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.

Brassicaceae

Megacarpaea polyandra

by G & P Jürgens

Benth.

Nepal 99 293 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4100m, June
Nepal 99 294 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4100m, June

Description

Megacarpaea polyandra Benth. is a robust alpine crucifer of the western and central Himalaya, known from about 99 records in India, Nepal and Pakistan, with scattered extralimital reports. It grows on open grassy and rocky alpine slopes, in subalpine scrub, forest clearings and along the margins of high pastures, generally between about 3000 and 4300 m. The plant photographed at Kalmura in West Nepal at 4100 m in June is typical of its preference for deep, moist, fertile soils on sunny slopes where it can attain a conspicuously large stature for an alpine herb.

The species is a stout perennial herb arising from a thick rootstock, with an erect, branching stem and large, deeply pinnatisect to lyrate leaves with several pairs of toothed lobes. The inflorescence is a broad panicle of many flowers; uniquely among most Brassicaceae the flowers bear numerous stamens (well in excess of the usual six), giving rise to the epithet "polyandra," and the petals are pale yellow to whitish. The fruit is the diagnostic feature: a large, flattened, didymous (two-lobed) silicle with broadly winged, papery valves, each loculus one-seeded, the whole readily wind-dispersed.

Megacarpaea is a small genus of central and high Asia notable for its polyandrous flowers and large winged fruits, features that set it apart within the mustard family and have made it of interest in studies of floral evolution in Brassicaceae. The young shoots and leaves are gathered locally as a potherb in parts of the Himalaya. Although widespread, its showy habit and use as a wild vegetable expose it to collection pressure, and as a narrow-belt alpine endemic it merits monitoring.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Hooker's Flora of British India, revision of Megacarpaea and tribe Megacarpaeeae

Gentianaceae

Megacodon stylophorus

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) Harry Sm.

BhutanPG2011 807 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3900m July

Description

Megacodon stylophorus is a stately giant gentian of the eastern Himalaya and southwestern China. GBIF records it from China, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar, with roughly 450 occurrences, the genus being a small Sino-Himalayan endemic. It grows in moist subalpine meadows, forest clearings, scrub margins and along streamsides between about 3000 and 4300 m. The plant shown was photographed on the Chele-La pass in western Bhutan at 3900 m in July, when its tall flowering stems rise above the surrounding alpine herbage at the height of the monsoon growing season.

It is one of the largest herbaceous gentians, an erect perennial reaching 1-1.5 m from a stout rhizome. The stem bears opposite, sessile, broadly ovate leaves with conspicuous arcuate parallel venation. The large, pendulous, broadly campanulate flowers are borne in the upper leaf axils; the corolla is pale greenish-yellow, intricately net-veined with darker reticulation, and 4-5 cm long. Distinctively the style is long and persistent (the epithet stylophorus, style-bearing), exserted from the corolla, and the fruit is a large septicidal capsule releasing numerous winged seeds adapted to wind dispersal.

Megacodon is a segregate from the broadly defined Gentiana, distinguished by its great stature, reticulate corolla and elongate style, and molecular studies place it among the basal lineages of tribe Gentianeae. Its showy net-veined flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees foraging at high elevation. Though striking and of horticultural interest, it is not regarded as globally threatened, but its dependence on undisturbed, moist subalpine habitats makes it sensitive to overgrazing and shifting monsoon regimes.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) Harry Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Gentianaceae: systematics and natural history

Asteraceae

Melanoseris macrorhiza

by GP Jürgens

(Royle) N.Kilian

Bhutan2012 260
Bhutan Chele-La 3500m, September
Nepal 99 928 ergebnis
West-Nepal Roha 2700m, July

Description

Melanoseris macrorhiza (Royle) N.Kilian is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan blue-flowered lettuce relative recorded from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, China and Myanmar, with around 468 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows on open alpine and subalpine slopes, in moist meadows, among rocks and along forest margins, typically between about 2700 and 4000 m. The collections from Chele-La at 3500 m in September and from Roha in West Nepal at 2700 m in July illustrate its broad Himalayan altitudinal range and its late-summer to autumn flowering.

It is a perennial herb arising, as the epithet macrorhiza indicates, from a stout, thickened taproot or rootstock, with milky latex characteristic of the tribe Cichorieae. The stems are erect and leafy below, becoming branched in the inflorescence. The leaves are lyrate-pinnatifid to runcinate, the basal ones petiolate and the cauline ones often clasping with auriculate bases. The capitula are wholly ligulate, with blue to violet-blue strap-shaped florets and a cylindric involucre of imbricate phyllaries. The fruit is a flattened, ribbed cypsela narrowed toward the apex and bearing a pappus of white, soft bristles.

The species has a complex nomenclatural history, having been placed at various times in Lactuca, Cicerbita and Cephalorrhynchus before transfer to Melanoseris, a predominantly Asian genus segregated within the lettuce alliance on the basis of cypsela and pappus characters supported by molecular data. It is a widespread montane element of no particular conservation concern.

Author: (Royle) N.Kilian · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Kilian revision of Cichorieae (Melanoseris)

Melastomataceae

Melastoma malabathricum

by GP Jürgens

L.

Nepal 1994 11 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Tumlingtar 400m April
Nepal 1994 304 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Tumlingtar 400m April
Nepal 2001 22 ergebnis ergebnis
East-Nepal Sabha-Khola 1400m, April

Description

Melastoma malabathricum L. is an extremely widespread shrub of the Melastomataceae, ranging from the Indian subcontinent and the Himalayan foothills through Southeast Asia and Malesia to southern China, Taiwan, Japan, New Guinea and Australia, with naturalised populations in the Pacific and elsewhere; GBIF records are exceptionally numerous (c. 19,800 occurrences). It is a pioneer of open, disturbed and secondary habitats, roadsides, clearings, grasslands and forest margins, mostly in the tropical lowland to lower montane zone. The photographed plants from eastern Nepal at Tumlingtar (c. 400 m) and Sabha-Khola (c. 1,400 m), both flowering in April, lie at the northwestern margin of its vast range.

The plant is an erect, much-branched shrub 0.5–3 m tall, with stems and leaves clothed in appressed, stiff, scaly-bristly hairs. The leaves are opposite, ovate-lanceolate, and bear the three to five prominent, arcuate, longitudinal veins characteristic of the family. The flowers are large and showy, 4–6 cm across, with five rose-purple to mauve obovate petals. The androecium is dimorphic, with longer purple, geniculate stamens bearing curved appendaged connectives and shorter yellow stamens. The fruit is a fleshy, berry-like capsule that ruptures irregularly to expose abundant small seeds embedded in dark purple pulp, attractive to birds.

Melastoma malabathricum is a taxonomically variable aggregate that has accumulated numerous synonyms, and infraspecific forms are recognised across its range. It is an early-successional coloniser tolerant of acidic, aluminium-rich soils and is widely used in traditional medicine. Of least concern, it can behave as an invasive weed outside its native range.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Renner et al.: Melastomataceae studies

Meliaceae

Melia azedarach

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Bhutan2015 547
Bhutan Mo-Shu 1450m, October
Bhutan2015 548
Bhutan Mo-Shu 1450m, October
Nepal 97 70 P109
Nepal above Mewa-Khola 1400m April

Description

Melia azedarach, the chinaberry or Persian lilac, is a fast-growing deciduous tree of immense range, native across South and Southeast Asia and into Australia but now widely cultivated and naturalised throughout the warm temperate and tropical world, a ubiquity reflected in its GBIF total of over 66,000 occurrences spanning the United States, Australia, South Africa, Spain, France, China, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, Argentina and far beyond. In the Himalayan region it is common in the lower hills, around villages, on field margins and along roadsides up to about 1800 m. The images from Mo-Shu in Bhutan at 1450 m, in October, and from above the Mewa-Khola in Nepal at 1400 m, in April, capture both its fruiting and flowering seasons in the warm subtropical hill belt where it thrives on a wide range of soils.

It is a tree to 10-20 m with a spreading, rounded crown and fissured, dark bark. The large leaves are alternate and bipinnate to tripinnate, with numerous ovate-lanceolate, serrate, acuminate leaflets giving a light, feathery canopy. The fragrant flowers are borne in lax axillary panicles, each with five spreading lilac to pale-purple petals and a characteristic dark purple staminal tube formed from the fused filaments, a hallmark of the genus. The fruit is a globose, yellowish drupe that persists on the bare branches well into winter, containing a hard, ridged, several-seeded stone dispersed by birds.

Melia is a small Old World genus of the mahogany family Meliaceae, of which M. azedarach is by far the most widespread and variable, with numerous forms and cultivated selections; it is valued for timber, shade and traditional medicine, though its fruits and foliage are toxic to humans and many animals owing to limonoid compounds. Outside its native range it is frequently an aggressive coloniser of disturbed ground and is classed as an invasive weed in parts of the Americas, Africa and Australia, even as it remains a familiar and useful tree across the Himalayan foothills.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Pennington and Styles' monograph of the Meliaceae

Araliaceae

Merrilliopanax alpinus

by G & P Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) C.B.Shang

Sikkim2011 387
Sikkim Lachung 3200m, June
Sikkim2011 389
Sikkim Lachung 3200m, June
Sikkim 2006 327 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tolung 2400m, May

Description

Merrilliopanax alpinus is a small tree or shrub of the eastern Himalaya and south-western China, recorded from Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and Yunnan, a comparatively narrow range reflected in only some 59 occurrence records. It inhabits moist, evergreen broad-leaved and mixed montane forest and forest margins, generally between about 2000 and 3500 m, often in shaded, humid ravines. The images here derive from Sikkim at Lachung (3200 m, June) and from the Tolung area of West Bengal (2400 m, May), localities typical of the rich, mist-bathed mid-montane forests where the genus reaches its diversity.

The plant is an evergreen with stout, sparingly branched stems bearing simple, leathery leaves clustered toward the branch tips. The leaves are large, ovate to elliptic, entire or shallowly toothed, glabrous and shining above and frequently rusty-tomentose beneath, on long petioles. The inflorescence is a terminal panicle of small umbels; the flowers are small, polygamous and greenish, with a reduced calyx, several petals and stamens, and an inferior ovary. The fruit is a small, globose to ellipsoid drupe crowned by the persistent styles.

Merrilliopanax is a small genus of the Araliaceae segregated from the broadly defined Schefflera/Aralia complex and is restricted to the Sino-Himalayan region; M. alpinus was described by C.B.Clarke and transferred to the genus by C.B.Shang. Its simple (rather than compound) leaves distinguish it from many relatives. The drupes are bird-dispersed, and the species is a localised but characteristic element of eastern Himalayan cloud forest. Its restricted range makes it of biogeographic interest and potentially sensitive to forest loss, though no formal threat assessment is widely established.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) C.B.Shang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Shang revision of Merrilliopanax, Frodin & Govaerts World Checklist of Araliaceae

Saxifragaceae

Micranthes melanocentra

by GP Jürgens

Losinsk.

BhutanPG2011 567 1
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4300m June

Description

Micranthes melanocentra (long known as Saxifraga melanocentra) ranges through the high mountains of China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Pakistan, with about 784 records tracing the Himalaya and the Hengduan and Tibetan ranges. It is a true alpine, the image documenting it at Jule-Tso in Bhutan at about 4300 m in June, at the onset of the brief alpine summer. It occupies open alpine meadow, stony slopes, moraine, streamsides and damp turf above the treeline on moist, well-drained gravelly and rocky substrates, where snowmelt provides early-season moisture and the growing season is compressed into a few weeks.

It is a small rosette-forming perennial herb arising from a short rootstock. The leaves are basal, obovate to spathulate, with crenate to dentate margins, narrowing to a broad petiole and often somewhat fleshy. From the rosette rises a leafless, glandular-hairy scape bearing a corymbose to subcapitate cyme of several flowers. The flowers have five white (sometimes pink-tinged) petals, and the species takes its epithet from the dark, almost blackish, contrasting centre formed by the deep-coloured ovary and the conspicuous reddish to purple-black anthers. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule releasing numerous small seeds.

The species was described by Losinskaja and is now placed in the segregate genus Micranthes, separated from Saxifraga sensu stricto on molecular and morphological grounds, comprising the rosette-leaved, scapose saxifrages. Its dark-centred white flowers are visually distinctive among Himalayan alpines and provide a contrasting nectar guide for insect pollinators. Adapted to cold, high-radiation alpine conditions, it is widespread and locally common across its montane range and is not considered threatened.

Author: Losinsk. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Saxifragaceae monograph and Micranthes phylogenetic studies

Saxifragaceae

Micranthes pallida

by GP Jürgens

Losinsk.

BhutanPG2011 366
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Micranthes pallida (formerly placed in Saxifraga, as reflected in the source link) is a Himalayan rosette herb distributed across the high mountains from Pakistan and northern India through Nepal and Bhutan into south-western China and northern Myanmar; with over 650 georeferenced occurrences (CN, NP, IN, BT, PK, MM) it is one of the more frequent members of its group. It inhabits damp alpine meadows, mossy rock ledges, stream margins and shaded slopes, typically between about 3000 and 4500 m. The plant recorded at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m in June, flowering in the brief alpine summer, is characteristic of its cool, moist montane-to-alpine habitat.

It is a perennial herb forming a basal rosette of leaves on a short rhizome. The leaves are spathulate to obovate or broadly ovate, with a cuneate base tapering into a broad petiole, the margins coarsely toothed or crenate, and the blade thin-textured and often somewhat pale or glaucous. From the rosette rises a slender, glandular-pubescent flowering stem bearing a lax, often paniculate or corymbose cyme of small flowers. Each flower has five spreading whitish to pale greenish petals, ten stamens and a half-inferior, bicarpellate ovary that ripens into a many-seeded, two-beaked capsule.

Micranthes is now widely recognised as a genus distinct from Saxifraga sensu stricto, corresponding to the former Saxifraga sect. Micranthes, supported by molecular and morphological evidence; M. pallida belongs to this assemblage of broad-leaved, rosette-forming species. Adapted to the harsh alpine regime through its perennating rhizome and ground-hugging habit, it is widespread and not regarded as threatened across its extensive range.

Author: Losinsk. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Gornall's revision of Saxifragaceae

Lamiaceae

Micromeria biflora

by G & P Jürgens

Benth.

Bhutan2014 1027
Bhutan Paro 2320m, May
Bh2008 553 G837
Bhutan Paro 1900m April

Description

Micromeria biflora is an aromatic herb of remarkably wide Palaeotropical-to-Himalayan distribution, ranging from tropical and southern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Congo and others) through the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen) and across to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China; its nearly 1700 georeferenced occurrences underline this broad Old World range. It grows on dry, open, rocky and grassy slopes, banks and disturbed ground in the warm-temperate and montane belts, commonly between about 1500 and 2800 m. The plants documented around Paro in Bhutan at 1900-2320 m in April and May occupy exactly such sunny, well-drained hillsides.

It is a slender, much-branched perennial subshrub forming low, wiry tufts from a woody base, the quadrangular stems finely pubescent and clothed with a strong thyme-like aroma. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to elliptic, entire and often revolute-margined, gland-dotted and short-petiolate. The pink to pale purple flowers are borne in axillary pairs or small few-flowered whorls, hence the epithet biflora; each has a tubular, ribbed, two-lipped calyx and a bilabiate corolla with the lower lip three-lobed, with four didynamous stamens. The fruit comprises four smooth, ovoid nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Micromeria belongs to tribe Mentheae of the Lamiaceae, allied to Clinopodium and Satureja, and the generic limits of this group have been much revised on molecular grounds. Rich in volatile monoterpene oils, M. biflora is widely used in folk medicine and as an aromatic herb. Its extensive range and tolerance of disturbed, arid habitats make it a successful and unthreatened species.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Tropical East Africa, Harley's treatment of Labiatae

Boraginaceae

Microula sikkimensis

by G & P Jürgens

Hemsl.

Bhutan2012 863
Bhutan Nangsephal 2850m, October

Description

Microula sikkimensis Hemsl. is a Sino-Himalayan herb recorded by GBIF in China, Nepal, Bhutan and India, with 1011 occurrences documenting a fairly continuous distribution along the higher Himalaya and into south-western China. It grows on open slopes, grassy banks, fallow ground, trail margins and forest clearings in the temperate to subalpine zones, typically between about 2500 and 4000 m. The plant photographed at Nangsephal in Bhutan, at roughly 2850 m in October, reflects its occurrence in the cool temperate belt of the eastern Himalaya and its persistence into the autumn.

The species is a hispid annual or short-lived herb with spreading, bristly stems clothed in stiff, often pustular-based hairs typical of the family. The leaves are alternate, oblong to lanceolate, sessile or short-petiolate and roughly hairy on both surfaces. The flowers are small and borne in leafy-bracted cymes; the corolla is blue to bright blue with a short tube, a spreading five-lobed limb and small scales (fornices) closing the throat. The fruit characteristically separates into four nutlets that bear a dorsal aperture and marginal teeth or wings, a diagnostic feature of the genus Microula.

Microula is a genus largely centred on the Himalaya and the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, distinguished within the Boraginaceae by its sculptured, apertured nutlets, and M. sikkimensis is among its more widespread and variable species. The barbed or toothed nutlets promote epizoochorous dispersal, attaching to animal fur and clothing, which aids colonisation of disturbed ground. The species is common across its range and of no conservation concern, forming a characteristic element of the weedy and meadow flora of the central and eastern Himalaya.

Author: Hemsl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Riedl Boraginaceae of the Himalaya