Tag:

Spring

Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbia luteoviridis

by GP Jürgens

D.G.Long

Sikkim2004 412 P707
Sikkim/India Lachung 3700m May
Sikkim 2006 128 ergebnis
Sikkim 2006 127 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Molley 3630m, May

Description

Euphorbia luteoviridis D.G.Long is an eastern Himalayan spurge recorded from Nepal, India, China and Bhutan (NP, IN, CN, BT), with GBIF documenting about 38 occurrences across this narrow range. It is a plant of the upper temperate to subalpine zone, growing on open slopes, forest margins, rocky banks and grazed pastures generally between about 3000 and 4000 m. The images from Lachung in Sikkim at 3700 m and Molley in West Bengal at 3630 m, both in May, illustrate its spring flowering, when the yellowish-green cyathial bracts emerge against the recovering alpine sward.

It is a perennial herb arising from a woody rootstock, producing one to several erect or ascending stems. The leaves are alternate, entire, oblong to oblanceolate or spathulate, with whorled, broader floral leaves subtending the inflorescence. This is the characteristic euphorbioid pseudanthium: a terminal pleiochasium with several rays, each cyathium subtended by yellow-green bracts and enclosing a single naked female flower surrounded by reduced male flowers, with crescentic nectar glands on the rim. The fruit is a three-lobed schizocarpic capsule splitting explosively into cocci; all parts exude the toxic milky latex typical of the genus.

Euphorbia luteoviridis was described comparatively recently by D.G.Long during work on the eastern Himalayan flora, and belongs to the herbaceous perennial spurges well represented in the high mountains. Its restricted distribution gives it significance as a regional endemic, while the latex confers chemical defence against herbivores in the grazed pastures it inhabits. No global threat assessment is widely published, but its limited range warrants attention.

Author: D.G.Long · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Nepal, Radcliffe-Smith treatments of Himalayan Euphorbia

Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbia pseudosikkimensis 

by G & P Jürgens

(Hurus. & Tanaka) Radcl.-Sm.

Sikkim 2006 323 ergebnis
India Sikkim Ringi-Chu 2250m, May
Sikkim 2006 464 ergebnis
India Sikkim Ringi-Chu 2250m, May
Sikkim 2006 324 ergebnis
India Sikkim Ringi-Chu 2250m, May

Description

Euphorbia pseudosikkimensis is a robust perennial spurge native to the eastern Himalayas, occurring in Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and adjacent parts of China. It inhabits moist forests, forest clearings, and stream banks at 1,800–3,000 m.

The plant forms tall, erect stems up to 1.5 m high, with whorled, oblong-lanceolate leaves that are dark green above and paler beneath. The inflorescence is a large, showy cyathium with conspicuous bright yellow-green glands, giving the impression of striking yellow flowers in spring. Like all Euphorbia species, it exudes a milky white latex when stems or leaves are broken.

In traditional medicine of the region, the latex has been used cautiously as a purgative, though it is irritant and toxic in larger quantities. The species is sometimes confused with E. sikkimensis, from which it differs in leaf shape and gland morphology.

Author: (Hurus. & Tanaka) Radcl.-Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan, eFlora of China

Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbia royleana

by GP Jürgens

Boiss.

Bhutan2014 202
Bhutan Trashyangtse 2100m, May
Bhutan2014 203
Bhutan Trashyangtse 2100m, May
Nepal 2001 516 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Mulabari 1340m, May

Description

Euphorbia royleana is a succulent, tree-like spurge of warm, dry valleys across the Himalaya and adjacent regions. With 148 GBIF occurrences, it ranges through Nepal, India, China, Pakistan and Bhutan, with cultivated or introduced records noted elsewhere including Belgium, Egypt and the United States, reflecting its use as an ornamental and hedge plant. It is characteristic of hot, semi-arid slopes, rocky hillsides and degraded scrub in the subtropical to lower temperate zone, often on south-facing rain-shadow exposures. It was recorded at Trashyangtse in Bhutan at about 2100 m and at Mulabari in Gorkha, Nepal, at about 1340 m, both in May.

It is a stout, cactus-like succulent shrub or small tree with a short woody trunk and erect, candelabriform branches that are fleshy, grey-green and obtusely five- to seven-angled. Paired, short stipular spines arise on the angles, subtending small, fugacious leaves clustered near the branch tips. As in all Euphorbia the inflorescence is a cyathium: cup-like involucres bearing nectar glands enclose the reduced unisexual flowers, here borne in small cymose clusters and yielding the abundant caustic white latex typical of the genus. The fruit is a three-lobed capsule splitting into three mericarps.

Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae) is among the largest of all plant genera, and E. royleana belongs to its succulent, xerophytic Old World element adapted to seasonal aridity. Long valued in the region for living fences and traditional medicine, it is widely planted, and its milky latex is irritant and toxic. The species is not of conservation concern, being common and frequently cultivated, but it is an important structural and biogeographic component of dry inner-Himalayan valley vegetation.

Author: Boiss. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Boissier's monograph of Euphorbia in de Candolle's Prodromus

Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbia sikkimensis

by G & P Jürgens

Boiss.

Nepal 2001 302 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Lambra Kharka 3100m, May
Nepal 2001 301 ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Lambra Kharka 3100m, May
Nepal 97 86 P146
Nepal Tankhu 2100m April

Description

Euphorbia sikkimensis is a robust herbaceous spurge distributed across the eastern and central Himalaya, from central Nepal through Sikkim, Bhutan, and northeast India into southern China (Xizang, Yunnan), with peripheral records from Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. It occurs in subalpine meadows, forest clearings, scrub margins, and open hillsides at elevations of 1,800–3,500 m. The species has been documented from the Gorkha district of Nepal at Lambra Kharka at 3,100 m in May and near Tankhu at 2,100 m in April, indicating a broad elevational amplitude and early-season phenology at lower altitudes.
The plant is a stout, erect perennial herb, 30–80 cm tall, with thick, fleshy rootstock and unbranched or sparingly branched stems that exude copious white latex when cut. Leaves are alternate, sessile, linear-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 8–15 cm long and 1–2.5 cm wide, with a prominent pale midrib, entire margins, and a glaucous undersurface. The inflorescence is a terminal, compound cyathium typical of the genus, with a broad umbel of 4–8 primary rays, each ray subtended by obovate, yellowish-green floral bracts. The cyathia bear crescent-shaped glands with short horns. The fruit is a smooth, trilocular capsule approximately 6–8 mm in diameter, explosively dehiscent at maturity, with carunculate seeds.
Euphorbia sikkimensis was described by Boissier from Sikkim collections and belongs to Euphorbia subgenus Esula, a predominantly Eurasian clade of herbaceous spurges. It is notable for its striking appearance in early spring, when the bright red or pink-tinged new stems contrast with the yellowish-green inflorescences. The species has gained horticultural recognition in temperate gardens and is increasingly cultivated as an ornamental perennial in Europe. Ecologically, its copious latex deters herbivory, and it plays a role in early-season pollinator support in montane grassland ecosystems.

Author: Boiss. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Pentaphylacaceae

Eurya acuminata

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 1009
Bhutan Trithangebe, 1000m October
Bh2008 512 G786
Bhutan Chongsakha, 1850m April

Description

Eurya acuminata is an evergreen shrub or small tree widely distributed through tropical and subtropical Asia, ranging from the Himalaya across southern China, Taiwan and Japan to Indochina, the Malesian archipelago and New Guinea; its roughly 2614 GBIF occurrences span India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In Bhutan it occupies a broad altitudinal range, as recorded at Trithangebe around 1000 m in October and at Chongsakha near 1850 m in April. It grows in evergreen broad-leaved forest, along forest margins and in secondary woodland, often as an understorey or successional component of warm, moist forests.

The plant is a much-branched evergreen with leathery, alternate, distichous leaves that are lanceolate to oblong with the long-acuminate apex recorded in the epithet and a finely serrate margin; the young twigs are often two-edged. The species is dioecious, bearing small, axillary, fragrant flowers that are creamy to greenish-white with five sepals, five petals, and in male plants numerous stamens, while female flowers carry a superior ovary with a short divided style. The fruit is a small, globose, fleshy black berry containing several minute seeds, dispersed by birds.

Eurya, formerly placed in Theaceae and now referred to Pentaphylacaceae, is a large genus of Old World shrubs distinguished by its dioecy, bracteolate flowers and berry fruits; E. acuminata is among the most widespread and variable species, with several recognised varieties. As an abundant, generalist forest component spanning a vast area, it is of least concern, and its dense foliage and wood find local use as fuel, hedging and minor timber.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 12, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora Malesiana (Theaceae/Pentaphylacaceae)

Rosaceae

Fragaria nubicola

by GP Jürgens

Lindl. ex Lacaita

Bhutan2014 571
Bhutan Phobjika 3000m, May

Description

Fragaria nubicola, the Himalayan wild strawberry, is widely distributed along the Himalaya and into the mountains of Central Asia, recorded from Nepal, India, Pakistan, China, Bhutan and Afghanistan, with naturalised and cultivated records accounting for the European and North American points among its 545 GBIF occurrences. It inhabits open temperate forest, forest margins, grassy clearings, banks and damp meadow turf, typically between 1500 and 4000 m. The plant photographed in the Phobjika valley of central Bhutan at about 3000 m in May exemplifies the moist, partly shaded montane grassland where it flowers and fruits through the warm season.

The species is a low stoloniferous perennial herb spreading by long, slender, rooting runners from a short woody rootstock. The leaves are basal and trifoliolate, with broadly obovate, coarsely serrate leaflets that are bright green and thinly hairy above and paler and silky-pubescent beneath, borne on long villous petioles. The flowers are solitary or few in a lax cyme on hairy scapes; each has five white obovate petals, an epicalyx alternating with the sepals, and numerous yellow stamens around a domed receptacle. The fleshy red accessory fruit (the edible strawberry) bears the true fruits as small achenes sunk in shallow pits on its surface.

Fragaria nubicola belongs to the diploid lineage of the genus and is considered one of the wild progenitor groups relevant to strawberry evolution and breeding, making it of interest for crop genetic resources. Its trifoliolate leaves and stoloniferous spread are typical of the genus, while the silky lower leaf surface and montane ecology distinguish it from lowland relatives. Reproduction is both clonal, by stolons, and sexual, with fruit dispersed by birds and mammals. The species is common and not threatened, though wild germplasm conservation is valued for its potential in cultivated Fragaria improvement.

Author: Lindl. ex Lacaita · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Staudt Monograph of the Genus Fragaria

Liliaceae

Fritillaria cirrhosa

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Sikkim2011 68
Sikkim Tanghu 3900m, June
Sikkim2011 69
Sikkim Tanghu 3900m, June
Sikkim2004 414 G713
Sikkim/India Yumthang 3700m May
Sikkim2004 415 P712
Sikkim/India Yumthang 3700m May

Description

Fritillaria cirrhosa is a bulbous alpine lily of the Himalaya and the Hengduan mountains, native to China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan and Myanmar, the very large total of c. 962 records reflecting its wide range and economic importance. It inhabits alpine meadows, scrub, rocky slopes, screes and grassy clearings, mostly between roughly 3200 and 4600 m. The illustrated plants were photographed at Tanghu in Sikkim at 3900 m in June and at Yumthang on the Sikkim/India border at 3700 m in May, sites characteristic of the species, which flowers shortly after snowmelt on cool, moist, well-drained high-montane ground.

It is a perennial herb arising from a small bulb of a few fleshy scales. The slender erect stem bears scattered to whorled, linear to lanceolate leaves, the uppermost of which are prolonged into slender, curling, tendril-like tips, the cirrhose feature from which the epithet derives. The flowers are usually solitary and nodding, broadly campanulate, with six tepals that are yellowish-green to purplish and conspicuously tessellated (chequered) with darker purple-brown; a nectary gland sits near the base of each tepal. The six stamens surround a superior trilocular ovary with a three-lobed style. The fruit is an erect, six-angled or narrowly winged loculicidal capsule.

Fritillaria (Liliaceae) is a Holarctic genus delimited by section on bulb structure, leaf arrangement and style form, and F. cirrhosa is a polymorphic species of the subgenus Fritillaria. Its dried bulb is the source of the renowned traditional Chinese medicine "chuan bei mu," used as an antitussive, and this heavy commercial harvesting is the principal conservation concern: although still widespread, the species is subject to intense wild collection, and the chuan bei mu trade has prompted cultivation efforts and regulatory attention across its range.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton), Rix monograph of Fritillaria

Liliaceae

Gagea lutea

by GP Jürgens

Ker Gawl.

Nepal 97 140 G265
Nepal Mewa-Khola 3100m April
Nepal 97 141 P266
Nepal Mewa-Khola 3100m April

Description

Gagea lutea is a widely distributed Eurasian geophyte, abundant across temperate Europe and northern Asia, with a very large GBIF dataset of over 97000 records from Sweden, Germany, France, Britain, Poland, Russia, Norway, the Netherlands and many other countries, extending eastward to Japan. It grows in deciduous woodland, riverine forest, hedgerows, damp meadows and shaded slopes, typically on moist, base-rich soils. As a spring ephemeral it flowers early and dies back by summer. The photographed plant from the Mewa-Khola valley in eastern Nepal at 3100 m, flowering in April, marks the southeastern Himalayan edge of its range, where it persists in cool, humid montane forest.

It is a small bulbous perennial with a single ovoid bulb. The defining feature is the solitary, broadly linear to linear-lanceolate basal leaf, which is flat, hooded at the apex, somewhat keeled and usually exceeds the inflorescence. Two unequal leaf-like bracts subtend the umbel-like cyme of few flowers. Each flower has six free, narrowly oblong tepals that are bright yellow within and green-striped outside, blunt to subacute at the apex. There are six stamens with yellow anthers and a superior three-locular ovary bearing a single style. The fruit is a loculicidal, obovoid to subglobose capsule producing flattened, subglobose seeds.

Gagea lutea is the type species of its genus and belongs to the tribe Tulipeae of the Liliaceae. It is the well-known Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem, often forming clonal patches; many populations are non-flowering and reproduce vegetatively by bulbils, complicating field census. Pollination is by early-flying bees and flies, and the elaiosome-bearing seeds are partly ant-dispersed (myrmecochory). Though locally declining through woodland loss, it remains common over its vast range and is of least concern.

Author: Ker Gawl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Levichev Studies in the Genus Gagea (monograph)

Burseraceae

Garuga floribunda

by G & P Jürgens

Decne.

Bhutan2014 140
Bhutan Trashigang 1600m, May
Bhutan2014 142
Bhutan Trashigang 1600m, May

Description

Garuga floribunda is a tree of broad Indo-Pacific distribution, ranging from the Himalayan foothills and southern China through Southeast Asia and Malesia to New Guinea, Australia and the islands of the western Pacific, with over 1300 occurrences in GBIF spanning countries from India and Bhutan to the Philippines, Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga. It is a component of seasonally dry and monsoon forest, secondary forest, open hillsides and coastal to lowland woodland, generally at low to moderate elevations though ascending into the foothills. The individual photographed at Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1600 m in May, near the upper, north-western limit of the species, illustrates its presence in the warm subtropical hill forest of the eastern Himalaya.

The plant is a medium to large deciduous tree with imparipinnate, alternate, often crowded leaves clustered toward the branch ends, the leaflets opposite, serrate and frequently pubescent, the foliage typically flushing reddish when young. The flowers, produced in profusion in large terminal and axillary panicles (hence floribunda), are small and yellowish to greenish-white, five-merous, with the petals borne on the rim of a cup-shaped floral receptacle and the stamens inserted around a fleshy disc. The fruit is a small, fleshy, globose drupe ripening dark, containing a hard, ridged stone with one to several seeds.

Garuga is a small genus of the resin-producing family Burseraceae, the frankincense and myrrh family, and like many of its relatives the bark exudes an aromatic resin. The genus differs from most Burseraceae in its pinnate, toothed leaves and abundant small flowers. The species is wide-ranging and ecologically versatile, occurring on a variety of soils in seasonal climates, and is bird- and animal-dispersed via its fleshy drupes. It is widespread and common across its enormous range and is not regarded as threatened, being locally used for timber, fodder and as a source of resin.

Author: Decne. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora Malesiana (Burseraceae), A Monograph of the Genus Garuga (Burseraceae)

Orchideaceae

Gastrochilus calceolaris

by G & P Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex Sm.) D.Don

Bhutan2014 463
Bhutan Trongtsa 2030m, May
Bhutan2014 464
Bhutan Trongtsa 2030m, May

Description

Gastrochilus calceolaris is a widespread epiphytic orchid of the eastern Himalaya and tropical-subtropical Asia, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and onwards through Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, with 356 georeferenced occurrences. It grows on the trunks and branches of broadleaved evergreen trees in humid montane and lower temperate forest, typically between about 1000 and 2300 m. The plant illustrated was photographed near Trongtsa (Trongsa) in central Bhutan at 2030 m in May, a setting of mossy oak and rhododendron forest where atmospheric moisture favours vandaceous epiphytes.

The species is a monopodial epiphyte with a short, stout stem clad in the persistent sheathing bases of distichous, ligulate to oblong leaves that are coriaceous and unequally bilobed at the apex. Numerous flexuous aerial roots anchor the plant. The short, pendent racemes bear several to many subumbellate flowers; the sepals and petals are yellowish green blotched with reddish brown. The labellum is three-lobed with a conspicuous saccate, helmet- or slipper-shaped hypochile (the source of the epithet calceolaris) and a fringed, transversely oblong epichile bearing a hairy central callus. The column is short and the pollinia are waxy.

First described as Aerides calceolaris by Buchanan-Hamilton ex Smith and transferred to Gastrochilus by D. Don, the species is the type-bearing representative of a genus of some five dozen Asian epiphytes segregated from Saccolabium. Though locally frequent across a vast range and not assessed as globally threatened, populations are vulnerable to forest clearance and to collection for the ornamental orchid trade.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex Sm.) D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Gastrochilus (Z.H. Tsi monograph), Orchids of Bhutan