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.

Orobanchaceae

Euphrasia simplex

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Sikkim2003 179 G245
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m 08.2003
Sikkim2003 504 P704
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m, August

Description

Euphrasia simplex is an alpine eyebright of the Himalaya, recorded from India and Nepal, and known from only a handful of georeferenced occurrences (five in GBIF), reflecting both its small stature, which makes it easily overlooked, and its restricted high-altitude range. It is a plant of short alpine turf, open grassy slopes and moist meadows above treeline. The illustrated material from Dzongri in Sikkim, gathered at about 4100 m in August, is characteristic of its occurrence high in the eastern Himalayan alpine zone, where it flowers in the late-summer growing season among low alpine vegetation.

The plant is a small, slender annual, as the epithet simplex suggests often little-branched or unbranched, with an erect, leafy stem. The leaves are small, opposite, sessile and ovate with a few coarse, often bristle-tipped teeth. The flowers are borne in the axils of the upper leaves, forming a leafy terminal spike; each has a tubular, four-lobed calyx and a two-lipped (bilabiate) corolla, the upper lip hooded and the lower lip three-lobed and spreading, the whole typically white to pale lilac with darker veining and a yellow throat-blotch. The fruit is a small, flattened, two-valved capsule containing several seeds.

Like other members of its genus, E. simplex is a hemiparasite, photosynthetic but attaching by haustoria to the roots of neighbouring grasses and herbs to draw water and nutrients; the genus has been transferred from the traditional Scrophulariaceae to the Orobanchaceae in light of this parasitic habit and molecular evidence. Euphrasia is notoriously difficult taxonomically owing to plasticity and hybridisation, and the high-altitude Himalayan species are imperfectly known. Its rarity in collections makes the status of E. simplex uncertain, and further field survey would clarify its true distribution and abundance.

Author: D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Yeo: monographic studies of the genus Euphrasia

Pentaphylacaceae

Eurya acuminata

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 1009
Bhutan Trithangebe, 1000m October
Bh2008 512 G786
Bhutan Chongsakha, 1850m April

Description

Eurya acuminata is an evergreen shrub or small tree widely distributed through tropical and subtropical Asia, ranging from the Himalaya across southern China, Taiwan and Japan to Indochina, the Malesian archipelago and New Guinea; its roughly 2614 GBIF occurrences span India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In Bhutan it occupies a broad altitudinal range, as recorded at Trithangebe around 1000 m in October and at Chongsakha near 1850 m in April. It grows in evergreen broad-leaved forest, along forest margins and in secondary woodland, often as an understorey or successional component of warm, moist forests.

The plant is a much-branched evergreen with leathery, alternate, distichous leaves that are lanceolate to oblong with the long-acuminate apex recorded in the epithet and a finely serrate margin; the young twigs are often two-edged. The species is dioecious, bearing small, axillary, fragrant flowers that are creamy to greenish-white with five sepals, five petals, and in male plants numerous stamens, while female flowers carry a superior ovary with a short divided style. The fruit is a small, globose, fleshy black berry containing several minute seeds, dispersed by birds.

Eurya, formerly placed in Theaceae and now referred to Pentaphylacaceae, is a large genus of Old World shrubs distinguished by its dioecy, bracteolate flowers and berry fruits; E. acuminata is among the most widespread and variable species, with several recognised varieties. As an abundant, generalist forest component spanning a vast area, it is of least concern, and its dense foliage and wood find local use as fuel, hedging and minor timber.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 12, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora Malesiana (Theaceae/Pentaphylacaceae)

Brassicaceae

Eutrema heterophyllum

by G & P Jürgens

(W.W.Sm.) H.Hara

BhutanPG2011 656 ergebnis
Bhutan Thitha-Tso 4360m,July

Description

Eutrema heterophyllum is an alpine crucifer of the high mountains of central Asia and the Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan, Japan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, with GBIF logging 226 occurrences. It grows on open alpine slopes, damp gravelly flats, screes and the moist margins of glacial lakes and snowmelt rills. The photographed plant comes from Thitha Tso in Bhutan at about 4360 m, flowering in July, a cold, high-elevation lakeside habitat typical of the species' upper-alpine preference.

It is a small, glabrous perennial or biennial herb arising from a slender rootstock, with one or more ascending stems. As the epithet heterophyllum signals, the foliage is variable: basal leaves are often petiolate and entire to lobed, while the cauline leaves differ in shape and become smaller upward. The flowers are borne in a terminal raceme, small, with four white petals in the cruciferous cross arrangement and six tetradynamous stamens. The fruit is a slender, somewhat flattened silique containing the seeds in a single row.

The taxon is accepted, having been transferred to Eutrema by H. Hara from W.W. Smith's original placement. Eutrema, the genus of wasabi, has been substantially recircumscribed by molecular work that drew in numerous small alpine Sino-Himalayan species formerly scattered among other crucifer genera. As a cold-adapted, broadly distributed high-altitude herb it exemplifies the central-Asian alpine element of the Himalayan flora and is unlikely to be threatened, though dependent on intact periglacial habitats.

Author: (W.W.Sm.) H.Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Al-Shehbaz's systematic studies of Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae

Eutrema scapiflorum

by GP Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) Al-Shehbaz, G.Q.Hao & J.Quan Liu

Bh09 144 P255
Bhutan Al-Shehbaz, 4100m June

Description

Eutrema scapiflorum (Hook.f. & Thomson) Al-Shehbaz, G.Q.Hao & J.Quan Liu is a dwarf alpine crucifer of the high Sino-Himalaya, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. The species is illustrated from Bhutan at approximately 4100 m, flowering in June, consistent with its occurrence in the upper alpine belt. It inhabits open stony slopes, moraines, fellfield, gravelly flushes and the margins of snow-fed rills, generally between 3800 and 5000 m, where it endures intense insolation, freezing nights and a compressed growing season. With around 630 GBIF records it is a genuinely high-elevation specialist, scarce and patchily distributed across its range.

The plant is a small, glabrous, cushion- to rosette-forming perennial arising from a stout caudex and taproot. The basal leaves are crowded, spathulate to oblong-obovate, entire or obscurely toothed, and rather fleshy. As the epithet scapiflorum implies, the white flowers are borne on short, nearly leafless scapes scarcely exceeding the foliage, each flower with four spreading petals and the typical cruciferous tetradynamous androecium. The fruit is a short, oblong to linear silique or silicle, somewhat flattened, dehiscing to release a few seeds in two rows.

The taxon was long placed in the segregate genus Pegaeophyton (as P. scapiflorum), reflected in its original webpage URL, but molecular phylogenetic analyses have shown Pegaeophyton to be nested within Eutrema, prompting the present transfer. It belongs to the tribe Eutremeae, a predominantly Himalayan and Central Asian lineage of cold-adapted mustards. Its restricted high-alpine niche renders it sensitive to upslope vegetation shifts and the retreat of late-lying snow, though no formal conservation assessment has yet been made.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) Al-Shehbaz, G.Q.Hao & J.Quan Liu · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Al-Shehbaz revisions of Himalayan Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae

Eutrema verticillatum

by G & P Jürgens

(Jeffrey & W.W.Sm.) Al-Shehbaz & Warwick

Nepal 99 525 ergebnis
Nepal Churt-Khola 3500m, July

Description

Eutrema verticillatum is a high-alpine crucifer of the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from Nepal and adjacent SW China, with 96 GBIF occurrences indicating a relatively narrow, high-elevation distribution. It occupies open alpine turf, gravelly slopes, moist screes, streamsides and snow-flush ground in the upper alpine zone. The collection from the Churt Khola in Nepal at about 3,500 m in July is consistent with its summer flowering in cold, moist high-mountain habitats, where it grows as a low herb among rock and short alpine vegetation.

It is a glabrous perennial herb arising from a slender rootstock, with one to several erect or ascending stems. The basal and lower cauline leaves are petiolate and entire to slightly toothed, the upper leaves becoming sessile; the specific epithet alludes to a crowded, apparently whorled arrangement of leaves or flowers along the stem. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme of small white to pale flowers with the four petals and tetradynamous stamens typical of the family. The fruit is a silique or short silicula, the valves with a distinct midvein, dehiscing to release the seeds, as is characteristic of Eutrema.

The input family is recorded as "Uncategorized," but the species belongs to Brassicaceae (tribe Eutremeae); the binomial follows the recircumscription of Eutrema by Al-Shehbaz and Warwick, who transferred this taxon (basionym in Smelowskia/Braya) into the genus, and GBIF treats it as accepted. As a narrowly distributed Himalayan high-alpine endemic with few records, it warrants monitoring, though no formal conservation assessment is established.

Author: (Jeffrey & W.W.Sm.) Al-Shehbaz & Warwick · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Al-Shehbaz & Warwick: Eutrema (Brassicaceae) revision (2005)

Gentianaceae

Exacum teres

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 95 255 P438 ergebnis
Nepal Valley of Buri Gandaki, Kholabensi 2100m October

Description

Exacum teres is a slender annual gentian of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Burmese region, documented by GBIF (about 125 occurrences) from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and Bhutan. It grows in moist, open habitats of the warm-temperate and subtropical belt, including grassy banks, terraced field margins, forest clearings and damp roadside slopes, typically below the main forest line. The illustrated material was gathered in the valley of the Buri Gandaki at Kholabensi in Nepal at about 2100 m in October, a montane locality near the upper edge of its altitudinal range, which extends from the lowland hills up into the cooler middle hills.

The plant is an erect, glabrous herb with a quadrangular, often narrowly winged stem (the epithet teres referring to its terete-cylindric aspect) that branches above. The leaves are opposite, sessile to subsessile, ovate to lanceolate, entire, and conspicuously three- to five-nerved from the base. The flowers are borne in a lax terminal and axillary cyme; each has a four-lobed calyx with keeled, narrowly winged segments, and a rotate to broadly campanulate corolla that is blue to violet with a deeper throat. The four stamens bear large yellow anthers that open by terminal pores, a diagnostic feature of Exacum. The bilocular ovary matures into a small, septicidal capsule containing numerous minute, reticulate seeds.

Exacum is a palaeotropical genus centred on Sri Lanka, southern India and Madagascar, with E. teres representing the small Himalayan element of the lineage. As a widespread annual of disturbed and semi-natural grassland it is not considered threatened. Its poricidal anthers and blue corollas indicate buzz-pollination by bees, and several relatives are of horticultural interest as the cultivated Persian violets.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Klackenberg's monograph of Exacum (Gentianaceae)

Hamamelidaceae

Exbucklandia populnea

by GP Jürgens

(R.Br. ex Griff.) R.W.Br.

Bh09 232 P388
Bhutan Wangdi, 1700m June

Description

Exbucklandia populnea is an evergreen tree of the family Hamamelidaceae, distributed through the eastern Himalaya and into Southeast Asia. GBIF records document its presence in China, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, defining a broad Sino-Himalayan to Indo-Malayan range. It is a tree of moist, montane evergreen broad-leaved forest, often locally dominant in mid-elevation forest and on ridge crests, typically between about 1,000 and 2,500 m. The individual illustrated near Wangdue Phodrang (Wangdi) in Bhutan at around 1,700 m in June is characteristic of this humid mid-montane forest belt.

The species is a tall tree reaching 20–30 m with a straight bole and smooth grey bark. The leaves are alternate, long-petiolate, with broadly ovate, palmately three- to five-veined, often shallowly lobed blades reminiscent of a poplar, hence the epithet populnea; they are leathery and glabrous, with the petiole bearing conspicuous, large, paired stipules that sheath the bud and leave an annular scar on falling. The flowers are small, apetalous and aggregated into dense, rounded, capitate heads, the heads themselves grouped on a common axis; each head bears stamens and bicarpellate ovaries. The fruit is a woody capsule, several aggregated into a globose head, dehiscing to release small winged seeds.

The genus Exbucklandia is an isolated member of the relictual, largely Asian family Hamamelidaceae, a group of considerable phylogenetic interest in understanding early angiosperm woody lineages. The conspicuous stipules and capitate, apetalous inflorescences are diagnostic. The timber is locally used in construction and the species is an important canopy component of eastern Himalayan evergreen forest. Though widely distributed and not globally threatened, its montane forest habitat is locally subject to logging and conversion.

Author: (R.Br. ex Griff.) R.W.Br. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 9, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Endress: Hamamelidaceae and adjacent families

Fabaceae

Flemingia paniculata

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Benth.

Bhutan2015 109
Bhutan Galephu 500m, October

Description

Flemingia paniculata Wall. ex Benth. is a subshrubby legume of the warm submontane belt of tropical and subtropical Asia, recorded from Thailand, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Malaysia, China, Bhutan, Laos and the Philippines, with about 106 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows in open forest, scrub, grassy slopes, forest margins and disturbed ground at low to moderate elevations, broadly from near sea level to around 1500 m. The photographed plant was found at Galephu in southern Bhutan at about 500 m in October, in the hot, humid foothill zone where the species flourishes in seasonally dry secondary vegetation.

The plant is an erect or ascending perennial herb or small shrub with ribbed, often pubescent stems. The leaves are characteristically unifoliolate (reduced to a single leaflet, unlike the trifoliolate condition of many congeners), the blade ovate to elliptic, prominently veined and frequently glandular, subtended by persistent stipules. The flowers are borne in dense terminal and axillary panicles; the papilionaceous corolla is typically purplish to pinkish, enclosed by a calyx whose lobes are unequal. The fruit is a small, inflated, two-seeded legume that is somewhat hairy and gland-dotted, dehiscing to release the seeds.

Flemingia belongs to the tribe Phaseoleae and is closely allied to Cajanus, distinguished by its glandular indumentum and pod structure; the genus has medicinal and dye uses across its range, several species yielding the orange resin known as waras. Plants help colonise disturbed and degraded slopes and, as nitrogen-fixing legumes, contribute to soil enrichment. The species is widespread and not of conservation concern, though its foothill habitats face pressure from agricultural expansion.

Author: Wall. ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Thailand, Lewis et al. Legumes of the World

Fabaceae

Flemingia procumbens 

by G & P Jürgens

Roxb.

Garw 2005 225 ergebnis ergebnis scaled
Garw 2005 226 ergebnis ergebnis scaled
India Garhwal Simkarok 2600m, September

Description

Flemingia procumbens is a prostrate, sub-Himalayan legume distributed from the western Himalaya eastward through Nepal into southern China, with scattered records reaching Laos and New Guinea. GBIF documents some 61 occurrences across India, China, Nepal, Laos and Papua New Guinea, reflecting a discontinuous range spanning warm-temperate montane slopes and submontane grasslands. The species favours open, sunny banks, terraced field margins, dry hill grasslands and stony, well-drained soils, typically flowering in late summer and early autumn. The material illustrated here was gathered in India at Garhwal, Simkarok, at about 2600 m in September, an elevation characteristic of its mid-altitude preference along the outer Himalayan ranges.

The plant is a low perennial herb or subshrub with trailing to decumbent, often somewhat woody stems arising from a stout rootstock, the younger branches finely pubescent. The leaves are pinnately trifoliolate with prominent stipules, the leaflets elliptic to obovate, entire-margined and glandular-punctate beneath, borne on short petiolules. Small papilionaceous flowers, pink to purplish, are aggregated in dense axillary or terminal racemes subtended by bracts; the calyx is deeply lobed and the standard petal exceeds the wings and keel. The fruit is a small, turgid, two-seeded pod which dehisces explosively at maturity, releasing minute, smooth seeds.

Flemingia is a genus of the tribe Phaseoleae closely allied to Moghania and frequently subsumed within or segregated from it by various authors; the gland-dotted foliage and inflated pods are diagnostic of the group. Several species yield the orange resinous dye and dusting powder known as waras, harvested from glandular hairs of the inflorescences. F. procumbens has no recognised conservation concern given its broad if sparse distribution, though montane grassland habitats face pressure from grazing and land conversion.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of British India, The Legumes of the Indian Subcontinent, A Revision of the Genus Flemingia (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae)

Fabaceae

Flemingia strobilifera 

by G & P Jürgens

(L.) W.T.Aiton

Garw 2005 246 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Sitel 1850m, September

Description

Flemingia strobilifera is a widespread shrub of tropical and subtropical Asia, now pantropical through introduction, recorded from India, China, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and numerous tropical American localities; its roughly 3874 georeferenced records make it by far the most abundantly documented species in this group. It thrives in open forest, scrub, grassland, roadsides and disturbed ground from the lowlands to about 1900 m. The plant photographed at Sitel in the Garhwal Himalaya at 1850 m, flowering in September, marks the upper subtropical edge of its Himalayan range.

It is an erect, branching shrub to about 1-2 m with finely pubescent, angled stems. The leaves are simple (not trifoliolate as in most relatives), ovate to elliptic, acuminate, with three prominent basal veins and entire margins. The species is at once recognised by its inflorescence: the small purplish papilionaceous flowers are enclosed within conspicuous, accrescent, folded and reniform bracts that overlap to form a cone- or strobilus-like cluster, hence the epithet strobilifera. The fruit is a small, inflated, two-seeded pod hidden among the persistent bracts.

Flemingia, of tribe Phaseoleae, is distinguished from Cajanus and allies by its glandular pods and, in this species, the showy enclosing bracts. F. strobilifera is highly variable and several infraspecific forms have been recognised. It is widely used in folk medicine and as a green manure and cover crop, and its nitrogen-fixing root nodules aid soil improvement on poor ground. A vigorous coloniser, it is locally regarded as weedy and is of no conservation concern.

Author: (L.) W.T.Aiton · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Mukerjee revision of Flemingia