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.

Brassicaceae

Cardamine macrophylla

by GP Jürgens

Willd.

Sikkim2011 373
Sikkim Lada-La 3800m, June
Sikkim 2006 356 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tamrong 2750m, May

Description

Cardamine macrophylla Willd. is a robust perennial crucifer with a broad distribution across temperate Asia, occurring in China, Russia, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Korea and elsewhere. In the Himalaya it is recorded from Sikkim at Lada-La near 3800 m, flowering in June, and from Tamrong in West Bengal at about 2750 m in May, spanning the temperate to subalpine zones. The species favours moist, shaded habitats: streamsides, wet meadows, forest margins, ravines and seepage slopes, generally between 2000 and 4000 m, on rich, humose soils. Its roughly 5068 GBIF records reflect a genuinely widespread and frequently collected species across its extensive range.

The plant arises from a creeping, scaly rhizome and produces erect, stout, leafy stems up to 70 cm or more. The leaves are pinnately compound with several pairs of large, lanceolate to ovate, serrate leaflets, the foliage notably ample for the genus, accounting for the epithet macrophylla. The flowers are borne in dense terminal corymbose racemes and are showy, with four spreading petals of pink, lilac to purplish hue and the usual tetradynamous stamens. The fruit is a long, linear, flattened silique that dehisces elastically to scatter the seeds in a single row.

Cardamine belongs to the tribe Cardamineae, a large and taxonomically complex genus in which polyploidy and hybridisation are widespread; C. macrophylla itself encompasses considerable morphological and cytological variation, with several infraspecific taxa and allied forms recognised across its range. Spreading both by seed and by rhizome, it can form extensive clonal stands in suitable wet ground. Widespread and ecologically tolerant, it is of no conservation concern, and the rhizome and young shoots are used locally as a wild vegetable.

Author: Willd. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Cardamine systematic revisions (Al-Shehbaz)

Brassicaceae

Cardamine violacea

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Wall.

Sikkim2011 380
Sikkim Lada-La 3800m, June
BhutanPG2011 602 01 1
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Kem-La, 4300m July
Bh09 213 G356
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Kem-La, 4300m July

Description

Cardamine violacea is a Sino-Himalayan crucifer recorded from Nepal, China (chiefly Xizang), Bhutan and India, with GBIF aggregating around 82 occurrences. It is a herb of high-altitude moist habitats, occupying alpine meadows, seepage slopes, stream banks and the margins of melting snow patches generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The accompanying records illustrate this band well: material from the Lada-La in Sikkim at 3800 m flowering in June, and from the Kem-La on the Ludlow–Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at 4300 m in July, the later eastern flowering reflecting the persistence of snow cover at greater elevation. The plant favours cool, consistently damp ground rich in organic matter.

It is a slender perennial herb arising from a creeping rhizome, the stems erect to ascending and usually simple. The leaves are pinnately compound or lyrate, with a few pairs of lateral leaflets and a larger terminal segment, the margins entire to coarsely toothed; basal and cauline leaves grade in size up the stem. The inflorescence is a terminal corymb-like raceme that elongates in fruit. Flowers bear four sepals and four free, clawed petals coloured violet to purple, an unusual hue in a genus dominated by white-flowered species, with the typical tetradynamous androecium of six stamens. The fruit is a slender, linear, flattened silique that dehisces explosively to scatter the seeds.

The taxon was described as Arabis violacea by D.Don and transferred to Cardamine by Wallich; the cited Himalayan plants have at times been segregated as subsp. bhutanica. Cardamine is a large cosmopolitan genus, and its Himalayan alpine members form a difficult complex in which characters of leaf division and petal colour are critical for identification. As a specialist of snowmelt-fed alpine habitats, C. violacea is potentially vulnerable to reduced and earlier snowmelt, though its broad distribution and remote terrain limit immediate concern.

Author: (D.Don) Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Jafri 'Brassicaceae' treatment

Liliaceae

Cardiocrinum giganterum

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) Makino

Garh 07 234 ergebnis
India Garwahl Trijugi Narayan 2250m, June
Sikkim 2006 469 ergebnis
Sikkim Ringi Chu 2200, May
Sikkim 2006 471 ergebnis
Sikkim Ringi Chu 2200, May

Description

Cardiocrinum giganteum is the world's largest lily, distributed from central Nepal through Sikkim, Bhutan, and northeast India into upper Myanmar and southwestern China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Xizang). With over 1,370 occurrences recorded on GBIF, it is well-documented across its range. The species inhabits moist, shaded ravines and openings in temperate broadleaved and mixed forests at elevations of 1,500–2,800 m, favouring deep, humus-rich soils under canopies of Magnolia, Acer, and Rhododendron.
Cardiocrinum giganteum is a monocarpic perennial growing from a large, conical bulb up to 15 cm in diameter. In its final flowering year, the plant produces a stout, hollow stem reaching 1.5–3.5 m in height. Basal leaves are broadly cordate, glossy dark green, up to 45 cm long, with a conspicuous reticulate venation. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme of 10–20 large, trumpet-shaped, fragrant flowers, each 15–20 cm long, white with maroon-purple streaking inside the throat. The six tepals are slightly recurved at the tips. The fruit is an oblong, erect capsule, 4–6 cm long, containing numerous flat, winged seeds adapted for wind dispersal. After flowering and fruiting, the parent bulb dies, but several daughter bulblets persist at the base, requiring 5–7 years to reach flowering size.
The species was first described from material collected by Nathaniel Wallich in Nepal. The photographed specimens from Trijugi Narayan in Garhwal (2,250 m) and Ringi Chu in Sikkim (2,200 m) represent populations near the western and central portions of the range, respectively. Though widely cultivated in temperate gardens, wild populations face pressure from habitat fragmentation and collection. The var. yunnanense, sometimes recognized from southwestern China, differs in its bronze-flushed foliage, but its taxonomic distinctness remains debated.

Author: (Wall.) Makino · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Grierson & Long (1983)

Liliaceae

Cardiocrinum giganteum

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Makino

Sikkim2011 386 1
Sikkim 2011
Bh09 306 P503
Bhutan 2009
Sikkim 2006 470 ergebnis

Description

Cardiocrinum giganteum, the giant Himalayan lily, is a stately bulbous herb of the temperate Himalaya and south-western China, distributed from northern India and Nepal through Bhutan into Myanmar and China, with over 1380 occurrence records, many from cultivation across Europe, North America, New Zealand and Japan where it is a prized ornamental. It grows in moist, shaded broad-leaved and coniferous forest, ravines and forest margins, generally between about 2000 and 3600 m. The photographs derive from Sikkim (2011) and Bhutan (2009), within the rich mid-montane forests where the species attains its impressive stature.

The plant is among the largest of all lilies, the flowering stem rising 2-3.5 m from a large, monocarpic bulb. The leaves are broadly ovate to cordate, glossy, net-veined and conspicuously heart-shaped at the base, borne on long petioles and arranged in a basal rosette and up the stem. The inflorescence is a long terminal raceme of large, fragrant, pendulous trumpet-shaped flowers; the six tepals are white, flushed greenish outside and streaked reddish-purple within the throat. The fruit is a large, erect, oblong capsule with three valves shedding numerous flat, winged seeds.

Cardiocrinum (Liliaceae) is a small east Asian genus segregated from Lilium by its cordate leaves and monocarpic, bulb-replacing habit: the main bulb dies after flowering, leaving offset bulblets that perpetuate the clump over several years. The night-fragrant flowers attract moths and large bees, and the winged seeds are wind-dispersed. Widespread and locally common, it is of least conservation concern, though localised collection of bulbs occurs.

Author: (Wall.) Makino · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Synge revision of Lilies (Cardiocrinum)

Ericaceae

Cassiope fastigiata

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) D. Don

Sikkim2011 135
Sikkim Tanghu 4000m, June
Sikkim2011 137
Sikkim Tanghu 4000m, June

Description

Cassiope fastigiata (Wall.) D. Don is a dwarf evergreen shrublet of the high Himalaya, recorded by GBIF from Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, Pakistan and Bangladesh across some 762 occurrences. It is a characteristic component of the alpine and subalpine zone, forming low cushions and mats on open rocky slopes, moraines, peaty banks and the margins of Rhododendron scrub, typically between 3300 and 4500 m. The plant photographed at Sikkim Tanghu around 4000 m in June, at the onset of the monsoon flowering season, exemplifies its preference for cool, humid, well-drained sites kept moist by snowmelt.

The species forms erect to ascending, much-branched stems clothed in four neat ranks of small, imbricate, scale-like leaves pressed close to the stem in the manner typical of the genus. Each leaf is ovate-oblong and keeled, with a conspicuous narrow membranous white margin and a deep dorsal furrow, giving the shoots a four-angled, whipcord appearance. The solitary nodding flowers arise from the upper leaf axils on slender, often reddish pedicels; the corolla is broadly campanulate, white, five-lobed and about 7-9 mm long, subtended by a reddish calyx. Stamens are ten, with awned anthers, and the fruit is a small globose loculicidal capsule.

Within Ericaceae, Cassiope is placed in the subfamily Cassiopoideae and is distinguished from related heaths by its four-ranked imbricate leaves and campanulate flowers. Cassiope fastigiata is among the most widespread Himalayan species of the genus and is locally abundant, so it is not regarded as threatened, though as a slow-growing alpine specialist it is sensitive to grazing pressure and warming-induced upward shifts of vegetation. It is of biogeographic interest as part of a cold-adapted, largely circum-Himalayan element.

Author: (Wall.) D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Stevens monograph of Ericaceae

Papaveraceae

Cathcartia villosa

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 681 01 01
Bhutan Luksor, 3000m July
Bh09 293 G482
Bhutan Tongsa 2400m, June
Sikkim2003 152 G203
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m 08.2003

Description

Cathcartia villosa is an eastern Himalayan poppywort distributed through India, Nepal, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China), the GBIF dataset holding about 110 records (codes for Canada and Great Britain reflect cultivated and herbarium material). It grows in cool, humid montane and subalpine settings: shaded forest margins, mossy rocks, ravine sides and damp banks, broadly between about 2400 and 4000 m. The collections illustrated span this gradient, from Tongsa in Bhutan at around 2400 m and Luksor at 3000 m to Dzongri in Sikkim near 4000 m, recorded between June and August.

It is a softly villous perennial herb clothed throughout in long, spreading yellowish-brown hairs. The leaves are mostly basal, long-petiolate, the blade rounded and palmately lobed to crenate, the whole densely hairy and yielding a coloured latex when broken, as is typical of the poppy family. One or a few nodding, golden-yellow flowers are borne on slender hairy scapes; each has two caducous sepals, four broad spreading petals, numerous stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is an elongate, hairy capsule dehiscing by valves to shed many small seeds.

Long treated within Meconopsis, this plant is now widely referred to the segregate genus Cathcartia, a Sino-Himalayan group of yellow-flowered, villous poppyworts distinguished from true Meconopsis by molecular and morphological evidence; older sources and the source URL still use the name Meconopsis villosa. It is valued in temperate gardens as an elegant woodland perennial. The species is locally frequent across its range and is not formally assessed as threatened, but it depends on cool, moist forest-edge habitats susceptible to deforestation and to climatic warming.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson The Genus Meconopsis

Zingiberacaea

Cautleya gracilis

by GP Jürgens

(Sm.) Dandy

Sikkim2004 336 P598
Sikkim/India Choka 3000m May
Garh 07 92 ergebnis
India Garhwal Trijugi Narayan 2500m, June
Sikkim 2006 210 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Samadan 2300m, May

Description

Cautleya gracilis is a slender ginger widely distributed through the Sino-Himalayan region, documented by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and adjacent Southeast Asia, with well over 650 occurrences making it the best-recorded species of its genus. It is frequently epiphytic or lithophytic, growing on mossy tree trunks, dripping cliffs and humid bank ledges in temperate broadleaved and mixed forest. The illustrated gatherings span Sikkim at Choka around 3000 m, Garhwal near Trijugi Narayan at 2500 m, and West Bengal at Samadan near 2300 m, flowering from May to June; the species generally favours the 1500-3000 m belt under monsoon humidity.

The plant grows from a short, fibrous-rooted rhizome producing a graceful leafy shoot to about 30-60 cm. The distichous leaves are lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed to a sheathing base, glabrous and often glaucous beneath. The inflorescence is a terminal, lax spike of few to several yellow flowers subtended by green or reddish bracts; each flower bears a slender corolla tube, a hooded dorsal lobe, prominent lateral staminodes and a bilobed labellum, with a single fertile stamen typical of the family. The fruit is a capsule splitting to reveal arillate seeds.

Cautleya is a small genus of perhaps two to three species centred on the Himalaya and southern China, closely allied to Roscoea but distinguished by its often epiphytic habit and capsular fruit. The yellow flowers are visited by long-tongued bees and the seeds dispersed when capsules open. Widespread and locally common, C. gracilis is of least concern, though epiphytic populations depend on intact, humid forest canopies vulnerable to logging and desiccation.

Author: (Sm.) Dandy · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Zingiberaceae of the Indian Subcontinent (Sabu)

Zingiberacaea

Cautleya spicata

by GP Jürgens

(Sm.) Baker

Sikkim2003 56 P75
Sikkim above Yoksam 2650m 08.2003

Description

Cautleya spicata is a robust Himalayan ginger distributed through India, Nepal, China and Bhutan, with GBIF recording some 226 occurrences along the southern slopes of the range and into Myanmar. It grows in moist, shaded temperate forest, on humus-rich banks, mossy boulders and stream gullies, occasionally epiphytic but more often terrestrial in deep leaf litter. The photographed plant was found in Sikkim above Yoksam at about 2650 m in August, at the height of the monsoon flowering season; the species characteristically occupies the cool, humid 1800-3000 m belt of the eastern and central Himalaya.

The plant arises from a stout, horizontal rhizome to form leafy shoots reaching about 60-100 cm, taller and more substantial than its slender relative C. gracilis. The distichous leaves are oblong-lanceolate, acuminate and sheathing at the base, green above and often paler beneath. The inflorescence is an erect terminal spike with conspicuous, persistent red or maroon bracts subtending the bright yellow flowers; each flower has a slender corolla tube, a hooded dorsal segment, petaloid lateral staminodes, a deflexed bilobed labellum, and a single fertile stamen. The fruit is a capsule bearing arillate seeds.

Cautleya spicata is closely related to C. gracilis within a small Himalayan genus allied to Roscoea, distinguished by its larger stature, conspicuous coloured bracts and predominantly terrestrial habit. The contrasting red bracts and yellow flowers signal to long-tongued bee pollinators. It is widely cultivated as a hardy ornamental ginger, contributing extralimital GBIF records. Locally frequent and not threatened, it nonetheless depends on intact, humid montane forest for its core populations.

Author: (Sm.) Baker · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Zingiberaceae of the Indian Subcontinent (Sabu)

Rosaceae

Chamaecallis perpusilloides

by GP Jürgens

(W.W.Sm.) Smedmark

Sikkim2011 285
Sikkim Lada-La 3800m, June
Sikkim2011 286
Sikkim Lada-La 3800m, June
Nepal 2001 285 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Lambra Kharka 3100m, May

Description

Chamaecallis perpusilloides is a diminutive alpine cushion herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China, recorded from China, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan; its roughly 64 georeferenced collections trace a narrow Sino-Himalayan distribution. The species occupies the upper subalpine and alpine belt, where it grows in short turf, among rocks and on humus-rich, well-drained alpine slopes. The gatherings noted in the caption, from Lada-La in Sikkim at 3800 m in June and from Lambra Kharka in Gorkha, Nepal at 3100 m in May, are representative, the plant flowering early in the season at roughly 3000-4500 m on cool, moist, often grazed pasture.

It is a low, tufted to mat-forming perennial growing from a slender branched rootstock that gives rise to dense rosettes of small leaves. The leaves are crowded, trifoliolate with cuneate, few-toothed leaflets, and somewhat hairy, forming compact rosettes pressed close to the ground. The small flowers are solitary or few in number on short pedicels and barely overtop the foliage; they have five sepals alternating with an epicalyx, five small petals and few stamens, the receptacle bearing a small cluster of carpels that mature into dry achenes.

This taxon, based on the basionym described by W. W. Smith and transferred by Smedmark to the segregate genus Chamaecallis, exemplifies the recent dismemberment of the broadly defined Sibbaldia on molecular and morphological evidence; the original web placement under the Sibbaldia name reflects that history. The dwarf cushion habit and early flowering are adaptations to a short, cold growing season at high elevation. Pollination is by generalist alpine insects. No formal Red List assessment exists, but its restricted high-montane niche makes it potentially sensitive to alpine warming and grazing pressure.

Author: (W.W.Sm.) Smedmark · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Sibbaldia phylogeny (Smedmark) monograph

Saxifragaceae

Chrysosplenium nepalense

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Bh2008 378 P588
Bhutan Thimphu-Chu, 2800m April
Bh2008 10 P16
Bhutan Thimphu-Chu, 2800m April
Sikkim2004 54 P97
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2810m April

Description

Chrysosplenium nepalense is a small herbaceous perennial of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded by GBIF (339 occurrences) from Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and southwestern China. It is a plant of cool, perpetually moist habitats, colonising shaded stream banks, dripping rock faces, springs and damp humus-rich ground within temperate forest, generally between about 2500 and 3500 m. The collections illustrated from the Thimphu Chu in Bhutan at 2800 m and from Bersay in Sikkim, West Bengal, at 2810 m, both in April, are typical of its early-season flowering when snowmelt keeps the substrate saturated.

The plant is a low, mat-forming herb with slender, creeping and rooting stems that produce leafy stolons. The leaves are opposite, petiolate and reniform to broadly ovate, with a shallowly crenate margin and a cordate base. As in the genus, the flowers lack petals; the inflorescence is a flattened terminal cyme subtended by conspicuous yellowish-green leafy bracts that function as the principal visual attractant. Each small flower has four greenish-yellow sepals, four or eight stamens inserted around a flattened disc, and a half-inferior ovary. The fruit is a two-lobed, beaked capsule that splits widely to expose numerous minute seeds.

Chrysosplenium is a taxonomically intricate genus of moisture-loving saxifrages, and C. nepalense belongs to the opposite-leaved Himalayan assemblage that has been variously circumscribed. The petal-less flowers are pollinated by small flies and beetles drawn to the bract display, while the dispersal of seeds is aided by raindrop splash from the open capsules. The species is widespread within its moist montane niche and faces no recognised conservation threat, though its dependence on undisturbed seeps makes it locally sensitive to changes in hydrology and forest cover.

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