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.

Solanaceae

Nicandra physalodes 

by GP Jürgens

(L.) Gaertn.

Nepal 99 955 ergebnis
West-Nepal Dunai 2150m, July
Garw 2005 249 ergebnis ergebnis scaled
Garw 2005 248 ergebnis ergebnis scaled
India Garhwal Sitel 1850m, September

Description

Nicandra physalodes (L.) Gaertn., the shoo-fly plant or apple-of-Peru, is an annual herb native to the Andean region of South America (notably Peru) but now naturalised almost worldwide as a weed of cultivation and waste ground. The very large GBIF occurrence record spans Europe, North and South America, southern Africa, Australasia, China and beyond, reflecting its cosmopolitan ruderal status. In the Himalaya it is a familiar plant of cultivated fields, village margins and disturbed ground; the records from Dunai in west Nepal at 2,150 m in July and from Sitel in Garhwal, India, at 1,850 m in September document its occurrence as a monsoon-season weed in the western and central Himalayan hill zone.

Nicandra is a robust, erect, glabrous annual reaching up to 1–1.5 m, with stout, angular, branching stems. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, with coarsely sinuate-dentate or lobed margins. The solitary, axillary flowers are pale blue to lilac with a paler, often whitish throat; the corolla is broadly campanulate and shallowly five-lobed. Most distinctive is the persistent, accrescent calyx with five deeply sagittate-cordate, sharply angled lobes that enlarge and become inflated and papery, enclosing the dry, many-seeded berry in a manner resembling the husk of Physalis, hence the epithet physalodes.

The genus Nicandra is monotypic and forms an isolated lineage within Solanaceae, placed in its own subfamily Nicandroideae and of long-standing interest in phylogenetic studies of the family. The plant is mildly toxic, containing withanolide-type compounds, and has been used traditionally as an insect repellent, accounting for the vernacular name shoo-fly. Its remarkable success as a global colonist makes it a textbook example of a New World species turned cosmopolitan agricultural weed.

Author: (L.) Gaertn. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Pakistan (Solanaceae), Hunziker: The Genera of Solanaceae

Brassicaceae

Noccaea andersonii

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) Al-Shehbaz

BhutanPG2011 638
Bhutan Paden-Tso, 4300m July

Description

Noccaea andersonii is an alpine crucifer of the Himalaya, documented by GBIF (140 occurrences) from Nepal, India, Bhutan and southern Tibetan China. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, growing in open stony pastures, scree, moist seepages and the margins of glacial lakes, generally between about 3800 and 4600 m. The cited collection from Paden-Tso in Bhutan at 4300 m in July typifies its preferred habitat: cold, well-drained mineral soils near tarns where it flowers during the brief post-monsoon summer, often associated with cushion plants and short alpine sedge turf.

The species is a low, glabrous, somewhat glaucous perennial herb arising from a slender caudex. Basal leaves are petiolate and form a loose rosette, while the cauline leaves are sessile and clasp the stem with sagittate-amplexicaul bases, a diagnostic feature of the genus. The inflorescence is a corymbose raceme of small flowers with four white to pale lilac petals borne above spreading sepals. The fruit is a flattened, obcordate to broadly elliptic silicle, narrowly winged toward the apex and notched at the tip, containing several smooth seeds in each loculus.

The binomial reflects the modern segregation of Noccaea from the broadly circumscribed Thlaspi, supported by the combination by Al-Shehbaz on molecular and fruit-anatomical grounds, with the perennial habit and amplexicaul leaves distinguishing it from annual Thlaspi proper. Ecologically it is a cold-adapted specialist of frost-churned alpine substrates. It is widespread across suitable habitat and not presently of conservation concern, though restricted to a narrow altitudinal band sensitive to climatic shifts.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) Al-Shehbaz · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Al-Shehbaz Brassicaceae systematic studies

Brassicaceae

Noccaea cochlearioides

by GP Jürgens

(Hook. f. & Thomson) Al-Shehbaz

BhutanPG2011 286
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4200m June
Sikkim 2006 129 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Molley 3630m, May

Description

Noccaea cochlearioides (Hook. f. & Thomson) Al-Shehbaz is a high-alpine crucifer of the Himalaya and adjacent Central Asia, recorded from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan, southern China and the Russian mountains, with about 93 GBIF occurrences reflecting its restricted, high-elevation niche. It grows on stony alpine slopes, screes, moraines and rock crevices, characteristically between about 3500 and 4800 m. The cited gatherings from Jule-Tso in Bhutan at around 4200 m in June and from Molley in West Bengal at 3630 m in May exemplify its presence in cold, open subnival habitats where the snow-free season is brief.

The species is a small, glabrous, somewhat fleshy perennial herb with a branched caudex bearing rosettes of entire to obscurely toothed, often spathulate basal leaves; the cauline leaves are sessile and amplexicaul with auriculate-sagittate bases. The flowers are arranged in a short corymbose raceme and have four white to pale lilac petals in the typical cruciform arrangement. The fruit is a flattened, obcordate to obovate silicula, narrowly winged and notched at the apex, containing few smooth seeds in each locule.

The taxon was transferred from Thlaspi to the segregate genus Noccaea by Al-Shehbaz in his molecular-based recircumscription of the Thlaspi alliance (Brassicaceae, tribe Coluteocarpeae). Its auriculate cauline leaves and winged, notched silicles are diagnostic. A narrow alpine endemic of restricted range, it is uncommon but not assessed as threatened.

Author: (Hook. f. & Thomson) Al-Shehbaz · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Al-Shehbaz revisions of Thlaspi and allied Brassicaceae

Liliaceae

Notholirion macrophyllum

by GP Jürgens

Boiss.

BhutanPG2011 710 01 01 2
Bhutan Pele-La, 2900m July
Nepal 99 31 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June
Nepal 99 32 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June
Nepal 99 379 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June

Description

Notholirion macrophyllum is a Sino-Himalayan bulbous lily ranging through Nepal, Bhutan, northern India and south-western China, with GBIF documenting roughly 189 occurrences across this arc. It favours cool, humid subalpine to lower alpine habitats, occurring on open forest margins, shrubby slopes, grassy banks and moist meadows, often beneath Rhododendron and conifer cover on humus-rich soils. The collections cited from Bhutan at Pele-La around 2900 m in July and western Nepal at Chere near 2850 m in June illustrate its characteristic mid-montane elevation and its phenology, flowering during the early to mid monsoon when ground moisture is abundant.

The plant grows from a small ovoid bulb whose outer scales decay to leave numerous bulblets at the base, a feature typical of the genus and important for vegetative spread. The flowering stem is slender and erect, bearing linear-lanceolate radical leaves and reduced bract-like cauline leaves. The inflorescence is a lax few-flowered raceme of nodding, broadly funnel-shaped flowers; the six tepals are rose-pink to pale lilac or mauve, oblanceolate, spreading at the tips and often darker-veined. Six stamens with versatile anthers surround a slender style ending in a three-lobed stigma. The superior ovary matures into a three-valved loculicidal capsule releasing flat, winged, wind-dispersed seeds.

Notholirion, described in its species by Boissier among others, is a small genus of four to five species allied to Lilium and Fritillaria but distinguished by its monocarpic main bulb that dies after flowering, persisting through offset bulblets. N. macrophyllum is the smallest-flowered member and the most widespread in the central Himalaya. Its reliance on undisturbed subalpine vegetation makes it susceptible to grazing, trampling and forest disturbance, although it remains locally frequent and is sometimes cultivated by enthusiasts of Himalayan bulbs.

Author: Boiss. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya, Sealy revision of Notholirion

Orchideaceae

Oberonia acaulis

by G & P Jürgens

Griff.

Bhutan2012 814 Kopie
Bhutan Zemgang 2000m, October
Bhutan2012 1146
Bhutan Tashiyangtse 1500m, October

Description

Oberonia acaulis is a small epiphytic orchid widespread across tropical and subtropical Asia, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam and beyond, with about 198 GBIF occurrences. It grows in warm, humid broad-leaved and subtropical forest, perched on tree trunks and branches in shaded, moist situations from the lowlands into the lower montane zone. The images document it in Bhutan at Zemgang around 2000 m and at Tashiyangtse near 1500 m, both in October, when the minute flowers are borne in dense spikes among forest epiphyte communities.

It is a tufted, dwarf epiphyte lacking pseudobulbs, with a short stem bearing a fan of equitant, laterally flattened (iris-like), fleshy leaves arranged in two ranks. From the centre of the fan arises a slender, erect to arching scape terminating in a long, densely many-flowered cylindrical raceme. The flowers are extremely small, numerous, yellowish to orange-brown, arranged in whorls; the labellum is the most conspicuous part, typically three-lobed with a divided or toothed apex, distinguishing the species within the genus. The fruit is a tiny ellipsoid capsule.

Oberonia is a large pantropical genus of "button orchids" notable for the diminutive size and great number of their flowers, which complicates field identification and rests heavily on the structure of the lip. The minute flowers are thought to be pollinated by small flies or midges. Like all orchids the genus is listed on CITES Appendix II; O. acaulis is widespread and common across its broad range and is not considered threatened.

Author: Griff. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Genera Orchidacearum (Vol. 4 Epidendroideae)

Orchideaceae

Oberonia falcata

by GP Jürgens

King & Pantl.

Nepal 1994 27 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Kandbari 600m April

Description

Oberonia falcata is a small epiphytic orchid ranging through the lowland and submontane forests of the eastern Himalaya and Southeast Asia, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar (implied regionally), Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia, with a modest 67 occurrences in GBIF. It grows on the trunks and branches of trees in warm, humid evergreen and semi-evergreen forest, generally at low to moderate elevations. The illustrated plant was collected in eastern Nepal near Kandbari (Khandbari) at about 600 m in April, a typically low, frost-free station consistent with the genus's preference for sheltered, shaded humid forest.

Like other Oberonia, the species is a tufted, stemless to short-stemmed epiphyte with a fan of distichous, laterally flattened (equitant), fleshy leaves that are falcate (sickle-shaped), as the epithet records. From the centre of the leaf-fan arises a slender erect to arching inflorescence densely covered with minute flowers arranged in whorls along the rachis. The individual flowers are tiny and inconspicuous, orange to brownish, with a deeply lobed lip characteristic of the genus; the column is very short. The fruit is a small ellipsoid capsule releasing dust-fine seeds.

Oberonia is a large pantropical Old World genus distinguished by its iris-like flattened leaf-fans and miniature whorled flowers, and species delimitation rests largely on lip morphology. As an epiphyte dependent on undisturbed humid forest canopy, O. falcata is vulnerable to deforestation and the harvesting of host trees across its range. Its minute, scentless flowers are thought to be pollinated by small insects, and like nearly all orchids it relies on mycorrhizal fungi for seed germination and establishment.

Author: King & Pantl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Orchids of Nepal, Genera Orchidacearum (Oberonia)

Orchideaceae

Oberonia obcordata

by G & P Jürgens

Lindl.

BhutanPG2011 35 ergebnis
Bhutan Wangdi 2000m, June

Description

Oberonia obcordata is a diminutive epiphytic orchid of the Eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Thailand and Bhutan, with around 40 occurrences in GBIF. It grows as an epiphyte on the trunks and branches of trees in humid subtropical to lower montane broad-leaved forest, generally at moderate elevations of roughly 1,000 to 2,200 m. The plant illustrated was photographed near Wangdue (Wangdi) in western Bhutan at about 2,000 m in June, where the species flowers in the warm, moist conditions of the early monsoon.

It is a small, tufted epiphyte without pseudobulbs, the short stem bearing a fan of laterally flattened, equitant, fleshy leaves arranged in two ranks, as is characteristic of the genus. The inflorescence is a slender, pendent to arching raceme densely crowded with very numerous, minute flowers arranged in whorls along the axis. The tiny flowers are yellowish to orange-brown; the small sepals and petals spread, and the labellum, from which the epithet derives, is obcordate and more or less notched at the apex. The column is very short, and the fruit is a minute ellipsoid capsule containing exceedingly fine seeds.

Oberonia is a large palaeotropical genus of dwarf, fan-leaved epiphytes distinguished chiefly by the form of the diminutive labellum, here obcordate and emarginate. The minute flowers are pollinated by small insects, and establishment is mycorrhiza-dependent. Inconspicuous and easily overlooked, the species is relatively poorly documented; though not specifically assessed, it shares the general CITES Appendix II protection of the family, and its persistence is linked to intact mid-elevation forest.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb), Pridgeon et al. Genera Orchidacearum

Boraginaceae

Onosma bracteata

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 99 147 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3700m, June
Nepal 99 724 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Bauli.Khola 3600m, July

Description

Onosma bracteata Wall. is a bristly perennial herb of the western and central Himalaya, recorded by GBIF (83 occurrences) from Nepal, India and Turkey, though its core range lies along the high inner-Himalayan valleys. It occupies dry, open, stony slopes, rocky pasture and the margins of subalpine scrub on calcareous or schistose substrates, flowering through the early monsoon. The cited collections from west Nepal, south of Rara Lake at 3700 m in June and at Bauli Khola at 3600 m in July, place it firmly in the high-altitude steppe and meadow zone where it forms scattered clumps on sun-exposed ground. The name is treated here as a synonym, with Onosma bracteata recognised as the accepted name.

The plant forms tufted, ascending to erect stems clothed throughout in stiff, spreading, tuberculate-based setae that give a harsh, hispid texture. The leaves are sessile, oblong-lanceolate to linear, entire and likewise bristly on both surfaces. Flowers are aggregated in terminal, scorpioid cymes subtended by conspicuous leafy bracts, from which the epithet derives; the corolla is tubular-campanulate, yellow, with a five-toothed limb and exserted anthers, and the gynoecium develops into four smooth nutlets enclosed by the persistent calyx.

Within the large Old World genus Onosma, the bracteate, yellow-flowered Himalayan species form a taxonomically intricate complex requiring careful comparison of indumentum and bract characters. Several Onosma yield a red dye (alkannin-type pigments) from their roots and have ethnobotanical and medicinal uses across the region. The species is not assessed as threatened, but its restriction to specialised dry montane habitats makes local populations vulnerable to grazing pressure and trampling.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of British India (Hooker), Boraginaceae of the Western Himalaya, Riedl monograph on Onosma

Rubiaceae

Ophiorrhiza treutleri

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

Sikkim 2006 451 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 450 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tolung 2200m, May

Description

Ophiorrhiza treutleri is an eastern Himalayan understorey herb confined to India, Nepal and Bhutan, documented by roughly 39 georeferenced records that cluster in the moist mid-montane forests of the region. It is a plant of shaded, humid habitats, growing on the floor of dense evergreen and mixed broadleaved forest, along streamsides, mossy banks and damp ravines where atmospheric humidity remains high throughout the year. The specimen photographed at Tolung in West Bengal (India) at about 2200 m in May reflects its typical occurrence in the cool, perpetually damp montane belt, where it flowers in spring beneath a closed canopy.

It is a small perennial or weakly suffrutescent herb with slender, often decumbent stems that root at the lower nodes and bear a sparse indumentum. The leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex and somewhat asymmetric at the base, with conspicuous lateral venation and small interpetiolar stipules characteristic of the family. The inflorescence is a terminal, scorpioid cyme; the flowers are small, white to pinkish and tubular, with a five-lobed corolla and an inferior bilocular ovary. As in many Ophiorrhiza, the species is distylous, producing pin and thrum flowers. The fruit is a characteristically broad, didymous (two-lobed) capsule that dehisces loculicidally to release numerous minute angular seeds.

Ophiorrhiza belongs to the tribe Ophiorrhizeae of the Rubiaceae and is notable for the accumulation of camptothecin and related alkaloids, which has drawn pharmacological interest to several species. The heterostyly of O. treutleri promotes outcrossing through insect-mediated pollination, while its capsular fruits are adapted to rain-splash and gravity dispersal in the still air of the forest floor. As an obligate shade species tied to undisturbed montane forest, it is vulnerable to canopy opening, and its conservation is effectively linked to the protection of intact eastern Himalayan woodland.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Deb & Mondal Revision of the Genus Ophiorrhiza (Rubiaceae)

Cactaceae

Opuntia monacantha

by G & P Jürgens

(Willd.) Haw.

Bhutan2014 693
Bhutan Pele-La 2800m, May

Description

Opuntia monacantha is a prickly-pear cactus native to subtropical South America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) that has become one of the most widely naturalised Opuntia species in the world. Its 4754 GBIF occurrences span Australia, South Africa, the Mediterranean, East Africa, India, China, Nepal, Bhutan and many other regions, almost all representing introduced and frequently invasive populations. In the Himalaya it persists as an escape from cultivation on dry, sunny, rocky slopes, banks, walls and disturbed ground in warm valleys. The record from the Pele-La area of Bhutan at about 2800 m in May is notable as a relatively high-elevation occurrence, the plant having been spread through cultivation as a hedge and ornamental into the inner dry valleys of the eastern Himalaya.

It is a succulent shrub to small tree, sometimes developing a distinct cylindrical woody trunk, with a branched crown of flattened green photosynthetic stem-segments (cladodes or pads). The pads are obovate to oblong, glossy green and somewhat flaccid, bearing areoles that produce tufts of minute barbed glochids and usually one or few (occasionally none) stout spines, the sparse armature giving rise to the epithet monacantha. The leaves are reduced to tiny caducous scales. The flowers are large, solitary, sessile on the pad margin, with a rotate perianth of bright yellow tepals often reddish at the base and numerous stamens. The fruit is a fleshy, obovoid, reddish-purple berry, frequently proliferous, the pulp edible and the seeds dispersed by frugivores.

The genus Opuntia is among the most successful of invasive plant lineages, the readily detached, root-forming cladodes enabling vigorous vegetative spread, while the bird- and mammal-dispersed fruits extend its reach. O. monacantha is regarded as a noxious weed in several countries and has been a target of biological control using cochineal insects. In the Himalayan context it is an introduced naturalised alien rather than a native element; its conservation status is irrelevant in the usual sense, the concern instead being its potential to colonise and degrade dry montane slopes.

Author: (Willd.) Haw. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Anderson The Cactus Family