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.

Liliaceae

Lilium oxypetalum

by G & P Jürgens

Baker

Garh 07 146 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3500m, June

Description

Lilium oxypetalum is a small subalpine lily restricted to the western and central Himalaya, with native occurrences in northern India and Nepal (the remaining GBIF country codes reflect cultivated or naturalised records outside the native range). It grows in open coniferous and birch-rhododendron forest, forest margins and grassy slopes, typically between 3,000 and 4,000 m. The photographed plant was found at Kinkhola in Garhwal at about 3,500 m in June, flowering as the snow retreats and the subalpine meadows green up early in the growing season.

The plant arises from a small, ovoid bulb of loose, white scales and produces a slender, erect, unbranched stem 15-40 cm tall. The leaves are scattered along the stem, lanceolate to elliptic, sessile and few in number. The flower is usually solitary and nodding, broadly campanulate rather than reflexed, with six tepals that are pale yellow to greenish-yellow, sometimes flushed purplish, and taper to acute, recurving tips. The six stamens are shorter than the tepals and bear versatile anthers; the superior ovary develops into an erect, oblong, three-valved loculicidal capsule with flat, winged seeds.

With its solitary, bell-shaped flower and short stature, L. oxypetalum is morphologically distinctive among Himalayan lilies and has at times been segregated in the genus Nomocharis-allied groups, reflecting the close relationship between Lilium and Nomocharis now confirmed by molecular work. The yellow-flowered var. insigne extends the variation. As a narrowly distributed, attractive bulb, the species faces localised pressure from collection and grazing, and its restricted alpine range warrants monitoring under a warming climate.

Author: Baker · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24 (Liliaceae), Flora of Nepal, Comber: A New Classification of the Genus Lilium

Liliaceae

Lilium sherriffiae

by G & P Jürgens

Stearn

A3EB14BDCA574E78ABE6D96A22255803
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Lilium sherriffiae is a slender bulbous perennial endemic to the eastern Himalaya, restricted to Bhutan and adjacent Nepal and known from only about 13 documented occurrences, making it one of the rarer Himalayan lilies. It grows among subalpine scrub, in open coniferous forest, on grassy slopes and at meadow margins, typically between 3000 and 3900 m. The illustrated material was gathered at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m in June, during the short alpine flowering season that follows snowmelt at these elevations.

The plant arises from a small ovoid bulb of imbricate scales and produces a single erect, wiry stem 30-70 cm tall bearing scattered, narrowly linear-lanceolate leaves. The flower is usually solitary and pendent, the perianth campanulate with six segments that are strongly recurved only at the tips. The colouring is highly distinctive: the segments are dull purplish-maroon outside and conspicuously chequered or tessellated with yellow-green within, recalling a Fritillaria. The six stamens bear versatile anthers and the superior ovary develops into an erect, ribbed loculicidal capsule containing flat, papery, wind-dispersed seeds.

Named for the collector George Sherriff, the species is prized horticulturally yet remains scarce in cultivation owing to its specialised requirements. Its fritillary-like nodding flower is adapted to pollination by bumblebees active in the cool subalpine climate. Given its narrow geographic range, small number of known populations and the pressures of grazing and collection, L. sherriffiae is of genuine conservation concern and merits formal assessment and in-situ protection.

Author: Stearn · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, The Genus Lilium (Jefferson-Brown), RHS Lily species monograph

Liliaceae

Lilium wallichianum

by G & P Jürgens

Schult.f.

Bhutan2012 515
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September
Bhutan2012 516
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September

Description

Lilium wallichianum is a tall, trumpet-flowered lily of the Himalaya, ranging from northern India and Nepal through Bhutan to Myanmar, with naturalised or cultivated occurrences elsewhere; GBIF records (c. 217) reflect both its native distribution and its presence in cultivation. In the wild it grows on grassy and shrubby slopes, in forest clearings, scrub and along the margins of temperate forest, generally between about 1500 and 2700 m. The photographed plant from Wangdi (Wangdue Phodrang) in Bhutan, at 2600 m and flowering in September, is characteristic of its late-summer to autumn flowering in mid-elevation montane vegetation.

The plant arises from a stoloniferous, white, scaly bulb and produces a stout, erect stem up to 1–2 m tall bearing scattered, narrowly linear to linear-lanceolate leaves. The flowers are large, solitary or few, long-tubular to trumpet-shaped and powerfully fragrant; the six perianth segments are white, often flushed greenish or rose-purple externally, recurving at the tips. The flowers are typically held horizontally or somewhat declined, with six stamens bearing versatile anthers and a long, slender style ending in a three-lobed stigma. The fruit is an erect, oblong, loculicidal capsule containing numerous flat, papery, wind-dispersed seeds.

Lilium wallichianum belongs to the trumpet- or Aurelian-lily group (section Leucolirion / Lilium), the Asiatic trumpet lilies prized in horticulture for their fragrance and elegant form; it has contributed to the breeding of garden trumpet hybrids. The epithet commemorates Nathaniel Wallich, the Danish botanist who pioneered the study of Himalayan flora. Although locally not uncommon, wild populations of showy lilies are vulnerable to bulb collection and grazing, warranting habitat protection.

Author: Schult.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, The Genus Lilium (Liberty Hyde Bailey / Comber classification)

Boraginaceae

Lindelofia longiflora 

by G & P Jürgens

Baill.

Nepal 99 350 ergebnis
Nepal Kalomura 3710m, June
Nepal 99 350 ergebnis
Nepal Kalomura 3710m, June

Description

Lindelofia longiflora (Benth.) Baill. is a robust perennial herb of the borage family native to the western and central Himalaya and the adjoining mountains of Central Asia. Its core native range covers Pakistan, northern India and Nepal, with numerous additional records from Europe, North America, Russia and New Zealand reflecting its cultivation as an ornamental and its escape from gardens. It grows in open subalpine and alpine meadows, on grassy slopes, forest margins and stony banks, generally between about 2,500 and 4,000 m. The photographed plant at Kalomura in Nepal, recorded at 3,710 m in June, is typical of its preference for moist, well-drained montane grassland during the early monsoon flush.

The plant develops from a stout, woody rootstock, producing erect, leafy, bristly-hairy stems. The leaves are alternate, the lower long-petiolate and the upper sessile, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, entire and roughly hispid on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a terminal, often branched, scorpioid cyme bearing nodding flowers; the corolla is deep violet-blue to purple, tubular and conspicuously long, exceeding the calyx, with prominent scales (fornices) in the throat. The fruit comprises four nutlets that are flattened and marginally winged with a row of hooked, glochidiate spines aiding epizoochorous dispersal.

Lindelofia belongs to tribe Cynoglosseae, near Cynoglossum and Adelocaryum, and the long-tubed, winged-nutlet morphology distinguishes it within the group. The species is widely grown in alpine and herbaceous-border horticulture, which accounts for its scattered naturalised occurrences across temperate regions. Within its native Himalayan range it remains common and is not considered threatened, while in some introduced areas its self-sowing habit warrants monitoring.

Author: Baill. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Kazmi: Boraginaceae of West Pakistan and Kashmir

Plantaginaceae

Lindenbergia grandiflora

by GP Jürgens

Benth.

Nepal 95 249 P429 ergebnis
Nepal Valley of Buri Gandaki, Kholabensi 2100m October

Description

Lindenbergia grandiflora is a Himalayan herb ranging from Nepal and northern India through Bhutan into south-western China, with naturalised or introduced records noted elsewhere (including Italy and Vietnam among the catalogued occurrences). It is characteristically a plant of rocky places, old walls, dry banks, cliff ledges and other lithic, sun-exposed habitats at low to mid elevations, broadly between about 700 and 2,400 m. The plant photographed in the valley of the Buri Gandaki at Kholabensi, Nepal, at 2,100 m in October, captures its autumn flowering on the steep, well-drained slopes of an inner Himalayan river gorge.

It is an erect, branched, glandular-pubescent perennial or biennial herb with somewhat woody-based stems. The leaves are opposite below, ovate to lanceolate, with crenate-serrate margins and a softly hairy surface. The flowers are borne in the upper leaf axils, forming a leafy terminal raceme; the corolla is comparatively large for the genus, bright yellow, weakly two-lipped with a short tube and spreading lobes, the throat often bearing reddish markings. The calyx is campanulate and five-toothed; stamens four, didynamous. The fruit is a septicidal capsule with numerous small seeds.

Lindenbergia, formerly placed in Scrophulariaceae, is now referred variously to Orobanchaceae or, as here, to Plantaginaceae depending on classification; molecular studies place it among the basal, non-parasitic lineages near the Orobanchaceae, unlike its hemiparasitic relatives. The genus is a small Old World group centred on tropical Asia and Africa. The species is locally frequent on suitable rocky substrates and is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Fischer: Scrophulariaceae (Genera Orobanchaceae & allies)

Plantaginaceae

Lindenbergia muraria

by G & P Jürgens

(Roxburgh ex D. Don) Brühl

Bhutan2015 73
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 1500m, October
Bhutan2012 410
Bhutan Wangdi 2700m, September
Bhutan2012 654
Bhutan Tserang 1200m, September

Description

Lindenbergia muraria is a widespread herb of warm-temperate and subtropical Asia, recorded across India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and into parts of Arabia and Africa; GBIF logs 585 occurrences over this broad range. As its epithet implies, it is a colonist of old walls, rock crevices, stony banks, roadsides and waste ground, generally from the lowlands up to about 2700 m. The illustrated plants come from several Bhutanese stations, Wangdue Phodrang at 1500 m in October, Wangdue at 2700 m in September and Tsirang at 1200 m in September, spanning the autumn flowering of this ruderal species across a wide elevational band.

The plant is an erect to ascending annual or short-lived perennial herb, the stems softly pubescent and often glandular-hairy. Leaves are opposite below and sometimes alternate above, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, with a serrate margin and short petiole. The flowers are solitary or paired in the upper leaf axils, forming a leafy terminal spike-like inflorescence; each has a tubular, five-toothed calyx and a yellow, two-lipped corolla with a short tube, the lower lip three-lobed and often marked. There are four didynamous stamens, and the superior ovary ripens into a small, ovoid, septicidal capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

Lindenbergia, long placed in Scrophulariaceae, is now referred to the broadly circumscribed Plantaginaceae (consistent with the input family) following molecular reclassification, occupying a basal position near the family's scrophularioid lineages. POWO and GBIF accept the name. Its tolerance of walls and disturbed mineral substrates underlies its wide, weedy distribution across monsoon Asia.

Author: (Roxburgh ex D. Don) Brühl · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Revision of Lindenbergia (Plantaginaceae/Scrophulariaceae)

Orchideaceae

Liparis cathcartii

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

Sikkim2004 93 G163
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2700m April
Sikkim2004 117 G201
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2700m April

Description

Liparis cathcartii is an East Himalayan terrestrial orchid known from a restricted range spanning northern India (Sikkim, West Bengal, Darjeeling), Nepal, Bhutan and south-eastern China; its modest tally of about 60 georeferenced occurrences (IN, CN, NP, BT) marks it as a regional endemic of the moist temperate forest belt. It grows in shaded, humus-rich leaf litter and on mossy banks within broad-leaved and mixed forest, generally between about 2000 and 3000 m. The plant photographed at Bersay on the Sikkim-West Bengal border at 2700 m in April, flowering early in the season, is typical of its cool, humid forest-floor habitat.

It is a small terrestrial herb arising from clustered, fleshy pseudobulbs partly sheathed by membranous scales. From each pseudobulb arise a few thin-textured, plicate, ovate to elliptic leaves with sheathing bases. The slender erect scape bears a lax raceme of several small flowers, greenish to purplish-brown in colour, with narrow spreading sepals and filiform petals; the lip (labellum) is the most distinctive organ, broad, recurved and often emarginate, contrasting with the slender column characteristic of the genus. The fruit is a small ellipsoid, ribbed capsule releasing abundant dust-like seeds dispersed by wind.

Liparis is a large, near-cosmopolitan genus of subtribe Malaxidinae, with Himalayan species notably diverse; L. cathcartii is allied to other temperate plicate-leaved members of the genus. Like most orchids it depends on mycorrhizal fungi for germination and is protected internationally under CITES Appendix II. Its narrow distribution and reliance on undisturbed forest make it sensitive to habitat loss, though it persists locally where forest cover remains intact.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Orchids of Sikkim Himalaya (King & Pantling), Genera Orchidacearum (Pridgeon et al.)

Fagaceae

Lithocarpus fenestratus

by G & P Jürgens

(Roxb.) Rehder

Bhutan2015 82
Bhutan Wangdi Galegphug 800m, October
Bhutan2015 83
Bhutan Wangdi Galegphug 800m, October

Description

Lithocarpus fenestratus is an evergreen stone-oak widely distributed across the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma, ranging from Nepal, Bhutan and north-eastern India through Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia into southern China and Taiwan. GBIF aggregates over 1080 occurrences, concentrated in the montane forests of South-East Asia and the Sino-Himalayan borderlands. It is a canopy or sub-canopy tree of subtropical and warm-temperate evergreen broad-leaved forest, often in mixed laurel-oak associations on hill slopes, generally from the lowlands up to around 2000 m. The tree photographed in Bhutan near Wangdue/Gelephu (800 m, October) reflects its presence in the warm foothill forests of the southern Bhutanese duars.

The species is a medium to large tree with greyish, fissured bark and stout twigs. The leaves are simple, alternate, coriaceous, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, entire and pinnately veined, glabrous and lustrous above and often glaucous or thinly tomentose beneath. The flowers are unisexual, borne in erect catkin-like spikes, the male inflorescences elongate and the female flowers seated singly or in clusters at the base of mixed spikes. The diagnostic fruit is the acorn: a hard nut wholly or largely enclosed by a woody cupule covered in concentric, often lamellate rings, maturing over more than one season and dispersed by gravity and rodents.

Lithocarpus is a large Asian genus distinguished from Quercus by its erect (rather than pendulous) male catkins and its frequently enclosing, ringed cupules. L. fenestratus, transferred to the genus by Rehder, has a broad range and considerable foliar variation, and several infraspecific taxa have been recognised regionally. As a widespread, often dominant forest tree it is not globally threatened, though locally exploited for timber and important as mast for forest wildlife.

Author: (Roxb.) Rehder · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Thailand, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, monograph of Asian Lithocarpus (Camus)

Fagaceae

Lithocarpus pachyphyllus

by G & P Jürgens

Rehder

Sikkim 2006 222 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 221 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ramman 2250m, May

Description

Lithocarpus pachyphyllus is a stone oak widely distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, with records from China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand and Vietnam and a substantial occurrence base of around 229 georeferenced collections. It is a canopy and subcanopy tree of montane evergreen broadleaved forest, forming a conspicuous element of the laurophyllous oak-laurel belt on humid, well-drained slopes. The tree photographed at Ramman in West Bengal (India) at about 2250 m in May represents its characteristic position in the mid-montane cloud-forest zone, where Lithocarpus and Quercus species dominate the wet temperate forests of the southern Himalayan front.

It is an evergreen tree with a dense, rounded crown and grey, finely fissured bark. The leaves are coriaceous and pachyphyllous (thick-textured, as the epithet indicates), elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, entire-margined, glabrous and glossy above and dull beneath, with a prominent midrib and arcuate lateral veins. As in all Lithocarpus, the staminate flowers are borne in erect, rigid catkins rather than the pendulous catkins of true oaks, while the pistillate flowers are clustered at the base of the inflorescence axis. The fruit is a thick-walled nut seated in a woody cupule whose scales are typically arranged in concentric rings; the acorns are often densely aggregated along the rachis.

Lithocarpus is distinguished from Quercus chiefly by its erect staminate catkins and frequently aggregated, sessile fruits, features expressed clearly in this species. Its heavy, animal-dispersed acorns provide an important mast resource for montane wildlife, while the species contributes substantially to the structure and carbon stock of Himalayan oak forest. Although not currently of conservation concern across its broad range, local populations are reduced by timber extraction and the conversion of mid-elevation forest, making it a key indicator of intact wet temperate woodland.

Author: Rehder · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Camus Les Chênes: Monographie du genre Lithocarpus

Liliaceae

Lloydia longiscapa

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.

Nepal 99 296 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4100m, June
Garh 07 380 ergebnis
Garh 07 396 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3900m, June

Description

Lloydia longiscapa Hook. is a delicate bulbous geophyte of the high Himalaya. According to GBIF (about 75 occurrences) it ranges across Nepal, northern India, southern China (Tibetan plateau margins) and Bhutan, growing in alpine meadows, on grassy and rocky slopes and among open turf near the upper limit of vegetation. It is a true high-alpine plant, recorded chiefly between 3,500 and 4,500 m. The populations documented at Kalmura in West Nepal (4,100 m) and Khiar Kutti in Garhwal (3,900 m), both flowering in June, illustrate its phenology as a snow-melt species that emerges and blooms shortly after the retreat of the winter snowpack.

The plant develops from a small ovoid bulb enclosed in membranous tunics, producing one or few slender stems. The leaves are narrowly linear, almost grass-like, with basal leaves longer than the few reduced cauline ones. The flowers are solitary or few, erect, broadly campanulate, with six free, white to pale yellowish tepals usually marked with fine purplish veins and a small nectary at the base; the long, slender scape gives the species its epithet "longiscapa". Stamens are six, the ovary superior and three-locular, maturing into a loculicidal capsule containing numerous flat seeds.

GBIF flags this name as a synonym; the genus Lloydia is now widely subsumed within Gamochaeta-unrelated Gagea (Gagea sensu lato), so the taxon is best treated under the accepted concept indicated by current authorities while retaining Lloydia longiscapa as the working name. As a snow-bed and alpine-turf specialist it exemplifies the bulbous "spring ephemeral" strategy adapted to short Himalayan growing seasons, and its restricted high-elevation habitat warrants attention under scenarios of alpine climate change.

Author: Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Stearn: Notes on the genus Lloydia