Tag:

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.

Rosaceae

Rubus calycinus

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex D.Don

Bh2008 328 P506
Bhutan Chendebji, 2100m April
Sikkim2004 88 P155
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2600m April
Sikkim 2006 163 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Molley 3000m, May

Description

Rubus calycinus is a creeping Himalayan bramble distributed across China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and into Southeast Asia, with some 255 GBIF occurrences. It is a plant of the floor of moist temperate and subalpine forest, growing on humus-rich banks, mossy slopes and shaded forest margins, generally between about 1800 and 3300 m. The documented populations span Chendebji in Bhutan at 2100 m, Bersay in Sikkim/West Bengal at 2600 m, and Molley at 3000 m, all flowering in April and May, illustrating its early-season anthesis as the forest understorey greens.

Unlike the familiar scrambling brambles, R. calycinus is a small, prostrate, herbaceous to weakly woody perennial with slender, creeping and rooting stems that form low mats, the stems sparsely armed or nearly unarmed and bearing scattered bristles. The leaves are simple, broadly cordate-orbicular and shallowly three- to five-lobed, crenate-serrate at the margin and pilose on both surfaces. The flowers are solitary, white, with a conspicuously enlarged, leafy, lobed calyx that exceeds the petals and gives the species its name. The aggregate fruit is a small reddish drupelet cluster of few segments.

The species belongs to Rubus subgenus Chamaebatus (the herbaceous, simple-leaved creeping brambles), a distinctive group within the genus. It is widespread and not of conservation concern, valued ecologically as ground cover that stabilises forest-floor soils and provides minor forage and fruit for wildlife.

Author: Wall. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Focke monograph Species Ruborum

Rosaceae

Rubus fragarioides

by GP Jürgens

Bertol.

Sikkim2011 234
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June
Bh09 281 P463
Bhutan Pele-La 2900m, June

Description

Rubus fragarioides is a dwarf, strawberry-like bramble of the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 166 occurrence records mapping a range centred on the eastern Himalaya and adjacent western China. It grows in open coniferous and rhododendron forest, forest clearings, alpine meadow margins and mossy banks at upper-temperate to subalpine elevations. The photographed populations—at Yumthang in Sikkim at 3700 m and at Pele-La in Bhutan at 2900 m, both flowering in June—reflect its typical occurrence in cool, humid montane habitats.

Unlike the familiar cane-forming raspberries, this is a diminutive, almost herbaceous perennial spreading by slender creeping rhizomes and bearing only a low, scarcely woody aerial system. The leaves are usually simple to shallowly three-lobed or ternate, with a cordate base, doubly serrate margins and a wrinkled, sparsely hairy surface, recalling those of a strawberry, whence the epithet fragarioides. The flowers are solitary or few, with five spreading white petals, a leafy calyx and numerous stamens and carpels on a domed receptacle. The aggregate fruit is a small red drupelet-cluster, edible and dispersed by birds and small mammals.

Rubus is an enormous and taxonomically difficult genus complicated by hybridisation, polyploidy and apomixis; R. fragarioides, described by Bertoloni, belongs among the low-growing creeping species sometimes segregated in subgenus Chamaebatus. Its mat-forming habit aids soil stabilisation in fragile alpine clearings. Widespread within its montane belt, it is not considered threatened, though it depends on the persistence of intact subalpine forest.

Author: Bertol. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Rosaceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan, Focke's monograph Species Ruborum

Lamiaceae

Salvia roborowskii

by G & P Jürgens

Maxim.

Sikkim2003 359 P502 ergebnis
India Sikkim Lachen 2840m, August

Description

Salvia roborowskii is a perennial herb distributed from the Himalayas across the Sino-Himalayan region to western China. Its range encompasses Nepal, northeast India (Sikkim), Bhutan, and China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu). The species inhabits montane forest clearings, grassy slopes, thicket margins, and alpine meadows at elevations of 2,400–4,200 m. It has been recorded from the Lachen Valley in Sikkim at 2,840 m, flowering profusely in August during the monsoon season, where it grows in open, herbaceous vegetation along stream margins and disturbed ground.
The plant produces erect, square stems 30–80 cm tall from a perennial rootstock, often branched in the upper portion. The stems are pubescent with short, retrorse hairs. The basal and lower cauline leaves are pinnately compound to pinnatisect, with 1–3 pairs of lateral lobes and a larger terminal lobe, the lobes ovate to oblong, irregularly crenate-serrate, sparsely pilose on both surfaces. The upper leaves are progressively reduced. The inflorescence is a series of verticillasters arranged in elongate, terminal, spike-like racemes. The calyx is bilabiate, glandular-pubescent. The corolla is blue to violet-purple, 8–12 mm long, bilabiate with an arched upper lip and a spreading, trilobed lower lip. The nutlets are ovoid, smooth, dark brown.
Salvia roborowskii was described by Maximowicz from material collected during Przewalski's expeditions in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. With over 400 occurrence records in GBIF, it is one of the more frequently collected high-altitude salvias in the region. The species is ecologically significant as a nectar source for montane bumblebees and other long-tongued pollinators. Its broad elevational range and tolerance of disturbed habitats suggest a degree of ecological resilience, though it remains dependent on the persistence of open montane grasslands and forest margins. Taxonomically, it is placed within Salvia subgenus Salvia and is allied to other pinnate-leaved species of the Sino-Himalayan region.

Author: Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Hedge: Salvia in Flora Iranica (1982)

Rosaceae

Sanguisorba filiformis

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook.f.) Hand.-Mazz.

Sikkim2011 119
Sikkim Chopta-valley 4100m, June
Sikkim2011 118
Sikkim Chopta-valley 4100m, June

Description

Sanguisorba filiformis (Hook.f.) Hand.-Mazz. is a slender, alpine perennial herb of the Rosaceae, distributed across the eastern and central Himalaya and the mountains of southwestern and central China. Its documented range encompasses China, Bhutan, India and the Korean Peninsula, with GBIF recording 471 georeferenced occurrences. The species is a characteristic component of moist alpine meadows, streamsides, seepage slopes and open turf at elevations of roughly 3,500–4,800 m. The photographed material from the Chopta valley in Sikkim at 4,100 m in June represents typical high-altitude habitat, where the plant flowers as the snow-melt season advances.

The plant develops a short, woody rhizome bearing a basal rosette of pinnately compound leaves; the leaflets are small, ovate to oblong, crenate-serrate at the margins, glabrous and somewhat glaucous beneath. From this rosette arise wiry, filiform, often nodding flowering stems that give the species its epithet. The inflorescence is a small, loose, capitate to shortly oblong head of few flowers; unlike most Sanguisorba the perianth is comparatively reduced, with whitish to pale pink segments, four stamens, and exserted filaments. The fruit is a small dry achene enclosed within the persistent hypanthium.

Formerly placed in the segregate genus Poterium and the subgenus Sanguisorbella, the taxon is sometimes treated under Sanguisorba filiformis as the accepted name, reflecting its distinctive reduced floral architecture. Its restriction to high-altitude wetland and meadow habitats makes it a useful indicator of intact alpine hydrology, and like many Himalayan turf species it may be sensitive to grazing pressure and climate-driven shifts in snowpack.

Author: (Hook.f.) Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 9, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Nordborg: Sanguisorba — a monographic study (1966)

Orchideaceae

Satyrium nepalense

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Sikkim2003 363 P512
Sikkim Lachen Tista Tal 3450m August
Sikkim2003 364 P511
Sikkim Lachen Tista Tal 3450m August
Nepal 95 100 P178 ergebnis
Nepal Barphak 2450m October
Nepal 95 135 P228 ergebnis
Nepal Barphak 2450m October

Description

Satyrium nepalense D.Don is a terrestrial orchid of remarkably wide distribution, ranging across the Himalaya and southern Asia from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and southern China to Myanmar, and extending through tropical and southern Africa; GBIF records nearly 1921 occurrences, reflecting its broad ecological tolerance. It grows in open grassy slopes, meadows, scrub and forest clearings from the submontane belt to high alpine pastures, broadly between about 1500 and 3700 m. The cited material from Lachen in Sikkim at 3450 m in August and Barphak in central Nepal at 2450 m in October illustrates its long flowering season across a wide altitudinal range.

The species is a terrestric herb arising from paired ovoid, tomentose tubers, with an erect leafy stem bearing a few ovate to lanceolate sheathing leaves. The inflorescence is a dense cylindrical raceme of many small, pink to rose-purple, fragrant flowers; each flower is non-resupinate, with the lip uppermost and produced into two slender, parallel spurs at its base, a diagnostic feature of the genus. The fruit is a small dehiscent capsule releasing abundant dust-like seeds.

Satyrium (Orchidaceae, subtribe Satyriinae) is a chiefly African genus with an outlying Asian representation, of which S. nepalense is the most widespread; its twin-spurred, non-resupinate flowers and moth pollination are characteristic. Valued in traditional medicine for its tubers, the species is locally collected, and although still common it warrants monitoring where harvesting pressure is intense.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Orchids of Sikkim Himalaya, Pridgeon et al. Genera Orchidacearum

Asteraceae

Saussurea gossypiphora

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Sikkim2003 293 P407
Sikkim Samiti-Lake 4400m, August
Nepal 99 626 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4900m, July

Description

Saussurea gossypiphora, the snowball or cotton-headed saussurea, is a remarkable high-alpine herb of the Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan China, recorded only from China and Nepal in GBIF with a mere 26 occurrences, reflecting both its extreme habitat and its restricted, fragmented distribution. It is among the highest-growing flowering plants, inhabiting open scree, moraine, gravelly alpine slopes and the margins of glacial debris in the upper alpine and subnival zone. The images document it in Sikkim near Samiti Lake at about 4400 m in August and in West Nepal on the Kagmara-La at around 4900 m in July, among the most extreme elevations at which it grows.

It is a stout, dwarf perennial herb forming a dense rosette, in which the upper leaves and the capitula are enveloped in a thick mass of long white woolly hairs forming a globose, cotton-wool-like dome. Beneath this insulating covering the leaves are oblanceolate, deeply toothed and arachnoid-hairy. The numerous small discoid capitula are clustered at the apex within the wool, each with purplish tubular florets and a multiseriate involucre. The fruit is a glabrous achene crowned by a feathery, plumose pappus aiding wind dispersal once the protective wool opens.

The dense lanate indumentum is a celebrated adaptation to the subnival environment, trapping heat, buffering night frost and ultraviolet radiation, and sheltering pollinating insects, paralleling the "glasshouse" and "woolly" growth forms found in other high-elevation Saussurea and Rheum. As a slow-growing, habitat-specialised plant of limited range it is potentially vulnerable to climate warming and collection pressure, though it has not been formally assessed.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lipschitz Monograph of the Genus Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea obvallata

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Edgew.

Sikkim2003 453 G623
Sikkim Chopta Valley 3800m August
Sikkim2003 451 P628
Sikkim Chopta Valley 3800m August

Description

Saussurea obvallata is a high-alpine herb of the Sino-Himalayan region, distributed across the mountains of China, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan, with some 350 georeferenced records documenting a broadly continuous arc along the Greater Himalaya. It is a plant of open alpine meadows, moraines, scree slopes and rocky pastures, typically between about 3500 and 4800 m. The photographed material from the Chopta Valley in Sikkim at 3800 m, flowering in August, is characteristic of its preferred late-monsoon habitat on moist, well-drained alpine turf where snow lies long into early summer.

The species is a stout perennial arising from a thick taproot, with an erect, simple, leafy stem. The lower leaves are oblanceolate and dentate, narrowing to a winged petiole, while the upper leaves grade into membranous, pale, semi-translucent bracts that arch inward to enclose the inflorescence. These greenish-straw involucral bracts form the conspicuous globose to urn-shaped "lantern" that almost entirely hides the cluster of dark purple capitula within. The florets are tubular and purple-black, and the achenes bear a feathery, plumose pappus that aids wind dispersal.

The enclosing bract chamber is widely interpreted as an adaptation that buffers temperature, protects pollinating insects from cold and wind, and shelters developing florets at extreme elevation, a striking example of greenhouse-like alpine convergence shared with Rheum nobile. Long known in Himalayan tradition as the sacred "Brahma Kamal," the plant is heavily collected for ornament and medicine, and populations near pilgrimage routes face local pressure of regional conservation concern.

Author: (DC.) Edgew. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lipschitz monograph of Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea polystichoides

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

Sikkim2003 307 P433
Sikkim Saniti-Lake 4250m August

Description

Saussurea polystichoides is a high-alpine perennial herb of the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and adjacent south-western China, with a small documented base of about 43 occurrences consistent with its restricted, high-elevation habitat. It grows on open alpine turf, screes, moraines and rocky slopes, typically between roughly 4000 and 4800 m. The specimen shown was photographed near Saniti Lake in Sikkim at about 4250 m in August, when these short-season alpines flower during the brief post-monsoon window above the treeline.

The plant is a low, cushion-forming or tufted herb arising from a stout caudex clothed in old leaf bases, the name polystichoides alluding to the fern-like, many-ranked rosette of finely divided leaves. The leaves are pinnately lobed to pinnatisect, narrow and densely arranged, often white-woolly to give protection against cold and intense radiation. The capitula are sessile or shortly stalked and aggregated within the leaf rosette; each head bears tubular, purple to violet disc florets enclosed by imbricate, often lanate phyllaries. The fruit is a glabrous cypsela crowned by a feathery, plumose pappus.

Saussurea (Asteraceae, tribe Cardueae) is a large Asian genus particularly diversified in the high Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, where many species have evolved dense indumentum or translucent bracts as adaptations to extreme alpine conditions. S. polystichoides belongs to the group of cushion- or rosette-forming saw-worts of the highest screes. Pollinated by alpine insects and wind-dispersed via its plumose pappus, it is a narrow-range, habitat-specialist endemic of conservation interest given its limited area and sensitivity to climatic warming.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lipschitz monograph of Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea stella

by GP Jürgens

Maxim.

Sikkim2003 511 G712
Sikkim Yume Samdong 4600m August

Description

Saussurea stella is a high-alpine herb distributed across the eastern Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, recorded from China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu), Bhutan and India, with some 821 georeferenced occurrences documented in GBIF. It occupies open alpine meadows, marshy turf, gravelly flushes and the margins of glacial streams, typically between 3000 and 5400 m. The plant photographed at Yume Samdong in northern Sikkim at about 4600 m in August is characteristic of the wet, peaty seepage slopes the species favours during the monsoon, where it forms part of a low cushion-and-rosette sward exposed to intense radiation, nightly frost and a brief growing season.

The species is a stemless, near-acaulescent perennial forming a flat, star-shaped rosette pressed against the substrate from a stout taproot. The numerous lanceolate to linear leaves are glabrous, entire and often suffused with purplish-red, radiating symmetrically and giving the plant its epithet stella. The capitula are sessile and densely clustered at the rosette centre, each involucre with imbricate, purple-tinged phyllaries enclosing tubular purple florets; the corollas are deeply lobed and the anthers tailed at the base. Fruit is a glabrous cylindrical achene with a double pappus of short outer and longer plumose inner bristles.

A member of the large genus Saussurea (subtribe Saussureinae, tribe Cardueae), S. stella belongs to the rosette-forming, ground-hugging guild that recurs in Tibetan alpine floras as an adaptation to cold, windy, high-irradiance environments, the flattened habit and dark pigmentation enhancing heat capture and protecting against ultraviolet stress. Pollination is by alpine flies and bees, and the plumose pappus enables wind dispersal. Though not formally assessed as threatened and locally abundant, it is sensitive to grazing and the warming-driven contraction of alpine seepage habitats.

Author: Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Lipschitz Monograph of Saussurea

Asteraceae

Saussurea taraxacifolia

by GP Jürgens

(Lindl. ex Royle) Wall. ex DC.
Sikkim2003 431 G598
Sikkim below Dzongri 3800m, August
Sikkim2003 101 G138
Sikkim below Dzongri 3800m, August

Description

Saussurea taraxacifolia is a high-elevation composite of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, distributed through Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and southern China, with roughly 209 GBIF records. It is a plant of the alpine zone, growing on open stony slopes, screes, gravelly flats and rocky alpine turf, generally well above the treeline. The Sikkim population photographed below Dzongri at 3800 m in August documents the species in its characteristic high-mountain habitat, flowering during the brief monsoon-fed alpine summer when these rosette perennials complete their reproductive cycle.

The plant is a low, often acaulescent or short-stemmed perennial herb arising from a stout rootstock, typically with a basal rosette of leaves. As the epithet indicates, the leaves are taraxacum-like (dandelion-like): oblanceolate in outline and runcinate-pinnatifid, with backward-pointing lobes, often somewhat woolly. The capitula are discoid, solitary or aggregated into a dense terminal cluster, each enclosed by an involucre of imbricate phyllaries and containing tubular purple to purplish florets; ray florets are absent, as throughout the genus. The fruit is a cypsela crowned by a pappus of plumose inner bristles and shorter, often barbellate outer bristles, an arrangement diagnostic of Saussurea and adapted to wind dispersal.

Saussurea is a large Sino-Himalayan and central Asian genus that has radiated extensively in the high mountains, with many narrowly endemic alpine specialists. S. taraxacifolia, with its dandelion-like rosette leaves, belongs to the low cushion- and rosette-forming alpine element rather than the woolly "snowball" snow-lotus group. Its dependence on open high-elevation habitats makes it a characteristic member of the Himalayan alpine flora; it is moderately widespread and not formally assessed as threatened, though high-mountain endemics of this kind are increasingly vulnerable to warming and habitat contraction.

Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lipschitz's monograph of Saussurea