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.

Euphorbiaceae

Mallotus nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

Müll.Arg.

Bh09 231 P387
Bhutan Wangdi, 1650m June
Bh09 380 G601
Bhutan Wangdi, 1650m June
Sikkim 2006 255 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Lingza 1250m, May

Description

Mallotus nepalensis is a small tree or shrub of the subtropical to lower-temperate Himalaya and its eastern extensions, documented by GBIF (972 occurrences) across China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and Pakistan. It grows in secondary forest, scrub, forest edges and along streams and clearings, characteristically as a light-demanding component of disturbed and successional vegetation, mostly between about 800 and 2000 m. The collections from Wangdi in Bhutan at 1650 m in June and from Lingza in West Bengal at 1250 m in May illustrate its montane-subtropical distribution along the southern Himalayan front.

The plant is a deciduous shrub or small tree whose young branchlets, petioles and inflorescences are clothed in stellate hairs and reddish, granular peltate glands typical of the genus. The leaves are alternate, long-petiolate, broadly ovate to deltoid, often with two glands at the blade base and a pair of basal lateral nerves, the lower surface pale and gland-dotted. The plant is dioecious; minute apetalous flowers are borne in slender terminal and axillary racemes or panicles, the staminate with numerous stamens, the pistillate with a softly spiny ovary. The fruit is a globose, three-lobed capsule beset with soft processes and covered in red glandular powder.

Mallotus belongs to subfamily Acalyphoideae of the Euphorbiaceae and is characterised by its stellate indumentum and resinous peltate glands, the latter yielding the dye-like powder for which several species are known. Ecologically it behaves as a pioneer, regenerating freely in gaps and along disturbed margins, its capsular fruit and small seeds aiding rapid colonisation. The species is common and of no conservation concern.

Author: Müll.Arg. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Airy Shaw Euphorbiaceae of the Indian subcontinent

Rosaceae

Malus baccata

by G & P Jürgens

(L.) Borkh.

Bhutan2014 407
Bhutan Jakar 2400m, May
Bhutan2014 408
Bhutan Jakar 2400m, May

Description

Malus baccata, the Siberian crab apple, is among the most broadly distributed wild apples, ranging across temperate and boreal East Asia from the Russian Far East and Siberia through Mongolia, northern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and extending into the Himalaya in Nepal, India, Bhutan and Afghanistan; the species is widely cultivated and naturalised in Europe and North America, accounting for records from Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Canada and the United States, with over 12,000 GBIF occurrences. In the eastern Himalaya it grows in temperate broad-leaved and mixed forest, margins, riverine thickets and open hillsides, as photographed near Jakar in central Bhutan at around 2400 m in May, when the trees are in full flower.

It is a deciduous tree reaching 10-14 m, with a rounded crown and reddish-brown, glabrous young shoots. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, 3-8 cm long, acuminate, finely serrate, glabrous or nearly so at maturity, on slender petioles. The flowers, borne in umbel-like corymbs of 4-6, are white, 3-3.5 cm across, with five rounded petals and styles connate and pubescent at the base. The fruit is a small globose pome 8-10 mm in diameter, red or yellow, lacking a persistent calyx, on a long slender pedicel, hanging conspicuously into autumn.

Malus baccata is the type of a polymorphic complex and is divided into several varieties and intergrading races across its range; Himalayan material has at times been segregated. As a cold-hardy, disease-resistant species it is of considerable importance in apple breeding and as a rootstock, and its abundant fruit is an autumn food resource for birds and mammals. It is of least concern conservation-wise, being common and widespread.

Author: (L.) Borkh. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, A Monograph of the Genus Malus (Rehder)

Solanaceae

Mandragora caulescens

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Sikkim2004 215 G367
Sikkim/India Gometang 3900m May
Nepal 97 203 P415
Nepal Thudam 3850m April
Nepal 97 202 P414
Nepal Thudam 3850m April

Description

Mandragora caulescens is a stout alpine perennial of the high Himalaya and Tibetan borderlands, distributed across southwestern China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan), northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar; GBIF documents some 540 collections, indicating it is locally frequent within its high-elevation range. It occupies open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, scrub margins and stony pasture, generally between about 2500 and 4500 m, often in moist, well-drained turf. The photographed plants were recorded at Gometang on the Sikkim/India border at about 3900 m in May and at Thudam in eastern Nepal near 3850 m in April, typical of this snowmelt-associated meadow species.

Unlike the stemless Mediterranean mandrakes, this species is caulescent, developing a short, leafy aerial stem from a large, fleshy, often forked taproot. The leaves are clustered, oblong to oblanceolate, tapering to the base, entire or sinuate, and somewhat fleshy. The flowers are solitary on long, decurved or nodding peduncles among the leaves; the corolla is broadly campanulate, dull purple to brownish-violet or rarely greenish, five-lobed, subtended by a deeply lobed persistent calyx. The fruit is a globose, fleshy berry seated in the enlarged calyx.

The placement of Mandragora has long been debated; it is treated here in Solanaceae, in which it is conventionally classified, though some authors segregate it. M. caulescens is the principal Asian representative of the genus and, like its western relatives, contains tropane alkaloids and features in regional ethnomedicine. Widespread across the high Sino-Himalayan ranges, it is not regarded as globally threatened.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Ungricht et al. revision of the genus Mandragora

Lamiaceae

Marmoritis nivalis 

by G & P Jürgens

(Jacqu. ex Benth.) Hedge

Nepal 99 790 ergebnis
West-Nepal Baga-La-Phedi 4460m, July

Description

Marmoritis nivalis is a high-alpine herb of the Himalaya, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan and China; with only about 36 georeferenced records it is a sparsely collected, narrowly montane species. As the epithet "nivalis" indicates, it is a plant of the snow line, growing on open screes, stony alpine turf, moraine and rocky slopes typically between 4000 and 5000 m. The photographed individual from Baga-La-Phedi in West Nepal at 4460 m, flowering in July, exemplifies its occurrence in the cushion-and-scree zone above the timberline, where the short summer growing season coincides with the monsoon.

It is a low, mat-forming or tufted perennial herb arising from a branched woody caudex and slender rhizome, the stems short, ascending and grey-pubescent. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to orbicular, crenate, thick and densely hairy, an adaptation to cold, exposed, high-radiation habitats. The flowers are crowded in compact terminal heads subtended by leafy bracts; each corolla is bilabiate, pale violet to bluish, with a notched upper lip and a spreading three-lobed lower lip. The calyx is tubular and conspicuously veined, and the four stamens lie under the upper lip. The fruit consists of four small nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

This taxon is treated by GBIF as a synonym, with Marmoritis nivalis itself as the accepted name (combination by Hedge, based on Bentham's earlier name in Dracocephalum/Nepeta). Marmoritis is a small Sino-Himalayan genus segregated from the Nepeta alliance of the Lamiaceae. The cushion habit and dense indumentum are classic high-alpine adaptations. Pollination is by hardy bumblebees active in the brief alpine summer. Owing to its restricted, high-elevation range it warrants monitoring, though no formal threat status is established.

Author: (Jacqu. ex Benth.) Hedge · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hedge's treatment of Himalayan Nepeteae (Lamiaceae)

Phrymaceae

Mazus dentatus

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Benth.

Sikkim2004 11 P17
Sikkim West-Bengal, Sambon 1800m April
Nepal 97 97 P160
Nepal Dongen 2360m April
Nepal1992 174 P255 ergebnis
Nepal Mamanke 1800m March 

Description

Mazus dentatus is a small herbaceous plant of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from northern India (Sikkim, Darjeeling), Nepal and Bhutan; GBIF holds only about 48 records, consistent with a restricted, narrow distribution. It grows in moist, shaded or semi-open habitats such as damp banks, grassy slopes, terraced field margins, ditches and stream sides at lower to middle elevations, broadly between about 1500 and 2500 m. The photographed material came from Sambon in the Sikkim/West Bengal hills at around 1800 m in April, from Dongen in Nepal near 2360 m in April and from Mamanke at about 1800 m in March, the early-spring flowering typical of this moisture-loving herb.

The plant is a low, soft, more or less hairy annual or short-lived perennial with slender ascending or decumbent stems. The leaves are mostly in a basal rosette and opposite below, obovate to spathulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, with a coarsely toothed (dentate) margin that gives the species its epithet. The flowers are borne in lax terminal racemes; the corolla is strongly two-lipped, pale violet to bluish, the short upper lip two-lobed and the larger lower lip three-lobed and marked with yellow and darker spots on a raised palate. The fruit is a small capsule enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Mazus, long placed in Scrophulariaceae and later in its own family Mazaceae, is treated here in Phrymaceae following the broad circumscription adopted in several recent floras. The genus is distinguished by its palate-bearing, bilabiate corolla and rosulate habit. M. dentatus is a localised eastern Himalayan plant of disturbed, moist ground; though not formally assessed, its limited range warrants attention.

Author: Wall. ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Bonati revision of Asian Mazus

Phrymaceae

Mazus surculosus

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Nepal 97 273 P558
Nepal Bagong-Khola 2650m April
Nepal 2001 86 ergebnis ergebnis
East-Nepal Gupka Pokhari 2920m, April

Description

Mazus surculosus D.Don is a small, creeping perennial herb of moist temperate habitats in the Himalaya and adjacent mountains. GBIF records it from India, Nepal, China, Bhutan and Pakistan, with some 230 occurrences, indicating a Sino-Himalayan distribution. It grows on damp, shaded ground — streamsides, wet banks, mossy turf and the margins of paths and forest clearings — typically between about 2,000 and 3,200 m. The illustrated material is from central Nepal at Bagong-Khola, 2,650 m, and from East Nepal at Gupka Pokhari, 2,920 m, both flowering in April, in keeping with its early-spring phenology.

The plant is mat-forming, spreading by slender, rooting stolons or surculose runners (whence surculosus), from which arise short ascending flowering shoots. The leaves are mostly in a basal rosette, obovate to spathulate, crenate-toothed, narrowed to a winged petiole, with a few smaller opposite leaves on the stem. The flowers are borne in lax, few-flowered racemes; the corolla is strongly bilabiate, blue-violet to purple, the short upper lip two-lobed and the larger lower lip three-lobed and marked with white and yellow palatal ridges spotted with darker colour. The fruit is a small, rounded, loculicidal capsule enclosed by the persistent calyx, releasing numerous minute seeds.

Mazus, formerly placed in Scrophulariaceae, is now referred to Phrymaceae (or the segregate Mazaceae) on molecular grounds, and the input family Phrymaceae reflects this modern placement. The genus is centred in temperate and subtropical Asia. As a widespread, weedy creeper of damp open ground, M. surculosus is common and not of conservation concern.

Author: D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Beardsley & Olmstead: Redefining Phrymaceae (American Journal of Botany)

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis aculeata

by G & P Jürgens

Royle

Garh 07 548 ergebnis
Garh 07 447 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3850m, June

Description

Meconopsis aculeata is a Western Himalayan endemic of the high mountains of northern India, Pakistan and adjacent China (Tibet), extending marginally into Nepal; its roughly 249 GBIF records concentrate in the north-western ranges, with cultivated and herbarium material accounting for the scattered occurrences in Great Britain, Canada and Egypt. It grows on open alpine slopes, moist screes, rock crevices and moraine margins, typically between 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed population at Khiar Kutti in the Garhwal Himalaya of India, at 3850 m in June, is characteristic of its early-summer flowering on damp, stony alpine meadow.

It is a monocarpic or short-lived perennial herb forming a stout taproot and a basal rosette. The whole plant is densely armed with stiff, yellowish bristles and prickle-like setae, giving it its epithet aculeata. Leaves are oblong to oblanceolate, pinnately lobed to deeply pinnatifid, narrowed to a winged petiole. The flowering stem bears several large, nodding to spreading flowers; the four petals are clear sky-blue to purplish-blue, broadly obovate and crinkled. Stamens are numerous; the bristly ovary ripens into an ellipsoid, setose capsule dehiscing by short apical valves to release many small seeds.

Within Meconopsis, this species belongs to the blue-flowered, bristly poppies and is among the most widespread of the blue Himalayan poppies west of Nepal. Its dense armature is an adaptation to grazing and harsh exposure, and like many monocarpic Meconopsis it depends on a multi-year rosette to accumulate resources before a single flowering episode. It remains locally frequent and is not formally assessed as threatened, though habitat degradation and collection pressure are localised concerns.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of British India, The Genus Meconopsis (Grey-Wilson monograph)

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis bella

by G & P Jürgens

Prain

BhutanPG2011 198
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3650m June
BhutanPG2011 206
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3650m June

Description

Meconopsis bella is a dwarf, exquisite blue poppy endemic to the eastern Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and adjacent southern China, the 79 GBIF occurrences reflecting its narrow range and the inaccessibility of its habitat. It grows in cool, moist, sheltered situations at high elevation, characteristically rooted in crevices of rock faces, cliff ledges, moraines and shaded banks between roughly 3300 and 4500 m. The photographed plant was found at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3650 m in June, the early-summer flowering season when it blooms amid the monsoon mists of the subalpine zone.

It is a small, slender, tap-rooted perennial lacking a leafy stem, the few leaves forming a basal tuft; the blades are obovate and pinnately lobed or coarsely toothed, on long slender petioles, bearing scattered fine hairs. The flowers are solitary on long, thread-like leafless scapes that arise directly from the rootstock and nod gracefully. Each flower has four broad, satiny petals in pale sky-blue to lavender or, in some forms, soft pink-mauve, surrounding a boss of yellow stamens and a prominent ovary tipped by a clavate stigma. The fruit is a narrow erect capsule dehiscing apically to shed numerous small seeds.

The genus Meconopsis is the celebrated assemblage of Asiatic blue poppies, and M. bella is among the smallest and most delicate, belonging to the crevice-dwelling group. Its scattered, cliff-bound populations and exacting requirements for cool humid air and sharp drainage render it both horticulturally prized and intrinsically vulnerable to collection and climatic shifts. Although not formally Red-Listed, its restricted eastern Himalayan endemism warrants conservation attention, and seed-grown stock underpins its limited cultivation in specialist gardens.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Grey-Wilson: The Genus Meconopsis, Flora of China

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis chankheliensis

by G & P Jürgens

Grey-Wilson

Nepal 99 248 ergebnis
West-Nepal Tallekh 3155m, June
Nepal 99 265 ergebnis
West-Nepal Tallekh 3155m, June
Nepal 99 266 ergebnis
West-Nepal Tallekh 3155m, June

Description

Meconopsis chankheliensis is a narrowly endemic poppy of the western Himalaya, presently documented only from Nepal, where the comparatively small number of records (18 georeferenced occurrences) reflects both its restricted range and the remoteness of its habitat. It is a plant of moist, sheltered situations in the upper temperate and subalpine zones, typically growing in damp meadows, on humus-rich banks and among rocks beside seepages and streamsides. The photographed material from Tallekh in West Nepal, at about 3155 m and flowering in June, is characteristic of the moderate elevations at which the species comes into bloom following the onset of the early summer monsoon moisture.

The plant is a tufted herb arising from a basal rosette of leaves and a stout taproot. The foliage is more or less covered in spreading bristly hairs; the leaves are oblanceolate to obovate, narrowed to a winged petiole, with entire to lobed or coarsely toothed margins. Flowering stems are erect and bristly, bearing one to several flowers. The blooms are bowl-shaped and showy, with four (occasionally more) broad, satiny petals in shades of blue to purplish-blue, surrounding a dense boss of numerous stamens with slender filaments and a short style crowned by a lobed stigma. The fruit is an elongate, bristly capsule dehiscing by apical valves to release many small seeds.

Meconopsis is a genus of the Sino-Himalayan region whose blue poppies have attracted intense horticultural and taxonomic attention, much of it through the monographic work of Christopher Grey-Wilson, whose name is associated with this taxon. As a localised Nepalese endemic restricted to a single mountain region, M. chankheliensis is of conservation concern, vulnerable to grazing pressure, habitat disturbance and the climatic shifts increasingly affecting Himalayan alpine floras. Its narrow distribution makes accurate field documentation and protection of known populations particularly important.

Author: Grey-Wilson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson: The Genus Meconopsis (monograph)

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis dhwojii

by G & P Jürgens

G.Taylor

Nepal 2009 48 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Hile-Bhangyang 3380, May

Description

Meconopsis dhwojii is a narrow Central Himalayan endemic, restricted to the high mountains of Nepal, where GBIF records cluster; the remaining occurrences in Great Britain and Canada represent cultivated and herbarium material. The 46 georeferenced records reflect its rarity and confined range. It inhabits the upper subalpine and alpine zone between roughly 3000 and 4300 m, growing on open rocky slopes, screes, moist cliff ledges and disturbed grazed turf. The plant photographed at Hile-Bhangyang in Helambu at about 3380 m in May typifies this monsoon-influenced montane habitat, where flowering coincides with snowmelt and the early growing season.

This is a monocarpic herb forming a dense basal rosette of pinnatifid to pinnatisect leaves, the whole plant conspicuously clothed in spreading, pale yellowish-brown to purple-based bristly hairs arising from dark spotted bases. From the rosette a stout, leafy, bristly flowering stem ascends, bearing the flowers in a leafy raceme. The nodding to half-spreading flowers have four broad, pale yellow petals; the numerous stamens surround a single style topped by a clavate stigma. The fruit is a narrowly oblong, bristly capsule dehiscing by short apical valves and releasing many small seeds.

Named for Dhwoj, a Nepali plant collector of the early-twentieth-century explorations, M. dhwojii belongs to the bristly, monocarpic poppyworts and is allied to M. paniculata and M. napaulensis within section Aculeatae. Like its relatives it dies after a single flowering, relying entirely on copious seed for persistence, an adaptation to unstable scree and disturbed alpine ground. Though not formally assessed as threatened, its restricted Nepalese distribution and collection for horticulture make habitat integrity important to its survival.

Author: G.Taylor · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson Meconopsis monograph