It is a plant of open alpine and subalpine slopes, stony pastures and grassy meadows, typically growing between roughly 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed plant at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m, flowering in June, reflects its early-summer anthesis at the onset of the growing season, when it occupies well-drained, often gravelly turf in the cool, exposed conditions of the high meadows above the forest line.

The species is a perennial herb arising from a woody rootstock, with stems that are decumbent to shortly ascending and an indumentum of fine appressed hairs. The leaves are imparipinnate, composed of several pairs of small elliptic to oblong leaflets, with persistent stipules at the base of the petioles. The flowers are borne in short axillary racemes or head-like clusters and are typically pink-purple to violet, with the standard, wing and keel petals of the papilionaceous corolla and a tubular, hairy calyx with triangular teeth. The fruit is a small legume (pod), often somewhat inflated and enclosed within or shortly exceeding the persistent calyx, splitting to release the seeds.

Astragalus is one of the largest of all plant genera, and its Himalayan alpine representatives such as A. sikkimensis form symbiotic root nodules with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, an asset in nutrient-poor high-altitude soils. The papilionaceous flowers are bee-pollinated. The species is reasonably widespread within its montane band and is not regarded as threatened, though its alpine pastures are subject to grazing pressure across the inhabited Himalayan ranges.

Author: Benth. ex. Bunge · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China (Fabaceae), Podlech & Zarre Taxonomic Revision of Astragalus

Fabaceae

Astragalus stipulatus

by GP Jürgens

D.Don ex. Sims

BhutanPG2011 849
Bhutan Paro-Chu, 2400m July

Description

Astragalus stipulatus is a Himalayan milk-vetch distributed across Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, with around 83 GBIF occurrences. It is a plant of open, sunny situations in the temperate to lower subalpine zone, occupying dry grassy slopes, rocky banks, riverside terraces and disturbed ground, generally between about 2000 and 3500 m. The plant illustrated from the Paro Chu valley in Bhutan at 2400 m, flowering in July, is typical of its occurrence along well-drained, gravelly valley sides during the monsoon season.

It is a perennial or sometimes biennial herb with ascending to spreading, often somewhat straggling stems arising from a branched rootstock. The leaves are imparipinnate with several pairs of small elliptic to oblong leaflets and conspicuous, often connate stipules that give the species its epithet. The pea-like flowers are borne in axillary racemes; the papilionaceous corolla is purplish to pale violet or whitish, with the standard exceeding the wings and keel, and the calyx is tubular-campanulate with subequal teeth. The fruit is an oblong, often somewhat curved and inflated legume that may be bilocular through intrusion of the lower suture.

Astragalus, the largest genus of flowering plants, is richly represented in the Himalaya and Central Asia. A. stipulatus (D. Don ex Sims) belongs to the diverse Himalayan assemblage of the genus; it is widespread and of no conservation concern, contributing to early-successional and grazing-disturbed communities and, as a legume, to soil nitrogen enrichment through root nodulation.

Author: D.Don ex. Sims · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Podlech & Zarre monograph of Old World Astragalus

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