Tag:

Spring

Ericaceae

Gaultheria fragrantissima

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 97 89 P149
Nepal Tankhu 2200m, April
Nepal 1994 186 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Jaljale Himal
2350 m, April

Description

Gaultheria fragrantissima Wall. is a wide-ranging evergreen shrub of the eastern Himalaya and montane tropical Asia, documented from Nepal, India, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, with a substantial body of records (GBIF reports some 1,853 occurrences, the higher latitudes among them reflecting cultivation or introduction). It occupies forest margins, open hillsides, secondary scrub and clearings in oak, rhododendron and broad-leaved evergreen forest, typically at 1,500-2,800 m. The photographed material comes from central and eastern Nepal, at Tankhu (2,200 m) and the Jaljale Himal (2,350 m), both in April, where it flowers on sunny, well-drained slopes.

It forms a much-branched shrub 1-3 m tall, the young twigs reddish, bristly or shortly setose. The leaves are alternate, coriaceous, elliptic to lanceolate, 5-12 cm long, with a serrulate-glandular margin, acuminate apex and conspicuously reticulate venation, aromatic when crushed. Inflorescences are axillary or terminal racemes bearing numerous small, urceolate (urn-shaped) white to pinkish corollas about 4-6 mm long, the calyx persistent and accrescent. The fruit is a depressed-globose capsule enclosed by the swollen, fleshy, bluish-purple calyx, forming a berry-like false fruit, dispersed by birds.

A member of the large genus Gaultheria (Ericaceae, subfam. Vaccinioideae), the species yields a methyl-salicylate-rich essential oil ("Indian wintergreen oil") distilled from its foliage and harvested commercially across Nepal and India. This use, with its capacity to colonise disturbed and burnt ground, makes it locally abundant and of no conservation concern. Its broad ecological amplitude and bird-dispersed fleshy fruits underlie its extensive Indo-Malesian distribution.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Airy Shaw revision of Asiatic Gaultheria, Middleton monograph of Gaultheria

Ericaceae

Gaultheria griffithiana

by GP Jürgens

Wight

Bh2008 154 P253
Bhutan Trongtsa 2120m, April
Nepal 97 115 P198
Nepal Mewa-Khola 2470m April

Description

Gaultheria griffithiana is an evergreen shrub of the eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burmese mountains, distributed through Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling in India, Bhutan, southern China (Xizang, Yunnan), Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, with nearly seven hundred georeferenced records. It grows in temperate broadleaved and conifer forest, on shrubby slopes, forest margins and rocky banks, often on acidic humus-rich soils. The cited collections at Trongtsa in Bhutan around 2120 m and Mewa-Khola in east Nepal at 2470 m, both flowering in April, reflect its spring anthesis in the montane forest belt.

The plant is a much-branched shrub with reddish, often bristly or glandular-setose young branchlets. The leaves are alternate, coriaceous, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, finely serrate with gland-tipped teeth, glossy above and often with bristly hairs or glands, and aromatic when crushed. The flowers are borne in axillary racemes, each subtended by bracts; the calyx is five-lobed and the corolla is small, urceolate (urn-shaped), white to pinkish, with ten included stamens whose anthers open by terminal pores. The fruit is a small berry-like structure, the capsule being enclosed by the fleshy, accrescent calyx that turns blue-black or dark purple at maturity.

Gaultheria (Ericaceae, subfamily Vaccinioideae) is well represented in the Sino-Himalaya, and this species, named for William Griffith, belongs to the assemblage of wintergreen-scented shrubs containing methyl salicylate. The fleshy fruiting calyces are dispersed by birds, while the urceolate flowers are pollinated by bees. Locally common and ecologically widespread, the species is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Wight · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Middleton's revision of Asian Gaultheria (Ericaceae)

Ericaceae

Gaultheria pyroloides

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson ex Miq.

Bh09 327 P536
Bhutan Tumching, 3700m June
Bh09 328 G535
Bhutan Tumching, 3700m June
Sikkim 2006 130 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Molley 3650m, May

Description

Gaultheria pyroloides is a dwarf evergreen shrublet of the eastern Himalaya and East Asia, with a notably disjunct northern range: its 652 georeferenced records span Japan (JP), China (CN) and the Russian Far East (RU) as well as the core Himalayan countries of Nepal (NP), India (IN) and Bhutan (BT). It is a plant of cool, humid, high-montane to subalpine habitats, growing on mossy banks, in the floor of conifer and rhododendron forest, on humus-rich rocks and at forest margins, generally between about 3000 and 4000 m. The plants documented at Tumching in Bhutan at 3700 m in June and at Molley in West Bengal at 3650 m in May are typical of these shaded, moss-rich montane situations.

It is a low, creeping to ascending undershrub forming mats, with slender, often reddish-bristly stems rooting at the nodes. The leaves are crowded toward the stem tips, more or less rosulate, obovate to broadly elliptic, leathery, glossy, with a finely serrulate, bristle-margined edge and a Pyrola-like aspect that gives the epithet pyroloides. The flowers are usually few, axillary or in short terminal racemes, the corolla urceolate to campanulate, white or pink-flushed, with a five-lobed limb. As in many of its relatives the calyx becomes fleshy and accrescent in fruit, enclosing or partly enclosing the small capsule to form a berry-like, blue to blue-black false fruit attractive to birds.

Gaultheria (Ericaceae, subfamily Vaccinioideae) is exceptionally diverse in the Himalaya, and the prostrate, rosette-leaved species such as G. pyroloides occupy the dwarf, ground-hugging end of the genus's growth-form spectrum. The wide but fragmented distribution into temperate East Asia points to a once more continuous circum-montane forest range. The species is not regarded as threatened, but its reliance on undisturbed, moist forest understorey renders it sensitive to disturbance.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson ex Miq. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Japan, Airy Shaw and Fritsch revisions of Gaultheria (Ericaceae)

Ericaceae

Gaultheria trichophylla

by GP Jürgens

Royle

Nepal 2001 411 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Barpak 3050m, May
Garh 07 165 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3550m, June

Description

Gaultheria trichophylla is a low, mat-forming dwarf shrub of the high Himalaya, occurring across Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Myanmar and southwestern China, with disjunct or introduced records from New Zealand, Canada, Chile and France; GBIF documents some 611 collections. It is a plant of open alpine and subalpine slopes, rhododendron scrub margins and humus-rich turf between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed material was gathered in central Nepal at Barpak (Gorkha) near 3050 m in May and in the Garhwal Himalaya at Kinkhola around 3550 m in June, on the moist, well-drained, peaty soils it favours under a cool monsoonal climate.

The plant forms compact, prostrate to ascending mats from slender, wiry, much-branched stems that are finely bristly-hairy and root at the nodes. The leaves are small, alternate, crowded, ovate to elliptic, leathery and shining, with a finely toothed, bristly-ciliate margin. Flowers are solitary in the leaf axils, the corolla urceolate to broadly campanulate, pink to pale rose, five-lobed, with a persistent calyx that becomes fleshy in fruit. The fruit is a depressed-globose capsule enclosed by the swollen, berry-like, bright blue calyx, a diagnostic generic feature aiding bird dispersal.

The genus Gaultheria (Ericaceae) is centred on eastern Asia and the Americas, and G. trichophylla belongs to a group of small-leaved alpine species in which the showy fleshy calyx replaces a true berry. Like its relatives it is calcifuge, demanding acidic substrates and forming ericoid mycorrhizal associations. It is widespread and locally abundant across its core Himalayan range and not regarded as threatened.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Airy Shaw and Sleumer monograph of Asiatic Gaultheria

Gentianaceae

Gentiana loureiroi

by G & P Jürgens

(G.Don) Griseb.

Bhutan2014 670
Bhutan Phobjika 2900m, May
Bhutan2014 671
Bhutan Phobjika 2900m, May

Description

Gentiana loureiroi is a small Asian gentian distributed from China and Hong Kong through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar to India and Bhutan, with more than 500 GBIF records making it one of the better-documented species in this account. It is a plant of open grassy places, pasture, roadside banks and moist montane meadows, generally in the lower and middle montane belt. The collection from Phobjika in central Bhutan at about 2900 m, flowering in May, typifies its occurrence in damp, short-turf glacial-valley grasslands where it appears early in the season among grazed sward.

The plant is a low, slender annual or short-lived perennial with prostrate to ascending, often branched stems forming small mats or tufts. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to elliptic, sessile, with cartilaginous margins, the basal ones frequently forming a loose rosette. The flowers are solitary and terminal on the branchlets, with a tubular calyx of five lobes and a funnelform to salverform corolla that is typically blue to violet-blue, the five spreading lobes alternating with smaller plicate folds in the sinuses. The fruit is a stipitate capsule projecting from the withered corolla and releasing numerous minute seeds.

Described by G. Don and combined in Gentiana by Grisebach, G. loureiroi belongs to the largely small-flowered annual section of the genus characteristic of disturbed and grazed montane grassland. Its wide geographic and elevational range, tolerance of human-modified habitats and prolific seed production make it ecologically resilient and of least conservation concern across its extensive distribution.

Author: (G.Don) Griseb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Ho & Pringle's account of Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana maeulchanensis

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Bh2008 446 G697
Bhutan Gogona, 3400m April
BH2008 537 G815
Bhutan Limbukha, 2200m April
Bh2008 538 P816
Bhutan Limbukha, 2200m April

Description

Gentiana maeulchanensis is a small annual or biennial gentian of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China, known from a comparatively modest 60 records spanning China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar. It occupies open meadows, grassy banks, terraced field margins and moist disturbed ground, generally between 2000 and 3600 m, flowering early in the season before the monsoon. The illustrated plants were collected in Bhutan at Gogona (3400 m) and at Limbukha (2200 m), both in April, the latter site lying among the lower cultivated valleys where the species descends to its altitudinal minimum.

The plant is a slender, often branched herb a few centimetres to about 20 cm tall, with a basal rosette and small opposite cauline leaves that are ovate to spathulate with cartilaginous, often whitish margins. The flowers are solitary and terminal or borne in lax cymes; the calyx is tubular with a membranous keel and unequal lobes. The corolla is funnelform to campanulate, blue to pale violet, with five spreading lobes alternating with shorter, fringed or toothed plicae in the sinuses, a defining feature of the section. The capsule is exserted on a stipe at maturity and releases numerous minute seeds.

The species belongs to the predominantly annual Himalayan-Chinese assemblage of small gentians, where it is distinguished by its plical fringing and early phenology. Such early flowering exploits the brief window before competing monsoon vegetation, and the flowers are pollinated by early-emerging insects. With a restricted but stable distribution, it has not been assessed but warrants attention where its lower-elevation habitats are subject to agricultural change.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ho & Liu monograph of Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana micantiformis

by G & P Jürgens

Burkill

Sikkim2011 105
Sikkim Chopta-valley 4200m, June
Bhutan2014 908
Bhutan Chele-La 3700m, May

Description

Gentiana micantiformis Burkill is a diminutive alpine gentian of the high Sino-Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Japan (gbif_countries: CN, NP, BT, IN, JP) with a modest 59 occurrences in GBIF, reflecting both its small stature and restricted high-elevation range. It inhabits short alpine turf, open stony slopes, moist meadows and the margins of snow-melt flushes, generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The image data, from the Chopta valley in Sikkim at 4200 m in June and Chele-La in western Bhutan at 3700 m in May, place it firmly in the early-season alpine zone where it flowers as the snow recedes.

It is a small annual or short-lived herb forming low tufts, with slender, often branched stems. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to oblong and crowded toward the base, frequently with cartilaginous mucronate tips and white membranous margins. The flowers are solitary or few at the stem apices, with a tubular-campanulate, lobed calyx and a tubular-funnelform corolla that is blue to pale blue-violet, the lobes alternating with smaller plicate folds (plicae) characteristic of section Chondrophyllae. The capsule is stipitate and many-seeded, dehiscing to release minute seeds.

Gentiana section Chondrophyllae comprises numerous small annual Asian gentians whose delimitation is notoriously difficult, and the epithet signals close affinity with G. micans. Flowers open in bright sun and close in cold or cloud, a heliotropic adaptation typical of high-alpine gentians and aiding warmth-dependent insect pollination. Although nowhere abundant, the species is widely scattered across the high ranges and is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Burkill · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Gentianaceae), Flora of Bhutan, Ho & Liu monograph A Worldwide Monograph of Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana pedicellata

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Wall.

Nepal 1994 80 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Jaljale Himal
2900m April
Nepal1992 43 W61 ergebnis
Nepal Nundhaki 1600m March 
Nepal 99 227 ergebnis
West-Nepal Gumghadi 2400m, June

Description

Gentiana pedicellata is a small annual gentian widely distributed across the Himalaya and into south-western China and Sri Lanka, with records also from Myanmar, Laos and Bangladesh and a documented base of some 466 occurrences (European and East Asian points largely cultivated or curated). It occupies open grassy slopes, terraced fields, forest clearings and moist disturbed ground over a broad altitudinal span. The images here span eastern Nepal's Jaljale Himal at 2900 m in April, Nundhaki at 1600 m in March, and Gumghadi in west Nepal at 2400 m in June, reflecting a flowering season tied to spring and early summer at middle elevations.

The plant is a slender, diminutive annual a few centimetres to about 15 cm tall, often branched from the base. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to elliptic, sessile or shortly petiolate and somewhat fleshy, the lower forming a loose basal rosette. The flowers are solitary and terminal on conspicuously elongate, thread-like pedicels (the source of the epithet), the calyx tubular with five lobes, and the corolla narrowly funnel-shaped, pale blue to bluish-white with intervening plicate folds between the five spreading lobes. The fruit is a stalked, two-valved capsule exserted from the persistent calyx, releasing numerous minute seeds.

Gentiana pedicellata belongs to the Gentianaceae and to the annual gentians (section Chondrophyllae), a group well represented in the temperate Himalaya by many small, ephemeral species. Its long pedicels readily distinguish it from related dwarf annuals. The flowers are insect-pollinated, opening in bright conditions, and the light seeds are dispersed passively. Common, weedy and adaptable across a wide range, the species is of least conservation concern.

Author: (D.Don) Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ho & Liu monograph of Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana simulatrix

by GP Jürgens

C.Marquand

Sikkim2004 286 G499 ergebnis
Sikkim/India Dzongri 3900m May

Description

Gentiana simulatrix is an alpine gentian of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China, with GBIF records concentrated in south-central China (Xizang, Yunnan) and Bhutan, and extending into Sikkim in the Indian Himalaya; the roughly forty-three documented occurrences indicate a localised but reasonably collected high-altitude range. It inhabits open alpine turf, moist pastures, stony slopes and seepage margins above the treeline. The illustrated plant from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 3900 m, flowering in May, exemplifies its spring-to-early-summer phenology in the upper alpine zone, where it emerges as snowmelt exposes the short-cropped sward.

The species is a small tufted perennial with a slender rootstock giving rise to numerous decumbent to ascending leafy shoots. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to oblong and somewhat fleshy, forming dense basal and cauline pairs. The flowers are solitary and terminal or few in the upper axils; the calyx is tubular with narrow lobes, and the corolla is campanulate to narrowly funnelform, blue to deep azure with darker stripes and conspicuous plicae (folds) between the lobes. The capsule is stipitate within the persistent corolla and releases numerous small seeds.

Gentiana simulatrix belongs to the genus Gentiana (Gentianaceae) and is an accepted species, placed among the small-flowered alpine gentians of section Chondrophyllae, a critical complex where it has been confused with allied taxa such as G. prolata. Its cushion-forming habit, fused corolla plicae and protective floral folds are adaptations to the cold, windy, high-radiation alpine environment. No formal IUCN status has been published, but its dependence on intact alpine grassland makes it sensitive to overgrazing and climate-driven upslope shifts.

Author: C.Marquand · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Ho & Liu monograph of the genus Gentiana

Asteraceae

Gerbera maxima

by G & P Jürgens

Beauverd

Nepal 2009 111 ergebnis scaled
Nepal 2009 112 ergebnis scaled
Nepal Helambu Indrawati-Khola Valley 1750, May

Description

Gerbera maxima is an eastern Himalayan perennial herb distributed across Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and adjacent south-central China (Yunnan, Xizang), the modest tally of around seventeen georeferenced GBIF records reflecting its scattered occurrence rather than true rarity. It favours open grassy hillsides, forest margins, terraced banks and disturbed sunny slopes in the subtropical to lower temperate belt. The photographed plant, from the Indrawati-Khola valley in the Helambu region of central Nepal at roughly 1750 m and flowering in May, typifies its mid-montane preference for warm, well-drained, often grazed openings.

The species forms a stout caudex from which arises a basal rosette of large, lyrate-pinnatifid to broadly obovate leaves that are densely white-tomentose beneath and greener above, the margins sinuate-dentate and the petioles winged. From the rosette a leafless, woolly scape bears a solitary, comparatively large radiate capitulum. The involucral bracts are imbricate and tomentose; the ray florets are bilabiate, typically pale pink to whitish or yellowish, surrounding numerous tubular disc florets. The fruit is a slender, ribbed cypsela tapering into a beak and crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles, adapted to wind dispersal.

Gerbera (Asteraceae, tribe Mutisieae) is an Old World genus centred on Africa and Asia, and G. maxima is here treated as the accepted name. The two-lipped ray corollas place it within the mutisioid lineage, and its tomentose indumentum is a xeromorphic adaptation to insolated, seasonally dry montane slopes. No formal conservation assessment exists; its tolerance of grazing and disturbance suggests local resilience, though habitat conversion across the mid-hills warrants monitoring.

Author: Beauverd · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hand-Mazzetti revision of Asian Gerbera (Mutisieae monograph)