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.

Ranunculaceae

Anemonastrum demissum

by GP Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) Holub

Bh09 114 G203
Bhutan Chele-La, 3500m June
Bh09 159 G282
Bhutan Chele-La, 4000m June
Nepal 95 173 P282 ergebnis
Nepal Rupien La 3850m October
Bhutan2012 273
Bhutan Dochu-La 3500m, September

Description

An alpine anemone of the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, recorded from China, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Pakistan, with around 1600 GBIF occurrences. It is a plant of open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, rocky pastures and scrub margins, generally between about 3000 and 4500 m. The featured collections come from several high passes, including Bhutan's Chele-La at 3500 to 4000 m in June, the Dochu-La at 3500 m in September, and Nepal's Rupien La at 3850 m in October, illustrating a long flowering and fruiting season across windswept high-elevation habitats.

The species is a tufted perennial arising from a stout, often woody rootstock crowned with fibrous leaf remnants. The basal leaves are long-petiolate and palmately three- to five-divided, the segments further lobed and toothed and clothed, like the petioles, in spreading hairs. The scape bears a whorl of stalked, leaf-like involucral bracts beneath the inflorescence, which carries one to several flowers. Each flower lacks true petals; the showy perianth consists of five or more white, sometimes bluish- or pinkish-tinged tepals surrounding numerous stamens and a head of many free, hairy carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of compressed, beaked achenes adapted to wind and animal dispersal.

Formerly placed in Anemone, the species is now referred to the segregate genus Anemonastrum, accepted by POWO and GBIF, reflecting molecular and morphological re-circumscription of the windflowers; the basionym honours Hooker and Thomson. Ecologically it is a conspicuous element of summer-flowering alpine turf, offering pollen and nectar to high-altitude insects. Widespread and often locally abundant throughout the Himalaya, it is not of conservation concern, though its grassland habitats are subject to grazing and climatic shifts.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) Holub · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Ziman et al. revision of Anemonastrum

Ranunculaceae

Anemonastrum elongatum 

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Holub

Nepal 2001 432 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Laprak 1900m, May
Nepal 2001 433 ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Laprak 1900m, May
Nepal Helambu Nasem Pati 3550, May

Description

Anemonastrum elongatum is a perennial herb of the temperate and subalpine Himalaya and adjacent Sino-Himalayan ranges, distributed from Nepal and India eastward through China and southward to Myanmar, with peripheral records in Sri Lanka and beyond (gbif_countries: NP, IN, CN, CA, LK, MM, ZZ); GBIF documents some 113 occurrences. It favours moist forest margins, shaded banks, grassy slopes and streamsides, ranging from warm-temperate woodland into the lower subalpine zone. The illustrated collections span a broad elevational gradient, from Laprak in Gorkha at about 1900 m to Nasem Pati in Helambu near 3550 m, both flowering in May at the onset of the monsoon.

The plant arises from a stout, ascending rhizome and produces erect, hairy stems bearing long-petiolate basal leaves that are palmately three- to five-lobed, the lobes coarsely toothed and clothed in appressed hairs. An involucre of similar but shorter-stalked leaves subtends the inflorescence, which is an elongate, few- to several-flowered cyme borne on slender, villous peduncles. The flowers lack true petals; the showy perianth consists of white to faintly tinged sepals surrounding numerous yellow stamens and a central cluster of carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of compressed, laterally winged achenes tipped with a short persistent style.

Long placed in a broadly circumscribed Anemone, the species is now referred to the segregate genus Anemonastrum, reflecting molecular and morphological recognition of natural lineages within tribe Anemoneae. Its elongating fruiting axis, evoked by the epithet, distinguishes it from allied taxa. Widespread and locally common, it is of no conservation concern, and its broad ecological amplitude makes it a characteristic component of Himalayan herb communities.

Author: (D.Don) Holub · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Tamura's monograph of Ranunculaceae

Ranunculaceae

Anemonastrum obtusilobum

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Mosyakin

Bhutan2014 516
Bhutan Yatong-La 3200m, May
Nepal 99 82 ergebnis
Bhutan Bhulbhule 3150m, June

Description

Anemonastrum obtusilobum, long known as Anemone obtusiloba, is a widespread Himalayan and Central Asian alpine herb recorded from China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with a substantial 825 occurrences in GBIF. It is a plant of open alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes, forest clearings and stony turf, typically between 2500 and 4500 m. The localities cited, Yatong-La at 3200 m in May and Bhulbhule at 3150 m in June in Bhutan, are characteristic of the moist, herb-rich montane grassland where it carpets slopes in spring and early summer.

The species is a tufted perennial herb from a stout, often branched rootstock clothed with the fibrous remains of old leaf bases. The basal leaves are long-petiolate and palmately three-lobed, the lobes broad and obtusely toothed (hence obtusilobum), softly hairy and somewhat fleshy. The flowering scape bears an involucre of leaf-like bracts and one to several flowers; each flower lacks petals but has five to eight petaloid sepals that are white, cream, yellow or violet-blue, surrounding numerous yellow stamens and a cluster of free carpels. The fruit is a head of compressed, glabrous achenes each tipped with a short style.

The segregate genus Anemonastrum was resurrected on molecular grounds from the broadly circumscribed Anemone, grouping the herbaceous, palmately lobed-leaved species with basal involucres; A. obtusilobum is a polymorphic species varying greatly in flower colour and stature across its range, prompting recognition of several varieties. Its insect-pollinated flowers and dry achenes, dispersed by wind and animals, suit the open alpine environment. The species is common and of least conservation concern, though it remains a useful indicator of intact Himalayan alpine meadow communities.

Author: (D.Don) Mosyakin · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Ranunculaceae

Anemonastrum polyanthes

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Holub

Bh09 32 G59
Bhutan above Paro 3200m, June
Garh 07 464 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3900m, June

Description

Anemonastrum polyanthes (formerly Anemone polyanthes) is a robust alpine herb distributed across the Himalaya and into western China, with GBIF holding around 362 occurrences from India, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Myanmar. It grows in subalpine and alpine meadows, open slopes, forest clearings and grazed pastures, typically between 3000 and 4300 m, flowering with the onset of the summer monsoon. The cited collections from above Paro in Bhutan at 3200 m and from Khiar Kutti in Garhwal, India, at 3900 m, both in June, capture its broad altitudinal spread across damp, herb-rich high-meadow turf.

It is a perennial arising from a stout rootstock, with all principal leaves basal, long-petiolate and palmately three- to five-partite, the segments deeply cut and toothed, hairy on both surfaces. The flowering stem bears a whorl of leaf-like, sessile involucral bracts subtending an umbel-like cyme of several flowers, as the epithet polyanthes implies. Each flower lacks petals; the five to eight petaloid sepals are white, sometimes flushed pinkish or bluish outside, surrounding numerous yellow stamens and a domed cluster of carpels. The fruits are flattened, glabrous, ovate achenes with a short hooked beak, aggregated into a rounded head.

The segregate genus Anemonastrum, raised from Anemone on molecular and morphological grounds, accommodates this group of umbellate-flowered, multi-flowered montane species. Like other Ranunculaceae it contains acrid protoanemonin, deterring grazing livestock so that it often persists conspicuously in over-grazed alpine pasture. Widespread and frequently common throughout the Himalayan arc, it is of Least Concern and serves as a prominent component of summer-flowering high-altitude meadow communities.

Author: (D.Don) Holub · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hand-Mazzetti and Tamura treatments of Anemone

Ranunculaceae

Anemonastrum rupestre 

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin

Nepal 2009 29 ergebnis scaled
Nepal 2009 30 ergebnis scaled
Nepal Helambu Koktrok 3100m, May
BhutanPG2011 219 scaled
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4300m June
BhutanPG2011 344
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4300m June

Description

Anemonastrum rupestre (Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin is an alpine perennial of the Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded from Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 223 occurrences in GBIF. It inhabits open alpine meadows, rocky slopes, screes and grassy ledges, mostly between 3,000 and 4,500 m. The photographed plants span this range: one from Helambu, Koktrok, in central Nepal at 3,100 m flowering in May, and another from Jule-Tso in Bhutan at 4,300 m in June, illustrating its broad altitudinal occupation of the subalpine to alpine zone.

It is a tufted perennial herb arising from a stout rhizome, with the leaves largely basal and long-petiolate; the lamina is palmately divided into lobed and toothed segments. The flowering scape bears an involucre of leaf-like bracts subtending a few-flowered umbel-like cyme. The flowers lack true petals; the showy perianth consists of several white (sometimes pinkish or bluish-tinged) petaloid sepals surrounding numerous stamens and a head of free carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of laterally compressed, glabrous to pubescent achenes with a short persistent style.

The species was traditionally placed in Anemone, but molecular and morphological studies have led to its transfer to the segregate genus Anemonastrum (Ranunculaceae), characterised by basal leaves, bracteate scapes and compressed achenes. This taxonomic realignment reflects the modern reclassification of the Anemone alliance. As a widespread high-altitude element of the Sino-Himalayan flora occupying extensive natural habitat, it is not of conservation concern, though it remains subject to grazing pressure across its alpine pastures.

Author: (Wall. ex Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Mosyakin reclassification of Anemone s.l., Ziman & Ehrendorfer studies of Anemone

Ranunculaceae

Anemonastrum trullifolium

by GP Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin

Sikkim2011 131
Sikkim Tanghu 4000m, June
Sikkim2011 129
Sikkim Tanghu 4000m, June
Bhutan2014 985 scaled
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Bhutan2014 983
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Nepal 97 210 P428
Nepal Thudam 3690m April

Description

Anemonastrum trullifolium is a Himalayan alpine herb ranging through China, India, Nepal and Bhutan, with 317 occurrences in GBIF (additional records from Britain, Myanmar, Norway and Sweden reflect cultivated or determinavit material). It grows in alpine meadows, open slopes and the margins of dwarf-shrub heath, typically between 3500 and 4500 m. Field collections span Sikkim's Tanghu at about 4000 m in June, Chele-La in Bhutan at 4000 m in May, and Thudam in Nepal at 3690 m in April, indicating an early-season flowerer that tracks receding snow on moist subalpine to alpine turf.

The plant is a rhizomatous perennial 10-30 cm tall, forming a tuft from a short, often hairy rootstock. The long-petiolate basal leaves have a trullate (trowel-shaped) to rhombic-ovate lamina, often three-lobed or coarsely toothed and silky-pilose beneath, the epithet trullifolium referring to this leaf outline. The scape bears an involucre of leaf-like bracts subtending a few-flowered umbel; the flowers lack true petals, the showy perianth comprising 5-6 white to bluish, sometimes externally tinged tepals, surrounding numerous stamens and a head of carpels. The fruiting head is a cluster of flattened, glabrous to pubescent achenes with a short hooked beak.

The species was transferred from Anemone to the segregate genus Anemonastrum following molecular phylogenetic studies that resolved the windflowers into several lineages; the basionym Anemone trullifolia (under which it is widely listed) reflects this history. Pollination is by generalist alpine insects, and the achenes are wind- and gravity-dispersed. Locally common across its range, it has no specific conservation concern.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) Mosyakin · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Mosyakin revision of Anemonastrum

Ranunculaceae

Anemonoides griffithii

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook. & Thomson) Holub

Sikkim 2006 438 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 351 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tamrong 2650m, May
Bhutan2014 325 scaled
Bhutan Tumching-La 2700m, May
Bhutan2014 330 scaled
Bhutan Tumching-La 2700m, May

Description

Anemonoides griffithii is a slender, woodland-floor perennial of the temperate eastern Himalaya, distributed through Sikkim, the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, Bhutan and adjacent southern Tibet (Xizang); GBIF, which records the species under the name Anemonoides griffithii, holds only a sparse occurrence dataset (a single georeferenced point from China), reflecting how thinly this shade-dwelling herb is documented despite a genuinely wider range. It favours the cool, humus-rich understorey of mixed conifer and broad-leaved forest and damp shrubberies, where it flowers in late spring as the canopy leafs out. The accompanying images, gathered at Tamrong (2650 m) in West Bengal and at the Tumching-La pass (2700 m) in Bhutan, both in May, place the plant squarely in its characteristic mid-montane band between roughly 2500 and 3500 m, in the moist, mossy conditions typical of the monsoon-fed Himalayan flank.

The plant arises from a short, creeping rhizome and is a delicate herb seldom exceeding 15-25 cm. The basal leaves are long-petiolate and ternately to palmately divided, with deeply incised, toothed segments and a thin, soft texture. The flowering stem bears a whorl of three stalked involucral leaves resembling reduced basal leaves, above which is borne a solitary terminal flower. There are no true petals; the showy perianth consists of five to several petaloid sepals, white often flushed pink or purple beneath, surrounding numerous stamens and a head of carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of small, ovoid, pubescent achenes tipped by a short style, dispersed as the involucre withers.

The species belongs to Anemonoides, a segregate genus split from the broadly circumscribed Anemone to accommodate the rhizomatous, woodland anemones of the A. nemorosa alliance, and many references still treat it under Anemone griffithii. Within the Himalaya it is one of several closely allied spring-flowering forest anemones, distinguished by leaf dissection and perianth colour. As a low-growing, monsoon-region understorey herb it has not been formally assessed for conservation status, but its dependence on intact temperate forest makes it locally sensitive to logging and grazing pressure across its restricted eastern-Himalayan range.

Author: (Hook. & Thomson) Holub · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of China Vol. 6, Flora of Nepal, Tamura's Ranunculaceae treatment in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants

Apiaceae

Angelica cyclocarpa

by GP Jürgens

(C.Norman) M.Hiroe
Sikkim2003 398 P560
Sikkim Zemu Valley 3450m, August
Sikkim2003 399 P561
Sikkim Zemu Valley 3450m August

Description

Angelica cyclocarpa is a Himalayan umbellifer distributed along the central and eastern ranges from Pakistan and the Indian Himalaya through Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan, GBIF documenting 29 occurrences across Nepal, Bhutan, India and Pakistan (NP, BT, IN, PK). It is a plant of moist subalpine and lower alpine habitats, occurring in tall-herb meadows, open forest margins, streamsides and damp grassy slopes generally between about 3000 and 4000 m. The photographed plants from the Zemu Valley in Sikkim at 3450 m in August capture its flowering during the late monsoon, when the lush, herb-rich vegetation of these moist eastern valleys reaches its peak development.

It is a robust, erect, biennial to perennial herb arising from a stout aromatic root, the hollow, ridged stems often purplish below. The large leaves are several-times pinnate or ternate-pinnate with sharply toothed ovate to lanceolate leaflets, the petiole bases expanded into conspicuous inflated sheaths clasping the stem. The white flowers are borne in large compound umbels with numerous rays; petals are obovate with an inflexed apex. The fruit is a dorsally compressed schizocarp with prominent winged lateral ribs and slender dorsal ribs, the rounded, broadly winged outline giving the species its epithet cyclocarpa.

A member of Angelica (Apiaceae, subfamily Apioideae), the species belongs to a complex of Sino-Himalayan tall umbellifers whose generic limits relative to Pleurospermum and allied genera have been repeatedly revised. The combination by M. Hiroe reflects this taxonomic mobility. Its flat-topped white umbels attract a broad spectrum of generalist insect pollinators, and the aromatic, resinous tissues typical of the genus are present. Restricted to remote high-elevation meadows, it is not regarded as threatened.

Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Umbelliferae of British India (C.B. Clarke)

Linaceae

Anisadenia saxatilis

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Meisn.

Bhutan2012 1173
Bhutan Tashiyangtse 2000m, October

Description

Anisadenia saxatilis is a slender herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia, distributed from Nepal through NE India, Bhutan and southern China to Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh and Malaysia, with 69 GBIF occurrences reflecting its rather localised, forest-dwelling habit. It grows in shaded, humid broad-leaved and mixed forest, on mossy banks, rock ledges and along streamsides in the temperate to warm-temperate zone. The Bhutanese collection from Tashiyangtse at about 2,000 m in October corresponds to its autumn flowering in cool, moist montane forest understorey.

It is a perennial herb with a slender rootstock and erect, wiry stems. The leaves are mostly clustered or subrosulate toward the base and along the lower stem, ovate to elliptic, with prominent parallel-converging venation and crenate to serrate margins, the upper leaves much reduced and bract-like. The flowers are borne in a slender, lax, terminal spike-like raceme; each small flower has five sepals (the outer often glandular-fringed), five pink to pale purple petals, and a characteristic androecium with unequal or appendaged (anisadenous) staminal glands, from which the genus takes its name. The fruit is a small dry capsule.

Anisadenia is a small Asian genus of two or three species, here correctly placed in Linaceae though distinctive within the family for its spicate inflorescence and herbaceous habit. GBIF treats the name as accepted. As a shade- and humidity-dependent forest herb of limited occurrence, it is sensitive to forest clearance; it is not formally assessed but its narrow ecological amplitude merits attention.

Author: Wall. ex Meisn. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Robson: Linaceae in Flora Zambesiaca and comparative studies (1963)

Orchideaceae

Anthogonium gracile

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2012 473
Bhutan Wangdi 2500m, September
Bhutan2012 474
Bhutan Wangdi 2500m, September

Description

Anthogonium gracile is a terrestrial orchid and the sole species in the monotypic genus Anthogonium. It is distributed from Nepal through northeast India (Sikkim, Darjeeling, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh), Bhutan, and Myanmar into Thailand, Indochina, and southwest China (Yunnan, Guangxi). The species occurs in open, grassy hillsides, pine forests, and degraded forest margins at elevations of 1,000–3,000 m, often in seasonally moist grassland.

The plant produces slender, reed-like stems 30–80 cm tall from underground tubers, with narrow, plicate, grass-like leaves arranged along the upper portion of the stem. The inflorescence is a lax, terminal raceme bearing 5–15 flowers that open successively. Flowers are 3–4 cm across, typically rose-pink to magenta, with a broad, spreading lip that is darker pink with a yellow callus of parallel lamellae. The column is slender and gently curved. Flowering in the Himalayas occurs from August to October.

Anthogonium gracile is taxonomically isolated within the Orchidaceae, though molecular phylogenetic analyses place it close to Calanthe and Phaius. Its preference for open, fire-maintained habitats suggests adaptation to seasonal burning regimes characteristic of Himalayan montane grasslands.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Pearce & Cribb: The Orchids of Bhutan (2002)