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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.

Orchideaceae

Papilionanthe vandarum

by GP Jürgens

(Rchb.f.) Garay

Bh2008 319 G494
Bhutan Jakar, 2950m April

Description

Papilionanthe vandarum is an epiphytic orchid distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjoining Indo-Burmese ranges, with records from India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar; GBIF documents some 49 occurrences, the additional points from Belgium, the United States and Great Britain reflecting cultivated material in botanical collections. It grows on tree trunks and mossy branches in humid broad-leaved and coniferous forest, frequently in the montane belt between roughly 1500 and 3000 m, where seasonal monsoon moisture alternates with a drier cool season. The photographed plant from Jakar in central Bhutan at about 2950 m, flowering in April, is typical of its upper elevational range, where it flowers before the summer rains.

The species is readily recognised by its monopodial, scrambling habit and slender, terete (pencil-like) leaves that replace the flattened laminae of most orchids, an adaptation reducing water loss in exposed epiphytic sites. Stems are elongate, branching and rooting freely along their length by means of thick, greyish aerial roots. The inflorescences are short, few-flowered racemes bearing large, showy flowers; sepals and petals are white to pale, broad and somewhat undulate, while the trilobed labellum is prominent, with a spurred base and a coloured throat. The fruit is a dry, elongate dehiscent capsule releasing innumerable dust-like seeds.

Formerly placed in Aerides and Vanda, the species was transferred to Papilionanthe (a small Asian genus of terete-leaved monopodial orchids) by Garay; its terete foliage and pendent habit distinguish it from true Vanda. Like all wild orchids it is listed on CITES Appendix II, and populations are locally threatened by forest clearance and over-collection, though it remains fairly widespread across its Himalayan range.

Author: (Rchb.f.) Garay · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Orchids of Bhutan, Genera Orchidacearum (Pridgeon et al.)

Melanthiaceae

Paris mairei

by GP Jürgens

H.Lév.

Sikkim2004 7 G12
Sikkim West-Bengal, Sambon 1800m April
Sikkim2004 115 P196
Sikkim West-Bengal, Sambon 1800m April
Nepal 97 265 G547
Nepal Bagong-Khola 2700m May

Description

Paris mairei is a rhizomatous woodland herb of the Sino-Himalayan region, distributed across SW China, Nepal, NE India and Bhutan, with GBIF documenting around 269 records. It is a plant of shaded, humus-rich forest, growing in moist broadleaved and coniferous woodland, thickets and shady ravines of the temperate zone. The photographed populations at Sambon in the Sikkim–West Bengal hills (1,800 m, April) and at Bagong Khola in Nepal (2,700 m, May) reflect its altitudinal span from the warm temperate to the upper temperate forest belt, where it flowers in spring as the canopy leafs out.

It is an erect perennial arising from a creeping, knotty rhizome, bearing a single terminal whorl of stalkless or shortly petiolate, ovate to lanceolate, net-veined leaves. From the centre of the whorl rises a solitary, long-pedicellate flower with the parts in the characteristic Paris arrangement: a whorl of green, leaf-like outer perianth segments (sepals), filiform or narrowly linear inner segments (petals), prominent stamens with the connective often produced beyond the anther, and a central ovary crowned by spreading stigmas. The fruit is a capsule that splits to expose seeds with a coloured fleshy aril.

The genus Paris (now placed in Melanthiaceae rather than the former Trilliaceae) is renowned for its steroidal saponins, several Asian species being important in traditional Chinese medicine, which has driven heavy wild collection and conservation concern in parts of the range. The single leaf whorl and solitary, spider-like flower make the genus instantly recognisable, while the contrast between broad sepaloid and thread-like petaloid segments is diagnostic at species level. P. mairei is distinguished within the genus by its leaf and floral proportions and stamen connective form.

Author: H.Lév. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Li: The Genus Paris (Paridaceae)

Melanthiaceae

Paris thibetica

by G & P Jürgens

Franch.

Bhutan2014 469
Bhutan Tongsa 2000m, May
Bhutan2014 586
Bhutan Phobjika 3100m, May

Description

Paris thibetica is a rhizomatous woodland herb of the eastern Himalaya and Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, the Norwegian (NO) datum representing cultivated or herbarium material. Its roughly 281 georeferenced collections concentrate in the temperate forests of the Tibet-Himalaya borderlands. It grows in shaded, moist, humus-rich broadleaved and mixed forest, on banks and in damp ravines beneath the canopy. The photographed plants from Bhutan at Tongsa (2000 m) and Phobjika (3100 m), both in May, demonstrate its broad altitudinal range across the temperate belt and its spring flowering as the rhizome resumes growth after winter.

It is an erect perennial arising from a thick, creeping rhizome that produces a single unbranched stem. At the stem apex is a single whorl of typically four or more leaves, ovate-lanceolate to oblanceolate, with the netted-reticulate venation characteristic of the genus. From the centre of the whorl rises a solitary terminal flower on a slender pedicel. The perianth is in two distinct whorls: the outer of green, leaf-like sepals and the inner of very narrow, filiform to thread-like yellowish-green petals. Numerous stamens with elongate connectives surround a globose ovary crowned by spreading styles. The fruit is a capsule that opens to expose seeds borne in a fleshy, often reddish aril.

The genus Paris (herb-Paris) is placed in the Melanthiaceae (formerly Trilliaceae) and is centred on the temperate Sino-Himalayan mountains, where it is taxonomically intricate and much studied. Several species, including members of the Paris polyphylla complex to which P. thibetica is allied, are valued in traditional medicine for their steroidal saponins, exposing wild populations to harvesting pressure. Slow-growing and habitat-specific, herb-Paris species are increasingly of conservation concern owing to forest loss and over-collection.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, Li's The Genus Paris (Trilliaceae)

Celastraceae

Parnassia cooperi

by G & P Jürgens

W.E.Evans

Bhutan2012 67
Bhutan Shele-La, 3800m September

Description

Parnassia cooperi is an alpine perennial herb of the eastern Himalaya, known from a small set of 12 GBIF occurrences in China, Bhutan and India. It inhabits moist alpine meadows, seepage slopes, streamsides and damp grassy turf in the upper temperate to alpine zone, generally between about 3500 and 4300 m. The plant recorded on the Shele-La in Bhutan at 3800 m in September represents its typical high-elevation habitat, flowering late in the season on cool, humid, well-watered ground where snowmelt and monsoon moisture persist.

The species is a slender, glabrous, rosette-forming herb arising from a short rhizome. The basal leaves are long-petiolate with ovate to cordate, entire blades, while each erect, unbranched flowering stem bears a single sessile or clasping cauline leaf below the solitary terminal flower. The flower has five free, white petals, frequently veined, and alternates fertile stamens with conspicuous fringed or gland-tipped staminodes, the latter a defining feature of the genus. The superior to half-inferior ovary ripens into a capsule that dehisces into valves, releasing numerous small seeds.

Though traditionally placed in its own family Parnassiaceae or in Saxifragaceae, Parnassia is here listed under Celastraceae, reflecting molecular evidence that nests the Parnassia-Lepuropetalon lineage within an expanded Celastrales. Parnassia cooperi is a narrow-range eastern Himalayan endemic whose restricted distribution and specialised wetland-alpine habitat make it potentially vulnerable to grazing pressure and climatic shifts, warranting monitoring despite its current data-poor conservation status.

Author: W.E.Evans · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Wu's monograph of Parnassia

Celastraceae

Parnassia kumaonica

by G & P Jürgens

Nekr.

Nepal 99 521 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3800m, June

Description

Parnassia kumaonica Nekr. is a small alpine herb now placed in the Celastraceae (formerly Parnassiaceae or Saxifragaceae), endemic to the western and central Himalaya and adjacent Tibet. GBIF records, numbering 28 occurrences, place it in Nepal, India and China. The species grows in moist alpine meadows, on seepage slopes, streamsides and damp turf, generally between 3,500 and 4,500 m. The illustrated plant from the Churta-Khola in West Nepal at 3,800 m, in flower in June, typifies its habitat in the cool, well-watered alpine zone where snowmelt sustains the marshy ground it requires.

The plant forms a compact, glabrous perennial arising from a short rootstock, with a basal rosette of long-petioled, ovate to reniform, entire leaves that are somewhat fleshy. Each flowering stem bears a single cauline leaf clasping the stem and is terminated by a solitary, regular flower. The five white petals are conspicuously veined and characteristically fringed or fimbriate at the margins; alternating with the fertile stamens are dissected staminodes bearing gland-tipped processes that function as nectar-mimicking visual lures. The superior ovary develops into a capsule splitting into valves to release numerous small winged seeds.

Parnassia is a taxonomically distinctive genus whose elaborate staminodial nectaries have made it a classic subject of pollination biology, and P. kumaonica fits within the western Himalayan assemblage of the genus, distinguished by petal fringing and staminode morphology. Restricted to high-altitude wetlands, it is a sensitive indicator of intact alpine seepage habitats and, like other narrowly distributed Himalayan endemics, is potentially vulnerable to trampling, grazing and the desiccation of alpine springs under a warming climate.

Author: Nekr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ku: Revision of Parnassia

Celastraceae

Parnassia longipetala

by GP Jürgens

Hand.-Mazz.

BhutanPG2011 706 01 01
Bhutan Pele-La, 3000m July

Description

Parnassia longipetala is a perennial herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China; GBIF data, comprising around 85 occurrences, attribute the species principally to China (notably south-western provinces and Xizang), with field records extending into Bhutan. It is a plant of moist alpine and subalpine habitats, growing in wet meadows, grassy seepages, streamsides and among rocks where the substrate remains damp through the growing season. The population photographed at Pele-La in central Bhutan (3000 m, July) is characteristic of its occurrence in the cool, humid pastures and flushes of the eastern Himalaya, flowering during the monsoon-fed summer.

The plant forms a small rosette from a short rootstock, the basal leaves long-petiolate with ovate to cordate, entire blades. The flowering stem is erect, usually bearing a single sessile or shortly clasping cauline leaf below the solitary terminal flower. The flower has five green sepals and five free, white petals; in this species the petals are conspicuously long, narrowed and often fringed or attenuate, giving the epithet. Alternating with the fertile stamens are the characteristic Parnassia staminodes, divided into gland-tipped filaments. The superior to half-inferior ovary develops into a capsule splitting into valves and releasing numerous small seeds.

The family placement given here (Celastraceae) follows the broad APG circumscription, under which Parnassia and its allies (formerly Parnassiaceae) are treated within an enlarged Celastraceae; older floras place the genus in its own family. P. longipetala, described by Handel-Mazzetti, is distinguished within the Himalayan Parnassia complex by its elongate petals and staminode form. Given its restricted documented range and specialised wetland-meadow habitat, the species warrants attention, as such high-elevation flush communities are vulnerable to grazing, drainage and climatic change.

Author: Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, monograph of the genus Parnassia (Wu & Gu)

Celastraceae

Parnassia nubicola

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Royle

Sikkim2003 258 P353
Sikkim Dzongri 4200m August
Sikkim2003 261 P360
Sikkim Dzongri 4200m August
Bhutan2012 233
Bhutan2012 234
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September

Description

Parnassia nubicola Wall. ex Royle is a perennial herb of moist alpine habitats distributed along the Himalaya and into adjoining Central Asia, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan, with around 182 georeferenced occurrences clustered in the high Sino-Himalayan ranges. It favours wet alpine meadows, marshy turf, seepage slopes, streamsides and the moist margins of snowmelt flushes, where soils remain saturated through the growing season. The photographed plants from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 4,200 m in August and from the Shele-La in Bhutan at about 4,000 m in September show its preference for the upper subalpine to alpine zone, where it flowers in late summer.

It grows from a short rhizome as a rosette of long-petioled basal leaves with ovate to cordate, entire blades. The flowering stems are erect and bear usually a single clasping, sessile cauline leaf below the solitary terminal flower. Each flower has five green sepals and five white petals conspicuously veined with green or yellowish lines. Between the fertile stamens lie five fringed staminodes divided into numerous gland-tipped filaments, a hallmark of the genus; the superior ovary ripens into a capsule splitting into four valves to release many small seeds.

The family attribution to Celastraceae follows recent molecular classifications, in which Parnassia (formerly placed in Saxifragaceae or its own Parnassiaceae) is treated within an expanded Celastraceae. The conspicuous nectar-secreting staminodes are associated with generalist insect pollination. Widespread and locally common across its broad range, P. nubicola is not considered threatened, though wetland alpine populations are sensitive to drainage, trampling and grazing.

Author: Wall. ex Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Simmons: Celastraceae (in Kubitzki, 2004)

Celastraceae

Parnassia pusilla

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Sikkim2003 111 P151
Sikkim below Dzongri 3950m 08.2003

Description

Parnassia pusilla is a diminutive grass-of-Parnassus distributed through the central and eastern Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar and represented by some 177 georeferenced occurrences. It is a plant of cold, wet, open high-elevation ground, characteristically inhabiting alpine seepages, marshy meadows, dripping rock ledges and the gravelly margins of snowmelt streams where the substrate remains saturated through summer. The specimen photographed below Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3950 m in August illustrates its strong affinity for the upper alpine flush zone, where it flowers during the brief monsoon-fed growing season among low cushion vegetation and short turf.

It is a small, glabrous perennial herb arising from a short rootstock, forming a basal rosette from which slender, single-flowered scapes emerge. The basal leaves are long-petiolate with ovate to cordate blades, while each flowering stem bears a single sessile, clasping cauline leaf below the flower. The solitary flower is regular and pentamerous, with five free white petals that are conspicuously veined. Characteristic of the genus, alternating with the fertile stamens are five fringed staminodes, each dissected into gland-tipped filaments that serve as pseudonectaries to attract pollinators. The superior ovary develops into a capsule that splits to release numerous small seeds.

Despite its placement here under Celastraceae, Parnassia is morphologically distinctive, and the family circumscription reflects modern molecular treatments that subsume the former Parnassiaceae within an enlarged Celastraceae. The elaborate gland-tipped staminodes are a notable adaptation for insect pollination, offering visual and possibly olfactory rewards without true nectar. As a specialist of high-altitude wetlands, P. pusilla is sensitive to drainage, trampling by livestock and the desiccation of alpine seeps, so it serves as a useful indicator of intact high-mountain mire habitat.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Wu Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Genus Parnassia

Fabaceae

Parochetus communis

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don

Nepal 97 497 G979
Nepal Arun-Valley 1750m May
Nepal 97 336 P666
Nepal Arun-Valley 1750m May
Nepal 1994 58 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Bhalukhob 
1900m April

Description

Parochetus communis, the shamrock pea, is a creeping perennial legume with a remarkably wide Afro-Asian montane distribution. GBIF documents around 1730 occurrences spanning the Himalaya (Nepal, India, Bhutan, China), Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka), the East African highlands (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Malawi) and naturalised in New Zealand. It grows in moist grassland, forest clearings, streambanks, terrace edges and shaded turf, generally between 1500 and 3000 m. The photographed plants are from eastern Nepal at Bhalukhob (1900 m, April) and the Arun Valley (1750 m, May), where it carpets damp banks in spring.

The plant forms prostrate, rooting stems that spread into loose mats and root at the nodes. The leaves are trifoliolate and clover-like, the obcordate leaflets often marked with a darker band, borne on slender petioles with small stipules. The flowers are solitary or paired in the leaf axils, papilionaceous with a standard, wing and keel; the corolla is a vivid cobalt to gentian-blue, occasionally with paler markings, exceeding the tubular calyx. The fruit is a slender, linear-oblong legume that dehisces to release several small seeds.

Parochetus (Fabaceae, subfam. Faboideae) is a small genus historically treated as monotypic until the segregation of the African P. africanus, leaving Asian material under P. communis. GBIF treats the name as accepted. Its disjunct, sky-island range across Asian and African mountains makes it a classic subject in studies of tropical-alpine biogeography. Widespread and adaptable, it is of least concern and is also cultivated as an ornamental groundcover.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Polhill studies of Papilionoid legumes

Ranunculaceae

Paroxygraphis sikkimensis

by GP Jürgens

W.W.Sm.

Bh09 155 G277
Bhutan Jimilangtso, 4100m June

Description

Paroxygraphis sikkimensis is a rare alpine member of the buttercup family endemic to the Eastern Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, Sikkim and adjacent India, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China), with GBIF documenting only 24 occurrences across NP, IN, BT and CN. It inhabits open alpine turf, moist meadows and damp gravelly slopes near the upper limit of vegetation, generally between about 3800 and 4500 m. The photographed plant was found in Bhutan near Jimilangtso (Jimilang Tsho) at around 4100 m, flowering in June at the start of the brief alpine growing season.

The plant is a small, low perennial herb forming a basal rosette of leaves from a slender rootstock, with short, few-flowered stems. The leaves are simple, spathulate to obovate, entire or shallowly toothed toward the apex, and somewhat fleshy. The flowers are solitary or few, with a calyx of sepals and a corolla of small white to yellowish petals each bearing a basal nectary, surrounding numerous free stamens and an apocarpous gynoecium of many separate carpels. The fruit is a head of achenes, each tipped with a short style, in the manner of the closely allied genus Ranunculus.

Paroxygraphis is a small, segregate genus erected by W.W. Smith and traditionally placed near Oxygraphis and Ranunculus within the Ranunculeae; molecular studies have prompted discussion of its relationships and possible inclusion in a broadly circumscribed Ranunculus. Its very restricted range, low number of recorded occurrences and specialised high-alpine habitat make P. sikkimensis a taxon of biogeographic interest and potential conservation concern, though it has not been formally assessed.

Author: W.W.Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of China (Ranunculaceae)