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

Lloydia yunnanensis

by G & P Jürgens

Franch.

BhutanPG2011 123
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Lloydia yunnanensis is a small alpine bulbous herb ranging across south-central China (notably Yunnan and Xizang), the Indian Himalaya, Bhutan and Nepal, with around one hundred and thirty GBIF records testifying to a fairly continuous high-mountain distribution. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadows, on grassy and rocky slopes, in open scrub and among rocks, typically between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m, flowering in June, is characteristic of its early-summer flowering as the snow recedes from the upper pastures it favours.

The species arises from a small ovoid bulb with a fibrous tunic and produces a slender, erect stem. The leaves are few, narrowly linear and grass-like, the lower ones basal and the upper cauline and reduced. The flowers are solitary or few, erect, with six free, spreading tepals that are white to pale yellow, often veined or tinged with purple toward the base and bearing a nectary at the inner base; the six stamens have slender filaments and the superior ovary bears a single style. The fruit is a small loculicidal capsule containing numerous flat seeds.

Lloydia yunnanensis is here treated under the accepted name Lloydia yunnanensis. Although the genus Lloydia has frequently been merged into Gagea in modern molecular treatments, the segregate name is retained here following the input. Its dwarf stature, bulb-protected perennating organ and rapid post-snowmelt flowering are classic adaptations to the brief alpine growing season. The species is widespread and not regarded as threatened, though high-altitude grassland degradation could affect local populations.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Peruzzi & Zarrei revision of Gagea/Lloydia (Liliaceae monograph)

Campanulaceae

Lobelia nicotianifolia

by G & P Jürgens

Roth

Bhutan2015 35
Bhutan Dochu-La 2700m, October
Bhutan2015 36
Bhutan Dochu-La 2700m, October
Bhutan2014 286
Bhutan Trithangebe at a farm, 800m May
Bhutan2012 338
Bhutan Dochu-La 3000m, September

Description

Lobelia nicotianifolia is a robust, wide-ranging lobelia of the Indian subcontinent and tropical Asia, documented from India, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Bhutan, Laos, Malaysia and Taiwan, with around 763 occurrences making it one of the better-collected species in this set; New World records reflect cultivation or error. It occupies a wide altitudinal span, from warm foothill farmland to cool montane forest margins, favouring open, disturbed, moist ground along roadsides, clearings and field edges. The Bhutanese collections illustrate this breadth, ranging from a farm at Trithangebe at about 800 m in May to the Dochu-La between roughly 2700 and 3000 m flowering in September and October.

It is a tall, stout biennial or short-lived perennial herb, sometimes exceeding two metres, with an erect, little-branched stem exuding acrid milky latex when cut. The leaves are large, alternate, lanceolate to elliptic, finely toothed and tobacco-like in size and texture, hence the epithet nicotianifolia, the lower ones forming a substantial basal array. The flowers are borne in a long, dense terminal raceme; each is zygomorphic with a tubular, two-lipped corolla, typically pale greenish-white to bluish, split nearly to the base, the upper lip of two narrow lobes and the lower of three, the stamens connate into a staminal tube around the style. The fruit is a many-seeded capsule dehiscing at the apex.

Within Campanulaceae, Lobelia is a large genus distinguished by strongly bilabiate flowers and syngenesious anthers, and tall species such as this are notable for their imposing single-stemmed inflorescences and their pyridine alkaloids related to lobeline, giving them a long history of medicinal and folk use. The acrid latex deters herbivores, and the protandrous flowers favour outcrossing by insect visitors. Common and adaptable across a vast range, the species is of no conservation concern and behaves as a colonist of disturbed, anthropogenic habitats.

Author: Roth · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Lammers's monographic studies of Lobelia (Campanulaceae)

Campanulaceae

Lobelia pyramidalis

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Garw 2005 418 ergebnis
India Garhwal Didina 2470m, September

Description

Lobelia pyramidalis is a widespread Asian lobelia ranging through the Himalaya and into mainland Southeast Asia and southern China, with GBIF records from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Thailand and Japan (a few extralimital records from the United States represent cultivation or introductions). Its nearly 419 documented occurrences confirm a broad and well-collected distribution. The species grows on grassy banks, open hillsides, forest margins, roadside cuttings and moist disturbed ground from the lowlands up to roughly 2,800 m. The photographed plant from Didina in Garhwal, India, at 2,470 m flowering in September illustrates its preference for the temperate Himalayan zone, where it flowers late in or after the monsoon.

The plant is an erect biennial or short-lived perennial herb with a tall, simple, pyramidal flowering stem reaching up to a metre or more. The leaves are alternate, sessile and crowded below, lanceolate to oblanceolate with finely toothed margins, the lower ones forming a basal rosette. The inflorescence is a long, dense, spike-like terminal raceme of many small zygomorphic flowers, each subtended by a leafy bract; the corolla is bilabiate and pale blue to lilac or whitish, with the two upper lobes erect and the three lower lobes spreading. The fruit is a small two-valved capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

The species belongs to Lobelia subgenus Tupa-related Asian lineages and, like its congeners, contains piperidine alkaloids that render it acrid and medicinally noteworthy in folk traditions. Its tolerance of disturbed and secondary habitats makes it locally common and of no conservation concern. Its wide latitudinal and altitudinal amplitude makes it a useful indicator of the disturbed grassland flora across monsoonal Asia.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Lammers: World Checklist and Bibliography of Campanulaceae

Campanulaceae

Lobelia rosea 

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 2001 514 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Mulabari 1340m, May

Description

Lobelia rosea is a slender annual or short-lived herb of the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burmese region, ranging from Nepal, Bhutan and north-east India through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to southern China and peninsular Malaysia. GBIF records 112 occurrences across this subtropical to warm-temperate arc. It favours moist open ground, stream and paddy margins, damp grassy banks and disturbed clearings at low to middle elevations. The plant from Mulabari in Gorkha, central Nepal, at 1340 m in May is a typical pre-monsoon population on humus-rich soil in light shade.

It is a delicate herb with erect or ascending, simple or sparingly branched stems exuding milky latex when broken. The leaves are alternate, sessile or shortly petiolate, ovate to lanceolate, serrate to denticulate and thin in texture. The flowers are borne in lax terminal racemes on slender pedicels. The corolla is markedly zygomorphic and two-lipped, pink to rose-purple (whence rosea), the tube split dorsally and the lower lip three-lobed; the five anthers are connate around the style into the Lobelia tube, the two lower ones tufted apically. The fruit is a small two-valved capsule dehiscing apically to shed numerous minute, reticulate seeds.

Lobelia, the largest genus of Campanulaceae (subfamily Lobelioideae), is sometimes segregated, but molecular evidence supports its retention within an expanded Campanulaceae. L. rosea belongs to a group of small-flowered Asian annuals delimited chiefly by corolla colour, leaf shape and capsule form. Like its congeners it contains piperidine alkaloids, and several Asian Lobelia species feature in traditional medicine. Widespread and weedy, persisting readily in disturbed seasonally moist habitats, it is of no conservation concern.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lammers world checklist of Campanulaceae

Gentianaceae

Lomatogonium carinthiacum 

by G & P Jürgens

(Wulfen) A.Braun

Garw 2005 135 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Kuari-Pass 3600m, September

Description

Lomatogonium carinthiacum is a small alpine gentian with an exceptionally broad Eurasian distribution, reaching from the European Alps eastward through the Caucasus, central Asia and the Himalaya to the Tibetan Plateau and Mongolia; GBIF records (over 2600) span Austria, Switzerland, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Nepal and many other countries. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadows, damp turf, stream banks and open grassy slopes, generally between about 2500 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from the Kuari Pass in Garhwal, India (3600 m, September), is typical of the species flowering in late summer in moist alpine grassland.

The plant is a small annual or short-lived herb with an erect, often branched, somewhat quadrangular stem and opposite, sessile, ovate to lanceolate leaves. The flowers are solitary or few in lax cymes, with a rotate, deeply five-lobed corolla coloured pale blue to bluish-violet, often with darker veining; the lobes lack the plicate folds and basal fringed scales of Swertia and Gentiana. Diagnostically for the genus, the nectaries take the form of paired, scale-fringed grooves at the base of each corolla lobe. The five stamens alternate with the lobes, and the ovary is unilocular, maturing into a many-seeded capsule with the persistent styles forming decurrent ridges (the basis of the generic name).

Lomatogonium (tribe Swertieae) is closely allied to Swertia, from which it is separated chiefly by its decurrent stigmatic lines running down the ovary and by the form of its nectaries. The genus is centred on the Sino-Himalayan region, with L. carinthiacum being by far its most widespread member and a classic example of a circum-boreal/alpine disjunct distribution. It is common across much of its range and is not of conservation concern.

Author: (Wulfen) A.Braun · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Gentianaceae), Flora Europaea, Flora of Pakistan, A revision of Lomatogonium (Gentianaceae)

Gentianaceae

Lomatogonium sikkimense

by G & P Jürgens

(Burkill) Harry Sm.

Bhutan2015 666
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, October
Bhutan2015 682
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, October
Bhutan2015 685
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, October

Description

Lomatogonium sikkimense is a high-alpine gentian relative restricted to the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Tibet, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan and China, with about 74 occurrences in GBIF. It grows in the alpine zone on open turf, moist meadows, streamsides and gravelly slopes, characteristically between about 3500 and 4500 m, flowering late as the monsoon ends. The plants photographed at the Chele-La in Bhutan at around 4000 m in October exemplify this habitat, where the species blooms among short alpine vegetation just before the onset of winter.

It is a slender annual or short-lived herb with erect or ascending, often branched stems bearing opposite, sessile, narrowly lanceolate to linear leaves. The flowers, borne singly or in a few-flowered cyme, are rotate and deeply five-lobed, the blue to violet-blue corolla lobes acute and often delicately veined; characteristically for the genus, each lobe bears a pair of fringed nectary scales at its base, distinguishing Lomatogonium from the closely related Swertia and Gentianella. The five stamens alternate with the lobes, and the superior ovary develops into a many-seeded capsule.

Lomatogonium is a small Eurasian genus of high mountains and is centred on the Sino-Himalayan and Tibetan flora, with L. sikkimense among its narrowly distributed eastern Himalayan members, as its epithet referencing Sikkim records. The fringed paired nectaries and rotate corolla are key diagnostic features separating it from allied swertioid gentians. No formal conservation assessment exists; the species appears locally frequent within its restricted alpine range, though such narrowly zoned high-altitude annuals are potentially vulnerable to climate-driven shifts in alpine meadow vegetation.

Author: (Burkill) Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ho & Liu Worldwide Monograph of Swertia and its Allies

Caprifoliaceae

Lonicera acuminata

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

BhutanPG2011 3
Bhutan Paro, 2400m June

Description

Lonicera acuminata is a widespread evergreen or semi-evergreen climbing honeysuckle distributed across the Himalaya and montane East and Southeast Asia, with native records from China, Taiwan, Japan, Nepal, India, Bhutan, the Philippines and Indonesia, alongside numerous cultivated and naturalised occurrences in Europe and North America; GBIF documents over 12,000 occurrences. It inhabits forest margins, thickets, ravines and scrubby slopes, mostly between 1000 and 3000 m, scrambling over shrubs and trees in mixed broadleaf and conifer forest. The Bhutanese photograph from Paro at about 2400 m in June shows it flowering in its typical mid-elevation woodland-edge setting.

The plant is a twining woody liana with slender, often purplish, hairy young branches. The leaves are opposite, ovate-oblong to lanceolate, acuminate at the apex as the epithet indicates, entire, and frequently ciliate and pubescent along the margins and veins. The flowers are paired in the leaf axils on short peduncles, the corolla bilabiate and tubular, opening pale yellow and often suffused with reddish or purplish tones, the slender tube exceeding the lobes and the stamens and style exserted. The bracts are small and the calyx teeth short. The fruit is a small globose to ovoid berry, ripening purple-black and bearing few seeds.

Within the large, taxonomically intricate genus Lonicera (Caprifoliaceae), L. acuminata belongs to the climbing subgenus Periclymenum and shows considerable variation in indumentum and leaf form across its range, accounting for a long list of synonyms. Its tubular, exserted-stamen flowers point to pollination by long-tongued insects, while the fleshy berries are dispersed by birds. Broadly distributed and frequent, it is of no conservation concern and is grown ornamentally for its fragrant flowers and vigorous growth.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Rehder's revisions of Lonicera

Caprifoliaceae

Lonicera angustifolia

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex DC.

BhutanPG2011 141
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June
Bh09 325 P531
Bhutan Tumching, 3700m June

Description

Lonicera angustifolia is a Sino-Himalayan honeysuckle distributed along the Himalaya from Afghanistan and Pakistan through India, Nepal and Bhutan to south-western China, with scattered records eastward to Myanmar; GBIF lists around 1,200 occurrences, several reflecting cultivation in Europe and North America. It is a shrub of the upper temperate and subalpine zones, occupying open coniferous and mixed forest, scrub, forest margins and rocky slopes, broadly from 2,400 to 4,000 m. The plants photographed at Tsochenchen at 3,550 m and Tumching at 3,700 m in Bhutan, both in June, show it flowering in early summer within high subalpine shrubbery near the upper forest limit.

It is an erect, much-branched deciduous shrub reaching 1-2.5 m, with slender greyish branchlets. The leaves are opposite, narrowly elliptic to oblong-lanceolate or linear, hence the epithet angustifolia ('narrow-leaved'), 1-4 cm long, entire and glabrous to thinly pubescent. The flowers are borne in axillary pairs on a common peduncle, each pair subtended by small bracts; the corolla is tubular-funnelform, two-lipped and pale pink to whitish, and the paired ovaries are partly fused. The two berries are connate at the base, ripening red and remaining largely free at the apex, each containing several seeds.

Lonicera section Isika, to which L. angustifolia belongs, comprises numerous shrubby, paired-flowered honeysuckles that are particularly diverse in the Himalaya and western China. Its tubular pink corollas are adapted to pollination by bees and long-tongued insects, while the bright red, partly fused berries are dispersed by birds and form an important food source in the subalpine zone. As a widespread, hardy and ecologically tolerant species spanning a broad elevational range, it is of least concern; its cold-hardiness and ornamental berries account for its occasional cultivation in temperate gardens.

Author: Wall. ex DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), monograph of Lonicera (Caprifoliaceae)

Caprifoliaceae

Lonicera angustifolia var. myrtillus

by GP Jürgens

(Hook. f. & Thomson) Q. E. Yang, Landrein, Borosova & J. Osborne

Bh09 326 P532
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3700m June

Description

Lonicera angustifolia var. myrtillus is a high-montane to subalpine shrub of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Myanmar; GBIF holds about 873 occurrences for the taxon, with scattered cultivated records elsewhere. It is characteristic of the upper temperate and subalpine zone, typically between roughly 3000 and 4000 m, the photographed plant deriving from Tumching-La in Bhutan at 3700 m in June, at the onset of flowering. It grows in open coniferous and rhododendron forest, at the forest-line ecotone, and among scrub on rocky, well-drained slopes, often forming part of the dwarf-shrub understorey.

This variety is a small, much-branched deciduous shrub with slender, often arching twigs and small, opposite, entire leaves that are narrowly oblong to elliptic, the var. myrtillus being notably small-leaved and bilberry-like in aspect. The flowers are borne in axillary pairs on short peduncles; each pair subtended by bracts, the tubular-funnelform corolla is white to pale pink, weakly two-lipped or nearly regular. The paired ovaries are partly connate, and at maturity produce small, fused, juicy berries that ripen red, dispersed by birds, as is typical of the genus.

The combination (Hook. f. & Thomson) Q. E. Yang, Landrein, Borosova & J. Osborne reflects modern revisionary work on Himalayan Lonicera within an enlarged Caprifoliaceae. As an intraspecific taxon of a widespread, ecologically tolerant species, it is of no conservation concern, and like other shrubby honeysuckles it contributes nectar and fleshy fruit to subalpine pollinator and frugivore networks at the upper forest margin.

Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Yang et al. revision of Lonicera (Caprifoliaceae), Rehder Synopsis of the Genus Lonicera

Caprifoliaceae

Lonicera glabrata

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2015 600
Bhutan Gasa 1950m, October
Bhutan2015 601
Bhutan Gasa 1950m, October

Description

Lonicera glabrata is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan honeysuckle distributed from Nepal and India through Bhutan and Myanmar into south-western China; its c. 150 georeferenced records concentrate along the temperate forest belt of the eastern Himalaya. It grows in broadleaf and mixed forest, forest margins, thickets and shrubby slopes, generally between 1500 and 3000 m. The plant photographed at Gasa in northern Bhutan at 1950 m in October occupies the temperate forest zone, where its autumn fruiting follows the late-spring to early-summer flowering typical of the species.

It is a glabrous deciduous shrub, sometimes scandent, 1.5-3 m tall, distinguished as the epithet "glabrata" implies by its smooth, hairless foliage. The leaves are opposite, ovate to lanceolate, acuminate, entire and rather thin in texture. The flowers are borne in axillary pairs on a slender common peduncle, each two-lipped and creamy-white to pale yellow, fragrant, with a slender tube. Paired bracteoles subtend the ovaries. The fruit is a paired berry, the two ripening red to purplish-black, the partly fused pairs offering a conspicuous food reward. The four to five stamens and slender style are exserted from the corolla mouth.

Described by Wallich (as Wall.), L. glabrata belongs to Lonicera section Coeloxylosteum of the Caprifoliaceae, a group of paired-flowered Himalayan shrubs. The tubular, nectar-rich flowers are pollinated by bees and long-tongued insects, while the colourful berries are dispersed by birds. The species is widespread within its range and locally common in forest understorey, with no significant conservation concern, though it is sensitive to deforestation of mid-elevation broadleaf woodland.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Rehder's monograph of Lonicera (Caprifoliaceae)