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Sikkim

Flowers of Sikkim — 350 species from the Sikkim Himalaya in northeast India, a compact yet botanically extraordinary region that climbs from subtropical valleys to the alpine zone beneath Kangchenjunga. Sikkim is a classic centre of Himalayan plant diversity, celebrated for its rhododendrons, primulas, orchids and gentians. Each entry provides a botanical description, distribution, habitat and flowering season with the original field photograph.

Potamogetonaceae

Potamogeton nodosus

by GP Jürgens

Poir.

Sikkim2003 516 G716
Sikkim Yume Samdong 4700m August

Description

Potamogeton nodosus Poir. is a cosmopolitan aquatic perennial of the Potamogetonaceae, one of the most widely distributed pondweeds. Its extensive GBIF record (over 40,000 occurrences) spans Europe, the Americas, North Africa, the Middle East, and temperate Asia including China and Japan, reflecting a near-global range in suitable freshwater habitats. It was recorded in Sikkim at Yume Samdong at the remarkable altitude of 4,700 m in August, an unusually high station that illustrates the species' tolerance of cold, high-altitude standing and slow-flowing waters. It typically colonises ponds, ditches, lakes, and gently flowing rivers on fine, nutrient-rich substrates.

The plant is rooted, with a creeping rhizome bearing slender, branching stems. It is heterophyllous: the floating leaves are long-petiolate, elliptic to oblong, leathery and parallel-veined, while submerged leaves, when present, are narrower and more translucent. The membranous stipules are conspicuous and free from the leaf base. Small greenish flowers are borne in a dense, emergent, cylindrical spike on a stout peduncle; pollination is by wind and water, and the fruit is a small, beaked, dorsally keeled drupelet.

Potamogeton nodosus belongs to a taxonomically difficult genus prone to hybridisation, with broad-leaved species often requiring careful examination of fruit and stipule characters for identification. As a near-cosmopolitan generalist it is of no conservation concern; indeed it can become locally dominant in nutrient-enriched waters. Its presence provides oxygenation, food, and shelter within freshwater ecosystems.

Author: Poir. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 23, Flora of Pakistan, GBIF, Wiegleb & Kaplan: Account of the Species of Potamogeton (1998)

Rosaceae

Potentilla articulata var. latipetiolata

by G & P Jürgens

(C.E.C. Fisch.) T.T. Yu & C.L. Li

Sikkim2003 506 P706 ergebnis
Sikkim Yume Samdong 4400m, August

Description

Potentilla articulata var. latipetiolata is a high-altitude perennial herb found in the eastern Himalayas and extending into the Sino-Himalayan region. It has been recorded from northeast India (Sikkim), Bhutan, and China (Xizang, Yunnan). The variety inhabits alpine scree, rocky moraine margins, and gravelly slopes at elevations of 3,800–5,000 m, favouring well-drained, mineral substrates with sparse vegetation cover. It has been collected from the Yume Samdong area in Sikkim at 4,400 m, flowering in August at the height of the eastern Himalayan monsoon.
The plant forms a compact, caespitose rosette from a stout, woody caudex covered with persistent, fibrous leaf-base remnants. The basal leaves are pinnately compound with 5–9 leaflets that are obovate to elliptic, 5–12 mm long, densely sericeous to villous on both surfaces, giving the foliage a silvery appearance. The petioles are broad and somewhat winged, a diagnostic character of var. latipetiolata distinguishing it from the typical variety. The flowering stems are short, 3–10 cm tall, bearing 1–3 flowers. The flowers are 10–15 mm in diameter, with five bright yellow, broadly obovate petals exceeding the sepals. The epicalyx segments are lanceolate, slightly shorter than the sepals. The achenes are smooth, ovoid, approximately 1.5 mm long.
This variety was originally described by C.E.C. Fischer and subsequently recombined by T.T. Yu and C.L. Li. It is distinguished from the typical Potentilla articulata primarily by its broader, more conspicuously winged petioles. With approximately 39 occurrence records in GBIF, it is a relatively uncommon taxon. The high-alpine habitats it occupies are among the most climate-sensitive ecosystems in the Himalayas, and long-term monitoring of such specialised alpine rosette plants is important for understanding biotic responses to warming temperatures and glacial retreat in the region.

Author: (C.E.C. Fisch.) T.T. Yu & C.L. Li · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 9, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1 (1987)

Rosaceae

Potentilla coriandrifolia

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Sikkim2003 132 G180
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m, August
Sikkim2003 133 W181
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m, August

Description

Potentilla coriandrifolia D.Don is a high-alpine perennial distributed across the eastern and central Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with extralimital cultivated records elsewhere; some 542 georeferenced occurrences are documented in GBIF. It inhabits open turf, stony alpine meadows, gravelly slopes and the margins of moraines, typically between 3500 and 4800 m. The photographed plant grows at Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3900 m, flowering in August, a setting typical of the cool, well-drained alpine sward where this cushion-forming herb thrives among dwarf rhododendrons and graminoids.

The plant develops from a stout, woody, branched rootstock crowned by the persistent remains of old petioles, forming low tufts or loose mats. The leaves are radical, pinnate or pinnatisect with a coriander-like (coriandrifolium) dissection, the leaflets deeply incised into narrow oblong segments and often somewhat glaucous or silky beneath. Flowering stems are slender, ascending and few-flowered. The flowers are typically yellow, occasionally suffused with reddish or purplish tones at the base of the petals, with five obcordate petals exceeding the calyx, an epicalyx alternating with the sepals, and numerous stamens surrounding a central tuft of carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of dry achenes seated on a hairy receptacle.

A member of the large and taxonomically intricate genus Potentilla, this species belongs to the assemblage of dwarf Himalayan cinquefoils adapted to short growing seasons and intense insolation. Its distinctive finely cut foliage distinguishes it from related alpine taxa such as P. microphylla. Though not assessed as threatened, populations are restricted to fragile high-altitude habitats sensitive to grazing pressure and climate-driven upslope shifts, making the species a useful indicator of alpine ecosystem condition.

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

Rosaceae

Potentilla fruticosa var. arbuscula

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Maxim.

Sikkim2003 189 P260
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m, August

Description

Potentilla fruticosa var. arbuscula is a shrubby cinquefoil of the high mountains of the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan and Japan. GBIF treats the name as a synonym, with Potentilla fruticosa var. arbuscula (here cited following the source) regarded as the accepted designation for this entity; in modern treatments the shrubby cinquefoils are often placed in the segregate genus Dasiphora. It grows in alpine and subalpine scrub, open meadows, rocky slopes and stream-sides above and near the treeline, generally between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed plant comes from Dzongri in Sikkim at around 4100 m, flowering in August. With over 400 georeferenced records it is a well-documented high-montane shrub.

It forms a low, much-branched deciduous shrub, often spreading or cushion-like at the highest elevations, the bark shredding and the young shoots silky-hairy. The leaves are pinnate with usually five small, narrow, oblong leaflets that are green above and densely silvery-silky beneath, with revolute margins. The flowers are solitary or few in the leaf axils and at the branch tips; each has five green sepals alternating with epicalyx segments and five broad, rounded, golden-yellow petals exceeding the calyx. The numerous stamens surround a hairy receptacle bearing many free carpels, which ripen into a head of small hairy achenes.

The shrubby cinquefoil complex is taxonomically intricate and widely cultivated in horticulture; var. arbuscula is distinguished within it by its dense indumentum and Himalayan high-altitude form. Its abundant nectar-rich flowers attract a range of insect pollinators. As a common and broadly distributed alpine shrub it is of least conservation concern.

Author: (D.Don) Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Soják's revisions of Potentilla and Dasiphora

Rosaceae

Potentilla fruticosa var. pumila

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 530
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Dem-Tso, 4000m June
Sikkim2003 290 P401
Sikkim Saniti-Lake, 4300m August

Description

This dwarf shrubby cinquefoil belongs to the widespread circumboreal complex now placed by many authorities in the genus Dasiphora, the name GBIF treats as accepted; the very large occurrence total of over 83,000 reflects the broad species aggregate across North America, Europe and northern Asia, including China. The taxon is a true alpine, growing on stony pastures, lake shores, moraines and exposed rocky slopes near and above the treeline. The recorded high-Himalayan plants from Dem-Tso on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at 4000 m in June and from Saniti Lake in Sikkim at 4300 m in August represent prostrate dwarf forms of the cold, windswept upper alpine zone.

It is a low, much-branched deciduous shrub, in this variety dwarf and often mat-forming, with shredding brown bark on the older stems. The leaves are pinnate with usually five small, oblong to elliptic, entire leaflets that are silky-hairy and somewhat revolute at the margins, with conspicuous stipules. The flowers are solitary or few, with five rounded yellow petals, numerous stamens, and an epicalyx alternating with the green calyx lobes. The fruit is a head of small, hairy achenes typical of the genus.

The dwarf variety pumila is one of several poorly delimited high-elevation forms within a polymorphic, taxonomically contested group spanning Potentilla, Dasiphora and Pentaphylloides. Hardy and stress-tolerant, the shrub is a pioneer of skeletal alpine soils and a familiar component of treeline scrub across the Northern Hemisphere, of biogeographic interest as a connecting element between Himalayan and arctic floras.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Soják's revisions of Dasiphora and Potentilla

Rosaceae

Potentilla microphylla

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Bh09 163 G288 1
Bhutan Labana, 4100m June
Garh 07 374 ergebnis
Garh 07 375 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3900m, June
Sikkim2003 505 G705 ergebnis
Sikkim Yume Samdong 4400m, August

Description

Potentilla microphylla D.Don is a dwarf, cushion-forming cinquefoil of the high Himalaya and Tibetan borderlands, occurring through China, India, Nepal and Bhutan. Reliable verbatim occurrence and country totals in the source record are unfortunately conflated with family-level aggregate figures, so the very large occurrence count and the European-dominated country list cited there pertain to the family Rosaceae rather than to this species, which is genuinely a high-alpine Himalayan endemic. It grows on exposed rocky ridges, screes, gravelly flats and crevices, typically between about 3500 and 5000 m. The illustrated plants come from Labana in Bhutan (4100 m, June), Khiar Kutti in Garhwal, India (3900 m, June), and Yume Samdong in Sikkim (4400 m, August), all severe high-alpine stations.

The plant forms dense, low cushions or mats from a woody, much-branched rootstock clothed in persistent old leaf bases. The leaves are crowded, small and pinnate with several pairs of tiny, closely set leaflets (the epithet microphylla, small-leaved), the leaflets often coriaceous, revolute-margined and silky or glabrescent. The flowers are usually solitary on short stalks barely exceeding the foliage, with five yellow, broadly obcordate petals longer than the sepals, an epicalyx, numerous stamens and a central cluster of carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of small dry achenes seated on a hairy receptacle.

Within Potentilla this species belongs to the dwarf, densely caespitose alpine cinquefoils, its compact cushion habit conserving warmth and moisture against wind and intense radiation. It is readily distinguished from the finely dissected P. coriandrifolia by its small, regularly pinnate, leathery leaflets. The species is widespread across its high-elevation belt and not of conservation concern, but is a characteristic component of fragile alpine cushion communities.

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

Rosaceae

Potentilla monanthes var. monanthes

by G & P Jürgens

author unknown

Sikkim2011 231
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June

Description

Potentilla monanthes var. monanthes is a high-altitude cinquefoil of the Himalaya, a member of the rose family despite the unhelpful "Uncategorized" family label carried in the source data. GBIF records are sparse, with only about 18 occurrences and confirmed presence in Nepal and Pakistan, consistent with a narrowly recorded alpine plant of the western and central Himalaya. It grows in alpine meadows, short turf, stony slopes, screes and rock crevices above the treeline, where thin soils, intense insolation and a brief growing season prevail. The photographed plant from Yumthang in Sikkim at about 3700 m, flowering in June, extends the documented range eastward and exemplifies its occurrence in moist alpine pasture soon after snow-melt at the start of the short montane summer.

It is a small, tufted to mat-forming perennial herb arising from a stout, often branched, woody rootstock or caudex clothed in the persistent remains of old leaf bases. The leaves are mostly basal and pinnately or digitately compound, with few small, obovate to cuneate leaflets that are toothed toward the apex and frequently silky-hairy, giving the foliage a silvery cast adapted to high light and cold. The flowering stems are short and few-flowered, and the variety is distinguished, as its epithet monanthes (single-flowered) implies, by typically solitary flowers. Each flower has the usual Potentilla structure: five green sepals alternating with five epicalyx segments, five yellow obcordate petals, numerous stamens and many free carpels on a hairy receptacle, ripening into a head of small dry achenes.

Within the large and taxonomically difficult genus Potentilla, P. monanthes belongs to the dwarf, cushion-forming alpine cinquefoils and is recognised in the typical variety by its reduced, single-flowered habit; allied entities have been segregated as further varieties or confused with related Himalayan species. Its low stature, dense silky indumentum and woody caudex are classic adaptations to the windswept, cold, high-alpine environment, and pollination is by generalist alpine insects. Given its very small number of records and restricted high-elevation habitat, the taxon is poorly known and would benefit from further survey; while not formally assessed, narrow-range alpine cinquefoils of this kind are inherently vulnerable to climate-driven contraction of the alpine zone.

Author: author unknown · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 9, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Soják's revision of Potentilla

Rosaceae

Potentilla monanthes var. sipthorpioides

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

Sikkim2004 288 G500
Sikkim/India Dzongri 3900m May

Description

Potentilla monanthes var. sipthorpioides is a small alpine cinquefoil endemic to the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, India and Bhutan. It is a plant of open alpine turf, damp grassy slopes, rock ledges and the margins of streams and snow-melt flushes in the high mountains, generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The photographed plant grows at Dzongri in Sikkim, northern India, at around 3900 m, flowering in May soon after snowmelt. With only nine georeferenced occurrences it is among the more sparsely documented Himalayan potentillas, reflecting both its restricted range and its inconspicuous, low-growing habit in remote high terrain.

It is a slender, tufted perennial herb arising from a slender rootstock, forming low mats or small cushions. The leaves are mostly basal, ternate or digitately divided, with small obovate to cuneate leaflets that are toothed at the apex, green and thinly hairy to silky, on slender petioles. The flowering stems are short and slender, ascending, usually bearing solitary or few flowers. The flowers are small, with five green sepals alternating with narrower epicalyx segments, and five obovate to obcordate yellow petals slightly exceeding the calyx. The numerous stamens surround a domed receptacle bearing many free carpels. The fruit is a cluster of small dry achenes seated on the dry receptacle.

Within the variable Potentilla monanthes complex, this variety is distinguished by characters of leaf division and stature, and its taxonomic limits remain somewhat uncertain pending revision of the Himalayan members of the genus. Its restricted distribution and few records mean its conservation status is poorly assessed; high-altitude grazing pressure and climatic change in the alpine zone are potential concerns for such narrow-range taxa.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Soják's revisions of Asian Potentilla

Rosaceae

Potentilla peduncularis

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Sikkim2011 228
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June
BhutanPG2011 224
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3600m June

Description

Potentilla peduncularis is a Sino-Himalayan cinquefoil recorded in GBIF from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar across 239 occurrences. It occupies alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes, open scrub and stream margins, typically between 3000 and 4300 m. The photographed plants were recorded at Yumthang in Sikkim at about 3700 m and at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3600 m, both in June, when long days and snow-melt moisture drive the early summer flush of flowering on these high pastures.

It is a tufted perennial herb arising from a stout, woody, branched rootstock, producing ascending to spreading flowering stems 15-40 cm tall that are clothed in spreading hairs. The leaves are pinnate (imparipinnate) with several pairs of oblong, deeply serrate to incised leaflets that are green and pilose above and densely white- to grey-tomentose beneath, giving a bicoloured aspect. The inflorescence is a lax, long-pedunculate cyme of yellow flowers, each with five sepals alternating with epicalyx segments, five obcordate petals, and numerous stamens surrounding a domed receptacle of carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of small, glabrous achenes.

Although widely accepted, the name is treated in GBIF as a synonym, with Potentilla peduncularis itself given as the accepted name; the species sits within the large, taxonomically intricate genus Potentilla (Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae), where the dense white leaf indumentum is a useful diagnostic among Himalayan yellow-flowered cinquefoils. Pollination is by generalist insects, and the dry achenes are dispersed passively. It is locally frequent and not regarded as threatened.

Author: D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Soják revision of Asian Potentilla

Rosaceae

Potentilla reptans

by GP Jürgens

L.

Sikkim2003 475 G660
Sikkim Lachung Valley 3200m August

Description

Potentilla reptans, creeping cinquefoil, is an exceptionally widespread Eurasian and North African perennial, one of the commonest of all temperate herbs, with over 740,000 GBIF occurrences dominated by European records from France, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Iberia and Russia, alongside its introduced range. It thrives in grassland, roadsides, meadows, lawns and disturbed moist ground from lowlands to montane elevations. In the Himalaya it occurs as a native or naturalised element, as documented in the Lachung Valley of Sikkim at 3200 m in August, where it grows along damp valley tracks and pasture edges during the monsoon.

It is a prostrate, stoloniferous perennial spreading by long slender runners that root at the nodes to form extensive mats. The leaves are long-petioled and palmately compound, usually with five obovate, coarsely toothed leaflets (hence "cinquefoil"), green and sparsely hairy. The flowers are solitary on slender axillary pedicels arising from the nodes, the corolla bright yellow with five broadly obcordate petals exceeding the epicalyx and calyx, surrounding numerous stamens and a dome of free carpels on a hairy receptacle. The fruit is an aggregate of small, dry, finely rugose achenes.

Potentilla is a large rosaceous genus and P. reptans is a model of clonal growth, reproducing efficiently by rooting stolons as well as by seed. Its open yellow flowers are visited by a broad range of generalist insects. As an aggressive colonist of disturbed ground it is of weedy rather than conservation significance and is among the most ecologically successful species in the genus.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora Europaea, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Wolf monograph of Potentilla