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.

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium amplum

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

Bhutan2012 1365
Bhutan Sandrup 1400m, October
Bhutan2012 1366
Bhutan Sandrup 1400m, October

Description

Dendrobium amplum (often treated under the segregate genus Epigeneium as E. amplum) is an epiphytic orchid distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia. GBIF documents 230 occurrences from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand, with herbarium and cultivated records also in Europe and North America. It inhabits mossy trunks and large branches in humid subtropical broadleaved forest, generally between roughly 1000 and 2000 m. The plant shown was recorded at Sandrup in Bhutan at 1400 m in October, a warm-temperate forest belt where seasonal monsoon moisture sustains a rich epiphytic flora.

The species has a creeping rhizome from which arise well-spaced, ovoid to fusiform pseudobulbs, each conspicuously four-angled and topped by two (rarely three) ovate-elliptic, coriaceous leaves. The inflorescence emerges from the apex of the pseudobulb and carries one to a few comparatively large, showy flowers. The spreading sepals and petals are pale green to yellowish, variously suffused or veined with brown and purple, while the three-lobed labellum bears a recurved, acute or apiculate midlobe and is marked with reddish-purple lines over a callused disc. The mentum is short and the column foot prominent.

Described by John Lindley, the species belongs to a group of broad-bulbed Dendrobium species frequently placed in Epigeneium, a genus whose limits remain debated; POWO accepts the Dendrobium placement. The autumn-flowering habit and large flowers make it attractive to collectors. While ranging widely and not formally listed as threatened, it depends on intact mature forest and is sensitive to habitat loss and over-collection.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Orchids of Bhutan, Dendrobium and its Relatives (Lavarack et al.)

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium aphyllum

by G & P Jürgens

C.E.C. Fisch.

Sikkim2011 17
Sikkim Lachen 2460m, June
Bhutan2014 703
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 2280m, May
BhutanPG2011 56 ergebnis
Bhutan Jakar, 20m June
Bhutan2014 702
Bhutan Jakar, 2600m June
Nepal 1994 8 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Tumlingtar 340m April

Description

Dendrobium aphyllum is a widespread epiphytic orchid of tropical and subtropical Asia, ranging from India and Nepal through southern China and across mainland Southeast Asia, with GBIF documenting occurrences from India, China, Thailand, Bhutan, Nepal, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos among many territories. It grows as an epiphyte, and sometimes a lithophyte, on tree trunks and rocks in warm, humid lowland and lower montane forest, enduring a distinct dry season during which the canes shed their leaves. It occupies low to middle elevations; the records span Tumlingtar in eastern Nepal at about 340 m to Sikkim's Lachen and Bhutanese sites up to roughly 2600 m, with the photographed material flowering from April through June across this broad altitudinal range.

The plant produces long, slender, pendulous cane-like stems that branch and trail from the host, leafy when young and largely leaf-shedding before flowering. The leaves are thin, lanceolate and deciduous. The flowers emerge in twos and threes from the nodes of the bare, hanging canes, fragrant and delicately coloured, with pale rose-pink to lilac sepals and petals. The labellum is broadly funnel-shaped to subobicular, cream to pale yellow and finely downy within, often marked with darker veining and rolled around the column to form a trumpet, the lower margin sometimes faintly fringed. The fruit is a pendent capsule.

D. aphyllum is placed in Dendrobium section Dendrobium and is characterised by its leafless flowering canes, as reflected in the epithet; it has accumulated synonymy and is sometimes confused with related pendent species such as D. primulinum and D. anosmum. Long cultivated as an ornamental and used in some traditional medicines, it remains common over much of its vast range, though localised populations are depleted by wild collection and lowland forest clearance.

Author: C.E.C. Fisch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb), Dendrobium and its Allies (Lavarack et al.)

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium crispum

by GP Jürgens

Dalzell

Nepal 95 433 P754 ergebnis
Nepal Trisuli 2500m October
Nepal 95 434 P755 ergebnis
Nepal Trisuli 2500m October

Description

Dendrobium crispum, as applied here, is an epiphytic orchid of the Himalayan and Indo-Burmese region. Under current taxonomy the name Dendrobium crispum Dalzell is treated as a synonym, the accepted concept here being Dendrobium crispum (with the linked material referable to Dendrobium peguanum); GBIF records, though few, point to occurrence in India and adjacent Himalaya. It grows as an epiphyte on tree trunks and mossy branches in humid broadleaved and subtropical forest. The photograph was taken near Trisuli in Nepal at about 2500 m in October, indicating a montane forest habitat with seasonal monsoon moisture.

The plant forms clustered, slender, often pendent or ascending stems (pseudobulbs) bearing distichous, narrowly oblong to lanceolate leaves with sheathing bases. The flowers are small, borne in short few-flowered racemes from the upper nodes; the sepals and petals are pale, the lateral sepals forming a short mentum with the column foot, and the labellum is the most ornamented part of the flower, with a recurved, often crisped or fringed margin and a coloured, sometimes pubescent disc. The column is short, bearing a terminal anther with waxy pollinia, and the small fruit is a ribbed dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seed.

Dendrobium is one of the largest orchid genera, and the taxonomy of small-flowered Himalayan species has been repeatedly revised, with several names entering synonymy as concepts were clarified, including the present one. Like most epiphytic orchids the species depends on mycorrhizal fungi for germination and on insect pollinators. All Dendrobium are listed on CITES Appendix II; the chief threats are forest clearance and collection for the horticultural trade.

Author: Dalzell · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Orchids of Nepal, CITES Appendix II listings, Seidenfaden's revisions of Asian Dendrobium

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium densiflorum

by GP Jürgens

Lindl. ex. Wall.

Nepal 97 359 P703
Nepal Arun-Valley 1650m
Nepal 97 358 P701
Nepal Arun-Valley 1650m

Description

Dendrobium densiflorum is a robust epiphytic orchid of the subtropical and warm-temperate forests of the eastern Himalaya and Indochina, recorded natively from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, with 247 GBIF occurrences (several extralimital records reflecting cultivation). It grows as an epiphyte, and occasionally a lithophyte, on mossy trees and shaded rock faces in humid broadleaved forest, generally between about 1000 and 1800 m. The illustrated plant comes from the Arun Valley of eastern Nepal at around 1650 m, a deep monsoon-fed gorge where rich epiphyte communities clothe the evergreen forest.

The species forms stout, clustered, club-shaped to fusiform pseudobulbous canes that are four-angled and longitudinally furrowed, bearing several leathery, oblong-elliptic leaves toward the apex. The inflorescence is its glory: a dense, pendulous, cylindrical raceme arising near the cane apex and carrying many closely set flowers. Each flower has bright golden-yellow, spreading sepals and broader petals, and a conspicuous, broadly orbicular, downy lip of deep egg-yolk orange-yellow, fringed at the margin. The fruit is a ribbed capsule.

The species belongs to Dendrobium section Densiflora, distinguished by these massed, pendent, golden 'pineapple' inflorescences. Spectacular in flower, it has long been prized in horticulture, and over-collection from the wild together with forest clearance has reduced many accessible populations; as with all Dendrobium it is regulated under CITES Appendix II. Its biogeography typifies the Sino-Himalayan epiphytic orchid flora that reaches its western limit in the wet middle-hill forests of Nepal.

Author: Lindl. ex. Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Orchids of Nepal, Dendrobium and its Allies (Lavarack, Harris & Stocker)

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium eriiflorum

by GP Jürgens

Griff.

Nepal 95 303 P547 ergebnis
Nepal Bharang 1850m October

Description

Dendrobium eriiflorum is an epiphytic orchid of the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burmese region, distributed through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar into Thailand, peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia; GBIF records about 112 occurrences across this range. It is a plant of the subtropical to lower temperate broadleaved forest, growing as an epiphyte on tree trunks and mossy branches in humid, shaded montane woodland, as documented at Bharang in Nepal at 1850 m. In this elevational band it benefits from high atmospheric moisture and a pronounced monsoon, and is recorded in flower in October toward the close of the wet season.

It is a small, tufted epiphyte with clustered, slender, erect to pendent stems (pseudobulb-like canes) sheathed by the membranous bases of the leaves. The leaves are thin, narrowly lanceolate, distichous and deciduous, leaving the older canes leafless. The inflorescences are short, few-flowered racemes arising laterally near the stem apex; the flowers are small, pale greenish-white to cream and densely covered externally with fine hairs, the hairy perianth recalling the genus Eria and giving rise to the epithet "eriiflorum". The lip is three-lobed with a recurved apex, and the column bears a short foot forming a mentum, with the pollinia waxy in the manner typical of Dendrobium.

The species was described by William Griffith, an early explorer of the Himalayan and Burmese flora. Within the large, taxonomically complex genus Dendrobium it falls among the small-flowered Himalayan species; the distinctive pubescent flowers are an unusual diagnostic feature among its relatives. Pollination in such Dendrobium is generally by small bees attracted to the lip. As an epiphyte dependent on intact, humid forest canopy, it is sensitive to deforestation and to the horticultural collection that affects many Himalayan orchids; like all Dendrobium it is listed on CITES Appendix II, regulating international trade.

Author: Griff. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Orchids of Nepal, Seidenfaden's monographic studies of Dendrobium

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium falconeri

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.

BhutanPG2011 8
Bhutan Paro, 2400m June

Pendent epiphyte to 50 cm long and slender branched, bearing few linear-oblong leaves from bead-like.

Description

Dendrobium falconeri is a pendent epiphytic orchid native to the Himalayas, ranging from Nepal and northeast India through Bhutan to Myanmar, Thailand, and southwest China. It grows on mossy tree trunks and branches in humid montane forests at 800–2,000 m elevation.

The plant has slender, branching, wiry stems up to 50 cm long, bearing small, linear-oblong leaves at intervals along bead-like nodes. The flowers are among the most beautiful in the genus: 4–5 cm across, white to pale pink with bright purple tips on the petals and a large, trumpet-shaped lip marked with two conspicuous maroon-purple blotches and a yellow throat. Flowers appear singly or in pairs from leafless nodes, typically from March to May.

Dendrobium falconeri is prized in orchid cultivation for its striking colour pattern. In the wild, it is increasingly rare due to overcollection and deforestation. Listed under CITES Appendix II.

Author: Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan, CITES Checklist, OrchidSpecies.com

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium formosum 

by GP Jürgens

Roxb. ex Lindl.

Nepal 2001 507 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Arkhet 720m, May
Nepal 2001 508 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Arkhet 720m, May

Description

Dendrobium formosum is an epiphytic orchid of the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burmese region, native to India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines; its roughly 88 georeferenced GBIF records also include cultivated material in Europe, the United States and Brazil, reflecting its horticultural popularity. In Nepal it occurs at low to mid elevations, as illustrated by the collection near Arkhet in Gorkha district at about 720 m in May, where it grows on trunks and branches in warm, humid subtropical broad-leaved forest, favouring shaded, mossy bark with high atmospheric humidity.

The species forms erect, cane-like pseudobulbous stems whose leaf sheaths, like the young growth, are clothed in conspicuous blackish-brown hairs, a feature of section Formosae. The leaves are distichous, oblong-lanceolate and leathery. Flowers are borne in short few-flowered racemes near the stem apex and are large and showy, with broad, pure white spreading sepals and petals and a trumpet-shaped labellum marked by a bright yellow or orange throat blotch. The fruit is a ribbed dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Within the vast genus Dendrobium, D. formosum anchors section Formosae, a group of black-haired species prized for their substantial white blooms. As a forest epiphyte dependent on intact canopies and mycorrhizal germination, it is vulnerable to deforestation and over-collection for the ornamental trade, and like all Orchidaceae is listed on CITES Appendix II regulating international commerce in wild-sourced plants.

Author: Roxb. ex Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 25, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, The Genus Dendrobium (Lavarack, Harris & Stocker)

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium fuscescens

by GP Jürgens

Griff.

Bhutan2015 449
  Bhutan Jakar 2500m, October
Bhutan2015 450
  Bhutan Jakar 2500m, October
Bhutan2015 451
  Bhutan Jakar 2500m, October
Bhutan2012 1129
Bhutan Koma-Chu-Valley 950m, October
Bhutan2012 1131
Bhutan Koma-Chu-Valley 950m, October
Bhutan2012 1358
Bhutan Sandrup 1500m, October

Description

Dendrobium fuscescens Griff. is an epiphytic orchid of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Burmese region, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan across some 69 occurrences. It grows on the trunks and branches of trees in humid broad-leaved and mixed forests, ranging over a broad altitudinal span as shown by the Bhutanese records at Jakar around 2500 m, in the Koma-Chu valley near 950 m, and at Sandrup about 1500 m, all in October. This spread from warm temperate valleys to cooler montane forest reflects a tolerance of moist, shaded, mossy bark substrates with good air movement.

The plant produces clustered, slender, elongate cane-like pseudobulbous stems that are somewhat flattened and grooved, becoming yellowish with age. The thin-textured, lanceolate to oblong leaves are distichously arranged along the stems and are usually deciduous in the dry season, leaving the canes bare. Short lateral racemes of a few small flowers arise from nodes on the older leafless stems; the flowers are pale, often tinged greenish or brownish-yellow (the epithet fuscescens alluding to the darkening tint), with spreading lanceolate sepals and petals and a labellum bearing a hairy or papillose disc and recurved lateral lobes, the lateral sepals forming a short mentum at the column foot.

Dendrobium is one of the largest orchid genera, and D. fuscescens belongs among the slender deciduous-caned Himalayan species. It is poorly documented, with few georeferenced records, and like most epiphytic orchids it is sensitive to deforestation and collection. No formal assessment singles it out as threatened, but its dependence on intact forest canopy makes habitat protection important, and all Dendrobium are listed on CITES Appendix II.

Author: Griff. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, World Checklist of Dendrobium, Seidenfaden monograph of Orchids of Indochina

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium gibsonii

by GP Jürgens

Paxton

Bhutan2012 755
Bhutan Galephu 1000m, October
Bhutan2012 756
Bhutan Galephu 1000m, October
Bhutan2012 754
Bhutan Galephu 1000m, October
Bhutan2012 455
Bhutan Wangdi 2500m, September
Bhutan2012 1007
Bhutan Trithangebe 900m, October

Description

Dendrobium gibsonii is an epiphytic orchid widespread across the Sino-Himalayan and Indo-Chinese region, recorded from China, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, Laos and Malaysia, with 87 GBIF occurrences mapping a broad subtropical to lower-montane distribution. It is an epiphyte of warm, seasonally moist evergreen and semi-deciduous forest, favouring well-lit branches where it endures a pronounced dry season. In Bhutan it was photographed across a notable altitudinal spread, from Galephu and Trithangebe at around 900-1000 m in October to Wangdi at 2500 m in September, illustrating its tolerance of both the hot southern foothills and cooler inner valleys.

The plant produces long, pendulous to arching, slender canes that are somewhat swollen and channelled, bearing distichous, oblong-lanceolate, deciduous leaves. The inflorescences arise laterally on the older leafless canes as short, pendent racemes of several golden-yellow flowers. The sepals and petals are spreading and orange-yellow, while the broad, rounded lip is conspicuously fringed at the margin and marked with a pair of dark maroon or purple-brown blotches in the throat, a diagnostic feature. The fruit is a pendulous ribbed capsule.

The species belongs to Dendrobium section Dendrobium (the so-called nobile alliance), characterised by leafy canes that flower from the nodes after leaf fall. Its showy fringed, blotched lip makes it horticulturally desirable, and wild collection for the ornamental trade adds to pressure from habitat loss across the foothill forests. Although the wide range buffers it against immediate extinction risk, like many Asian Dendrobium it is listed under CITES Appendix II to regulate international trade.

Author: Paxton · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Dendrobium and its Allies (Lavarack, Harris & Stocker)

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium heterocarpum

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Lindl.

Nepal1992 94 P130 ergebnis
Nepal Amjilassa 2300m March 
Nepal1992 162 P239 2 ergebnis
Nepal Amjilassa 2300m March 
Nepal1992 163 P244 ergebnis
Nepal Amjilassa 2300m March 

Description

Dendrobium heterocarpum is a widespread epiphytic orchid of the tropical and subtropical forests of southern and southeastern Asia. GBIF data document its broad native range across the Philippines, Thailand, India, Nepal, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, with additional records from cultivation in the United States, Britain, Belgium and Germany, totalling around 261 occurrences. It grows as an epiphyte on the trunks and larger branches of trees in seasonally dry, well-lit montane and submontane forest, often in regions with a marked dry season that triggers flowering. The photographed plant from Amjilassa in eastern Nepal at 2300 m, flowering in March, illustrates its occurrence in the mid-elevation hill forests of the central Himalaya, where spring blooming follows the cool dry winter.

It is a sympodial epiphyte with clustered, erect to pendent, cane-like pseudobulbs that are somewhat fusiform and longitudinally furrowed when old, bearing several lanceolate, deciduous leaves along their length. The flowers, borne in small lateral clusters from nodes of leafless canes, are fragrant, with cream to pale yellow, often reflexed sepals and petals; the labellum is broad and recurved, golden-yellow with reddish-brown longitudinal veining and a pubescent disc. The fruit is a ribbed, ellipsoid capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Dendrobium is among the largest orchid genera, and D. heterocarpum belongs to section Dendrobium, characterised by deciduous-leaved, nodally flowering canes. Long valued in horticulture for its sweetly scented, durable flowers, the species is collected from the wild across parts of its range, and like most epiphytic orchids it is listed under CITES Appendix II to regulate international trade. Its pollination depends on deceptive attraction of bees to the showy, nectarless labellum.

Author: Wall. ex Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China (Orchidaceae), The Genus Dendrobium (Lavarack, Harris & Stocker)