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.

Arecaceae

Phoenix loureiroi

by G & P Jürgens

Kunth

Bhutan2012 770
Bhutan Zemgang 1600m, October

Description

Phoenix loureiroi Kunth is a small date palm broadly distributed across South and Southeast Asia, recorded by GBIF from Taiwan, India, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Nepal, Myanmar, the Philippines, Laos, Pakistan, Cambodia and Bhutan, with cultivated occurrences in the United States, Cuba, Brazil and Spain, totalling over 2000 records. It grows in open forest, savanna, grassy slopes and rocky hillsides from the lowlands into the lower montane zone, tolerating seasonally dry, fire-prone ground. The Bhutanese material from Zhemgang at 1600 m in October reflects its presence in the warm subtropical foothills.

It is a small, often clustering palm with a short, sometimes subterranean stem clothed in persistent leaf bases, rarely forming a slender erect trunk. The leaves are pinnate and arching, the leaflets (pinnae) linear-lanceolate and stiff, the lower ones modified into sharp spines (acanthophylls), a defining feature of Phoenix. The plants are dioecious, the inflorescences branched spadices enclosed in a spathe, the small unisexual flowers cream to yellowish. The fruit is a small ellipsoid drupe ripening purplish-black to reddish, with thin sweet flesh around a single grooved seed, dispersed by birds.

Phoenix loureiroi is a polymorphic species with several recognised varieties spanning its wide range. As a relative of the cultivated date palm, it provides minor local uses for thatch, fibre and fruit, accounting for the scattered cultivated records. Its fire- and drought-tolerant habit and broad Indo-Malesian to Sino-Himalayan distribution make it a resilient element of open landscapes, and it is not threatened, although habitat conversion locally reduces wild populations.

Author: Kunth · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 23, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Pakistan, Barrow monograph of the genus Phoenix (Palmae)

Rosaceae

Photinia integrifolia

by G & P Jürgens

Lindl.

Bhutan2014 22
Bhutan Sandrup 850m, May
Bhutan2014 481
Bhutan Tongsa 2000m, May

Description

Photinia integrifolia is an evergreen tree or large shrub of broad Indo-Malesian distribution, with verified occurrences across China, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, Korea, Bangladesh and Timor-Leste, and well over a thousand GBIF records reflecting its wide range and abundance. It grows in subtropical to lower-temperate broadleaved and evergreen forest, on slopes and along ridges, generally from near 800 up to about 2500 m. The Bhutanese material cited, from Sandrup at around 850 m and Tongsa near 2000 m, both in May, spans the altitudinal breadth of its habitat from warm foothill forest into cooler mid-elevation woodland.

The tree has smooth grey bark and bears alternate, leathery, glabrous leaves that are oblong to elliptic-lanceolate with entire (rarely obscurely toothed) margins, the integri-folious character of the epithet, tapering to a short petiole. The small white flowers are massed in terminal corymbose panicles; each has five spreading petals, numerous stamens and an inferior to half-inferior ovary. The fruit is a small subglobose pome, red ripening to dark purple-black, containing one or few seeds and readily taken by birds.

Photinia, of subfamily Amygdaloideae (formerly Maloideae), is allied to Pyrus and Sorbus, and P. integrifolia, described by Lindley, is distinguished within the Asian group by its entire-margined evergreen leaves. Ecologically it is a useful timber and fuelwood tree whose bird-dispersed pomes contribute to forest regeneration. Given its very wide distribution and frequency across South and South-East Asia, it is of least conservation concern.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India

Phyllanthaceae

Phyllanthus emblica

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Bhutan2012 534
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September
Nepal 97 68 P104
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1250m April
Nepal 97 67 P103
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1250m April

Description

Phyllanthus emblica, the emblic myrobalan or Indian gooseberry (amla), is a small to medium tree of tropical and subtropical Asia with a very broad distribution embracing India, China, much of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and many introduced ranges, recorded in GBIF by more than 19000 occurrences. It is a plant of deciduous and mixed dry forest, open hillsides, scrub and cultivated and disturbed ground, and is very widely planted, generally from the lowlands up into the hills. The cited material spans Mewa Khola in eastern Nepal at 1250 m, in leaf and flower in April, and Wangdi in Bhutan at 2600 m in September, the latter near the upper elevational limit and reflecting the species' wide ecological amplitude across the southern Himalayan belt.

The tree reaches up to about 8–18 m, with smooth, pale, often flaking bark and slender, feathery branchlets bearing numerous small, distichous, oblong-linear leaves that closely resemble the pinnae of a compound leaf, the whole leafy branchlet being deciduous as a unit. It is monoecious, the small, greenish-yellow, apetalous flowers borne in clusters in the leaf axils. The fruit is the most distinctive feature: a fleshy, globose, pale green to yellowish drupe-like capsule, 1.5–2.5 cm across, with six faint longitudinal furrows, a hard central stone, and a markedly sour, astringent flesh.

Phyllanthus is a vast pantropical genus now placed in the family Phyllanthaceae, segregated from a broadly defined Euphorbiaceae. P. emblica is among the most economically and culturally important of its members: the vitamin-C-rich fruit is a staple of Ayurvedic and traditional medicine and is widely eaten preserved or processed, while the tree yields tannins, dye and timber. It is extensively cultivated and naturalised well beyond its native range. Being abundant, hardy and widely grown, the species is of no conservation concern and is in many areas a familiar element of agroforestry and village landscapes.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, A Monograph of the Genus Phyllanthus (Phyllanthaceae)

Fabaceae

Phyllolobium donianus

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) M.L.Zhang & Podlech

Nepal 2009 27 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Koktrok 3000m, May

Description

Phyllolobium donianus (correctly P. donianum, the accepted spelling), formerly placed in Astragalus, is a Sino-Himalayan legume distributed from Nepal through northern India, Sikkim and Bhutan into south-western China, with 256 GBIF records concentrated in the central and eastern Himalaya. It grows on open grassy slopes, forest clearings, banks and stony alpine pastures in the temperate to subalpine zone. The cited collection from Koktrok in the Helambu region of Nepal at 3000 m in May places its flowering in the late-spring period on warm-temperate mountain grassland before the onset of the summer monsoon.

It is a perennial herb with slender, ascending to trailing stems arising from a woody rootstock, the herbage thinly clothed in appressed medifixed (dolabriform) hairs typical of the genus. The leaves are imparipinnate with several pairs of small elliptic to obovate leaflets. The flowers are pea-shaped (papilionaceous), borne in axillary racemes on long peduncles, the corolla purplish to violet-blue with a notched standard, oblong wings and a blunt keel, subtended by a campanulate, hairy calyx with short teeth. The fruit is a small, membranous to leathery legume, somewhat inflated and stipitate, dehiscing to release several reniform seeds.

Phyllolobium was segregated from the vast genus Astragalus by Zhang and Podlech on the basis of molecular and morphological evidence, comprising a distinctive Asian clade of milkvetches. P. donianum, transferred from Astragalus donianus DC., exemplifies this realignment. Like other milkvetches it is nitrogen-fixing through rhizobial symbiosis and bee-pollinated; it is widespread and not of conservation concern.

Author: (DC.) M.L.Zhang & Podlech · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Zhang & Podlech monograph of Phyllolobium

Solanaceae

Physochlaina praealta 

by G & P Jürgens

(Decne.) Miers

Nepal 99 777 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Baga-La-Phedi 3800m, July

Description

Physochlaina praealta (Decne.) Miers is a robust perennial herb of the high alpine and subalpine zones of the western and central Himalaya and the Tibetan borderlands. GBIF records it from India, China, Nepal and Pakistan (about 360 occurrences), a distribution centred on the cold, arid inner-Himalayan and trans-Himalayan ranges. It grows on open stony slopes, screes, grazed alpine pastures and around herders' camps where the soil is nitrogen-enriched, typically between roughly 3,000 and 4,500 m; the photographed plant is from West Nepal, Baga-La-Phedi, at 3,800 m in July, at the height of the brief alpine growing season.

The plant arises from a stout, perennial rootstock and forms an erect, branched, somewhat viscid-pubescent stem. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, entire to sinuate, narrowed to a winged petiole and soft in texture. The flowers are borne in terminal, somewhat scorpioid cymes; the corolla is campanulate to tubular, dull yellowish or greenish often tinged purple, with a five-lobed limb, and the calyx is accrescent. In fruit the calyx enlarges into an inflated, bladder-like, membranous structure (Physochlaina meaning swollen cloak) that encloses the circumscissile capsule (pyxidium), an adaptation aiding wind dispersal across open terrain.

Like many Hyoscyameae, the genus is rich in tropane alkaloids (hyoscyamine, scopolamine) and is poisonous yet medicinally used in Himalayan and Tibetan traditional systems. Physochlaina is a small Central Asian–Himalayan genus exemplifying the cold-desert Solanaceae element. The species is naturally localised but not currently regarded as threatened.

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

Apiaceae

Physospermopsis obtusiuscula

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) C. Norman

Sikkim2003 247 P340
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m 08.2003

Description

Physospermopsis obtusiuscula is an alpine umbellifer of the eastern and central Himalaya, distributed across China (Tibet and adjacent provinces), Nepal, northern India and Bhutan, the roughly 136 GBIF records tracing this high-mountain arc. It inhabits open alpine meadows, moist grassy slopes, scree margins and the edges of dwarf-rhododendron and juniper scrub, characteristically between about 3500 and 4800 m. The photographed plant from Dzongri in Sikkim at 4100 m in August illustrates its late-summer flowering on a damp, high-alpine pasture, where it grows among cushion plants and short turf.

It is a small to medium perennial herb arising from a slender taproot or short rhizome, with one to few erect, ribbed, sometimes purplish stems. The leaves are mostly basal, with sheathing petioles, the blade ternately to pinnately dissected into narrow, obtuse ultimate segments. The inflorescence is a compound umbel subtended by conspicuous, often leafy bracts and bracteoles; the small flowers bear white to pinkish petals. The fruit is a mericarp pair, ovoid and somewhat laterally compressed, with prominent ribs, the genus name alluding to the inflated or bladder-like fruit character within the Apioideae.

The genus Physospermopsis comprises a small group of high-Asian umbellifers centred on the Himalaya and the Hengduan Mountains, allied to Pleurospermum and segregated chiefly on fruit and vittae characters. P. obtusiuscula, distinguished by its blunt leaf segments, is a typical element of the wet alpine flora at the upper limit of vascular plant growth. It is not formally assessed for conservation but, like other narrowly distributed alpine umbellifers, is potentially sensitive to grazing pressure and climate-driven upslope shifts.

Author: (DC.) C. Norman · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Umbelliferae of the Himalaya (revision)

Phytolaccaceae

Phytolacca acinosa

by G & P Jürgens

Roxb.

Bhutan2014 111
Bhutan Trashigang 1550m, May

Description

Phytolacca acinosa is a robust herbaceous perennial native to the temperate and subtropical mountains of Asia, from the Himalaya and China eastward to Korea and Japan, and now widely naturalised across Europe, where GBIF records dominate; the more than 40,000 occurrences logged reflect its abundance as an introduced plant across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Britain as much as its native Asian range. Within its indigenous range it grows at forest margins, in clearings and on disturbed or cultivated ground at lower and middle elevations. The photographed plant was recorded in eastern Bhutan at Trashigang around 1550 m in May, a setting typical of this nitrogen-loving herb.

The plant arises from a stout, fleshy, often massive perennial taproot and produces tall, erect, branching, somewhat succulent stems. The leaves are alternate, large, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, entire, with an acute apex and tapering base. The flowers are borne in dense, erect to suberect racemes opposite the leaves; each has five whitish to greenish tepals, the stamens and free carpels typically numbering around eight to ten. The fruit is a fleshy, depressed-globose berry of distinct segments, ripening dark purple-black, each with a single shining seed.

Phytolacca (Phytolaccaceae) is a small genus of pokeweeds known for their berry-like fruits and saponin-rich tissues. P. acinosa is distinguished from the American P. americana by its erect fruiting racemes and free carpels. The young shoots are eaten as a cooked vegetable in Asia, though the root and mature plant are toxic. Far from threatened, it is a successful colonist, now widespread and sometimes weedy beyond its homeland.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Nowicke monograph of Phytolaccaceae

Pinaceae

Picea smithiana

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) Boiss.

Nepal 99 189 ergebnis
West-Nepal Lara-Lake 3000m, June

Description

Picea smithiana, the West Himalayan or morinda spruce, is a large coniferous tree native to the western and central Himalaya, with a natural range from Afghanistan through northern Pakistan and India to western Nepal and adjacent Tibet (China). The numerous GBIF records outside this core area (United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium and others) reflect its long history in arboreta and forestry cultivation rather than natural occurrence. In the wild it forms montane and subalpine coniferous forest, often mixed with Cedrus deodara, Abies pindrow and Pinus wallichiana, typically between about 2,000 and 3,600 m. The plant photographed at Lara Lake in West Nepal at 3,000 m in June lies near the south-eastern limit of its distribution.

The tree is evergreen, reaching 40 m or more, with a straight trunk and conspicuously pendulous branchlets that give it a weeping habit. The leaves are needle-like, quadrangular in cross-section, dark green, among the longest of any spruce at up to 4 cm, borne radially on raised peg-like pulvini. It is monoecious; the pollen cones are small and reddish, while the seed cones are pendulous, cylindrical, 12-18 cm long, green ripening to glossy brown, with smooth-margined, rounded scales. The winged seeds are shed in autumn.

Picea smithiana is the only spruce native to the western Himalaya and is valued for its soft, light timber and as an ornamental. It is assessed as Least Concern globally, though local populations are reduced by logging and grazing pressure. Its weeping, long-needled morphology distinguishes it readily from the eastern Himalayan Picea spinulosa, with which it forms a vicariant pair across the genus's Himalayan distribution.

Author: (Wall.) Boiss. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Pakistan, GBIF, Farjon: A Handbook of the World's Conifers

Pinaceae

Picea spinulosa

by G & P Jürgens

(Griff.) A.Henry

Bhutan2015 407
Bhutan Jakar 2550, October
Sikkim2004 440 P767
Sikkim/India Lachung 3400m May

Description

Picea spinulosa, the Sikkim or Himalayan weeping spruce, is a coniferous tree endemic to the eastern Himalaya, native to Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal and adjacent China (Xizang); GBIF lists 291 occurrences, many from cultivated arboretum specimens in Europe and North America. In the wild it forms montane coniferous and mixed forests, often on north-facing slopes and in sheltered valleys, generally between about 2300 and 3700 m. The trees illustrated were photographed at Jakar in Bhutan at 2550 m in October and at Lachung in Sikkim at 3400 m in May, spanning the typical altitudinal range.

It is a tall evergreen tree with a conical to columnar crown and pendulous, weeping branchlets that give the species its distinctive habit. The bark is grey and scaly; the needle leaves are flattened, sharply pointed (spinulose, as the epithet notes), borne singly on small peg-like pulvini and showing two whitish stomatal bands beneath. The seed cones are pendulous, cylindrical, green ripening to pale brown, with thin, rounded, entire scales. Pollen and seed cones mature in a single season, and the winged seeds are dispersed by wind from the opening cones.

Picea spinulosa belongs to Pinaceae and is a regional dominant of the eastern Himalayan temperate conifer forests, frequently associating with Tsuga, Abies and broadleaved genera. Its graceful weeping form has led to its planting in temperate arboreta worldwide, accounting for the wide scatter of cultivated records. The species yields useful softwood timber. Although restricted in natural range, it remains locally common; nonetheless its forests are vulnerable to logging, fire and the cumulative effects of land-use change across the eastern Himalaya.

Author: (Griff.) A.Henry · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Conifers of the World, Farjon A Handbook of the World's Conifers

Plantaginaceae

Picrorhiza kurroa

by G & P Jürgens

Royle ex Benth.

Garh 07 159 ergebnis
Garh 07 382 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3550m, June

Description

Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth. is a high-alpine perennial herb of the western and central Himalaya. GBIF records (238 occurrences) place it in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and adjacent China, with its core range along the alpine zone of the Himalayan arc. It was photographed in Garhwal at Kinkhola at 3,550 m in June, a characteristic station on open, rocky alpine slopes, moist screes, and herb-rich meadows between about 3,000 and 4,500 m. The species favours cool, well-drained, often north-facing situations where snow lies late.

The plant develops a creeping, woody, bitter-tasting rhizome from which arise rosettes of leaves. The foliage is mostly basal, the leaves spatulate to obovate, sharply serrate, and tapering into a winged petiole. Erect, leafless scapes bear a dense, cylindrical, spike-like raceme of small flowers; the corolla is bluish-purple to pale, five-lobed, with conspicuously exserted stamens, giving the inflorescence a bristly appearance. The fruit is a small, ovoid capsule containing numerous seeds. The genus is now placed in Plantaginaceae following the dismantling of the traditional Scrophulariaceae.

Picrorhiza kurroa is one of the most heavily exploited Himalayan medicinal plants, the rhizome ("kutki") being a long-established source of the hepatoprotective iridoid glycosides picroside I and II. Sustained wild harvesting for the herbal trade, combined with its narrow alpine niche, has driven steep population declines; it is listed on CITES Appendix II and is regarded as threatened across much of its range, prompting cultivation and conservation initiatives.

Author: Royle ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Hooker: Flora of British India Vol. 4