Tag:

Spring

Asparagaceae

Maianthemum oleraceum

by G & P Jürgens

(Baker) LaFrankie

Sikkim 2006 58 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Kalipokkri 3100m, May

Description

Maianthemum oleraceum is a robust rhizomatous herb of the eastern Himalaya and western China, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with roughly 259 documented occurrences. It is a woodland species inhabiting moist temperate and subalpine forests, shaded ravines, shrubberies and forest clearings on deep humus-rich soils, often forming loose colonies through its spreading rhizome. In the Indian eastern Himalaya it reaches the upper montane belt, exemplified by the gathering near Kalipokkri in West Bengal at about 3100 m in May, when the species comes into flower at the close of the cool season.

The plant produces stout, erect to arching leafy stems from a thickened creeping rhizome. The leaves are several, alternate, sessile or shortly petiolate, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex and cordate to rounded at the base, with prominent arching venation. The inflorescence is a terminal branched panicle of numerous small flowers, each with six free, spreading, pinkish to greenish-white tepals and six stamens; the flowers are subtended by small bracts. The fruit is a globose berry, green and mottled when young, ripening through red to dark purple, containing few hard seeds.

Maianthemum, treated under Asparagaceae in modern classifications and long placed near Smilacina, comprises rhizomatous forest herbs of the northern hemisphere, of which M. oleraceum is one of the larger Asian species. The fleshy berries are dispersed by birds and small mammals, while clonal rhizome growth allows persistence in shaded understorey. The young shoots and leaves are gathered locally as a potherb, reflected in the epithet oleraceum. Common across its montane range, it is not considered threatened, though it depends on the maintenance of intact temperate forest.

Author: (Baker) LaFrankie · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, LaFrankie revision of Maianthemum (Smilacina)

Euphorbiaceae

Mallotus nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

Müll.Arg.

Bh09 231 P387
Bhutan Wangdi, 1650m June
Bh09 380 G601
Bhutan Wangdi, 1650m June
Sikkim 2006 255 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Lingza 1250m, May

Description

Mallotus nepalensis is a small tree or shrub of the subtropical to lower-temperate Himalaya and its eastern extensions, documented by GBIF (972 occurrences) across China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and Pakistan. It grows in secondary forest, scrub, forest edges and along streams and clearings, characteristically as a light-demanding component of disturbed and successional vegetation, mostly between about 800 and 2000 m. The collections from Wangdi in Bhutan at 1650 m in June and from Lingza in West Bengal at 1250 m in May illustrate its montane-subtropical distribution along the southern Himalayan front.

The plant is a deciduous shrub or small tree whose young branchlets, petioles and inflorescences are clothed in stellate hairs and reddish, granular peltate glands typical of the genus. The leaves are alternate, long-petiolate, broadly ovate to deltoid, often with two glands at the blade base and a pair of basal lateral nerves, the lower surface pale and gland-dotted. The plant is dioecious; minute apetalous flowers are borne in slender terminal and axillary racemes or panicles, the staminate with numerous stamens, the pistillate with a softly spiny ovary. The fruit is a globose, three-lobed capsule beset with soft processes and covered in red glandular powder.

Mallotus belongs to subfamily Acalyphoideae of the Euphorbiaceae and is characterised by its stellate indumentum and resinous peltate glands, the latter yielding the dye-like powder for which several species are known. Ecologically it behaves as a pioneer, regenerating freely in gaps and along disturbed margins, its capsular fruit and small seeds aiding rapid colonisation. The species is common and of no conservation concern.

Author: Müll.Arg. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Airy Shaw Euphorbiaceae of the Indian subcontinent

Rosaceae

Malus baccata

by G & P Jürgens

(L.) Borkh.

Bhutan2014 407
Bhutan Jakar 2400m, May
Bhutan2014 408
Bhutan Jakar 2400m, May

Description

Malus baccata, the Siberian crab apple, is among the most broadly distributed wild apples, ranging across temperate and boreal East Asia from the Russian Far East and Siberia through Mongolia, northern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and extending into the Himalaya in Nepal, India, Bhutan and Afghanistan; the species is widely cultivated and naturalised in Europe and North America, accounting for records from Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Canada and the United States, with over 12,000 GBIF occurrences. In the eastern Himalaya it grows in temperate broad-leaved and mixed forest, margins, riverine thickets and open hillsides, as photographed near Jakar in central Bhutan at around 2400 m in May, when the trees are in full flower.

It is a deciduous tree reaching 10-14 m, with a rounded crown and reddish-brown, glabrous young shoots. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, 3-8 cm long, acuminate, finely serrate, glabrous or nearly so at maturity, on slender petioles. The flowers, borne in umbel-like corymbs of 4-6, are white, 3-3.5 cm across, with five rounded petals and styles connate and pubescent at the base. The fruit is a small globose pome 8-10 mm in diameter, red or yellow, lacking a persistent calyx, on a long slender pedicel, hanging conspicuously into autumn.

Malus baccata is the type of a polymorphic complex and is divided into several varieties and intergrading races across its range; Himalayan material has at times been segregated. As a cold-hardy, disease-resistant species it is of considerable importance in apple breeding and as a rootstock, and its abundant fruit is an autumn food resource for birds and mammals. It is of least concern conservation-wise, being common and widespread.

Author: (L.) Borkh. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, A Monograph of the Genus Malus (Rehder)

Solanaceae

Mandragora caulescens

by GP Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

Sikkim2004 215 G367
Sikkim/India Gometang 3900m May
Nepal 97 203 P415
Nepal Thudam 3850m April
Nepal 97 202 P414
Nepal Thudam 3850m April

Description

Mandragora caulescens is a stout alpine perennial of the high Himalaya and Tibetan borderlands, distributed across southwestern China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan), northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar; GBIF documents some 540 collections, indicating it is locally frequent within its high-elevation range. It occupies open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, scrub margins and stony pasture, generally between about 2500 and 4500 m, often in moist, well-drained turf. The photographed plants were recorded at Gometang on the Sikkim/India border at about 3900 m in May and at Thudam in eastern Nepal near 3850 m in April, typical of this snowmelt-associated meadow species.

Unlike the stemless Mediterranean mandrakes, this species is caulescent, developing a short, leafy aerial stem from a large, fleshy, often forked taproot. The leaves are clustered, oblong to oblanceolate, tapering to the base, entire or sinuate, and somewhat fleshy. The flowers are solitary on long, decurved or nodding peduncles among the leaves; the corolla is broadly campanulate, dull purple to brownish-violet or rarely greenish, five-lobed, subtended by a deeply lobed persistent calyx. The fruit is a globose, fleshy berry seated in the enlarged calyx.

The placement of Mandragora has long been debated; it is treated here in Solanaceae, in which it is conventionally classified, though some authors segregate it. M. caulescens is the principal Asian representative of the genus and, like its western relatives, contains tropane alkaloids and features in regional ethnomedicine. Widespread across the high Sino-Himalayan ranges, it is not regarded as globally threatened.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Ungricht et al. revision of the genus Mandragora

Phrymaceae

Mazus dentatus

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Benth.

Sikkim2004 11 P17
Sikkim West-Bengal, Sambon 1800m April
Nepal 97 97 P160
Nepal Dongen 2360m April
Nepal1992 174 P255 ergebnis
Nepal Mamanke 1800m March 

Description

Mazus dentatus is a small herbaceous plant of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from northern India (Sikkim, Darjeeling), Nepal and Bhutan; GBIF holds only about 48 records, consistent with a restricted, narrow distribution. It grows in moist, shaded or semi-open habitats such as damp banks, grassy slopes, terraced field margins, ditches and stream sides at lower to middle elevations, broadly between about 1500 and 2500 m. The photographed material came from Sambon in the Sikkim/West Bengal hills at around 1800 m in April, from Dongen in Nepal near 2360 m in April and from Mamanke at about 1800 m in March, the early-spring flowering typical of this moisture-loving herb.

The plant is a low, soft, more or less hairy annual or short-lived perennial with slender ascending or decumbent stems. The leaves are mostly in a basal rosette and opposite below, obovate to spathulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, with a coarsely toothed (dentate) margin that gives the species its epithet. The flowers are borne in lax terminal racemes; the corolla is strongly two-lipped, pale violet to bluish, the short upper lip two-lobed and the larger lower lip three-lobed and marked with yellow and darker spots on a raised palate. The fruit is a small capsule enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Mazus, long placed in Scrophulariaceae and later in its own family Mazaceae, is treated here in Phrymaceae following the broad circumscription adopted in several recent floras. The genus is distinguished by its palate-bearing, bilabiate corolla and rosulate habit. M. dentatus is a localised eastern Himalayan plant of disturbed, moist ground; though not formally assessed, its limited range warrants attention.

Author: Wall. ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Bonati revision of Asian Mazus

Phrymaceae

Mazus surculosus

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Nepal 97 273 P558
Nepal Bagong-Khola 2650m April
Nepal 2001 86 ergebnis ergebnis
East-Nepal Gupka Pokhari 2920m, April

Description

Mazus surculosus D.Don is a small, creeping perennial herb of moist temperate habitats in the Himalaya and adjacent mountains. GBIF records it from India, Nepal, China, Bhutan and Pakistan, with some 230 occurrences, indicating a Sino-Himalayan distribution. It grows on damp, shaded ground — streamsides, wet banks, mossy turf and the margins of paths and forest clearings — typically between about 2,000 and 3,200 m. The illustrated material is from central Nepal at Bagong-Khola, 2,650 m, and from East Nepal at Gupka Pokhari, 2,920 m, both flowering in April, in keeping with its early-spring phenology.

The plant is mat-forming, spreading by slender, rooting stolons or surculose runners (whence surculosus), from which arise short ascending flowering shoots. The leaves are mostly in a basal rosette, obovate to spathulate, crenate-toothed, narrowed to a winged petiole, with a few smaller opposite leaves on the stem. The flowers are borne in lax, few-flowered racemes; the corolla is strongly bilabiate, blue-violet to purple, the short upper lip two-lobed and the larger lower lip three-lobed and marked with white and yellow palatal ridges spotted with darker colour. The fruit is a small, rounded, loculicidal capsule enclosed by the persistent calyx, releasing numerous minute seeds.

Mazus, formerly placed in Scrophulariaceae, is now referred to Phrymaceae (or the segregate Mazaceae) on molecular grounds, and the input family Phrymaceae reflects this modern placement. The genus is centred in temperate and subtropical Asia. As a widespread, weedy creeper of damp open ground, M. surculosus is common and not of conservation concern.

Author: D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Beardsley & Olmstead: Redefining Phrymaceae (American Journal of Botany)

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis dhwojii

by G & P Jürgens

G.Taylor

Nepal 2009 48 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Hile-Bhangyang 3380, May

Description

Meconopsis dhwojii is a narrow Central Himalayan endemic, restricted to the high mountains of Nepal, where GBIF records cluster; the remaining occurrences in Great Britain and Canada represent cultivated and herbarium material. The 46 georeferenced records reflect its rarity and confined range. It inhabits the upper subalpine and alpine zone between roughly 3000 and 4300 m, growing on open rocky slopes, screes, moist cliff ledges and disturbed grazed turf. The plant photographed at Hile-Bhangyang in Helambu at about 3380 m in May typifies this monsoon-influenced montane habitat, where flowering coincides with snowmelt and the early growing season.

This is a monocarpic herb forming a dense basal rosette of pinnatifid to pinnatisect leaves, the whole plant conspicuously clothed in spreading, pale yellowish-brown to purple-based bristly hairs arising from dark spotted bases. From the rosette a stout, leafy, bristly flowering stem ascends, bearing the flowers in a leafy raceme. The nodding to half-spreading flowers have four broad, pale yellow petals; the numerous stamens surround a single style topped by a clavate stigma. The fruit is a narrowly oblong, bristly capsule dehiscing by short apical valves and releasing many small seeds.

Named for Dhwoj, a Nepali plant collector of the early-twentieth-century explorations, M. dhwojii belongs to the bristly, monocarpic poppyworts and is allied to M. paniculata and M. napaulensis within section Aculeatae. Like its relatives it dies after a single flowering, relying entirely on copious seed for persistence, an adaptation to unstable scree and disturbed alpine ground. Though not formally assessed as threatened, its restricted Nepalese distribution and collection for horticulture make habitat integrity important to its survival.

Author: G.Taylor · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson Meconopsis monograph

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis gracilipes

by G & P Jürgens

G.Taylor

Nepal 2009 32 ergebnis scaled
Nepal 2009 34 ergebnis scaled
Nepal Helambu Koktrok 3100m, May

Description

Meconopsis gracilipes is a rare Himalayan poppy of restricted range, recorded from Nepal and adjacent south-western China. The low GBIF tally of 50 occurrences reflects both its scarcity and its confinement to remote high-mountain terrain. It grows in the subalpine and lower alpine zone, on shaded rocky banks, moist cliff ledges, mossy boulders and the margins of forest and shrubbery, generally between about 3000 and 4000 m. The plant photographed at Koktrok in the Helambu region of Nepal at about 3100 m in May exemplifies this damp, sheltered montane habitat, where it flowers early in the growing season before the full monsoon.

It is a slender, monocarpic or short-lived herb forming a rosette of petiolate, lobed to pinnatifid leaves, the plant sparsely clothed in fine bristly hairs. From the rosette arise delicate, thread-like (gracile) flowering stems, the specific epithet referring to these slender pedicels. The nodding flowers have four broad petals in shades of pale blue to lavender or purple; numerous stamens surround a short style with a small capitate stigma. The fruit is a narrow, few-valved capsule opening at the apex to shed many minute seeds.

Meconopsis gracilipes belongs among the blue-flowered Himalayan poppies and is allied to slender-stemmed species such as M. bella, sharing their preference for moist, shaded rock habitats rather than open scree. Its restricted distribution, low recorded abundance and dependence on specialised microhabitats make it of potential conservation interest, though it has not been formally assessed; the integrity of its high-elevation rock and forest-margin habitats is key to its persistence.

Author: G.Taylor · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson Meconopsis monograph

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis grandis

by GP Jürgens

Prain

Nepal 97 187 G369
Nepal Tayla-La 4050m April
Nepal 99 107 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3600m, June
Nepal 99 280 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalomura 4100m, June
Nepal 99 281 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalomura 4100m, June

Description

Meconopsis grandis is a high-altitude perennial of the eastern and central Himalaya, distributed across Nepal, northern India, Sikkim, Bhutan and adjacent southern Tibet (China), with cultivated and naturalised records reflected in the European data (United Kingdom, Belgium, Norway, Sweden). GBIF documents some 266 occurrences, a figure inflated by its long horticultural history as one of the celebrated "blue poppies." In its native range it grows in moist alpine meadows, open scrub, the margins of Rhododendron thickets and along streamsides on humus-rich, well-drained acidic soils. The collections illustrated span the snowmelt belt between roughly 3600 and 4100 m, from Tayla-La in central Nepal at 4050 m in April to the slopes south of Rara Lake at 3600 m and Kalomura at 4100 m in June, where it flowers as the monsoon advances.

It forms a stout, deciduous perennial from a thick rootstock, with a basal rosette of oblanceolate to elliptic leaves clothed in rust-coloured to fulvous bristly hairs, the blades narrowing into a winged petiole and often shallowly toothed. The flowering scape is erect, bristly and bears one to several large nodding flowers, each typically with four (sometimes more) broad, satiny, overlapping petals of intense azure to violet-blue, occasionally purplish. Numerous golden stamens surround a stout ovary crowned by a short, well-defined style and capitate to clavate stigma. The fruit is an elongate, ellipsoid to narrowly ovoid capsule, bristly-hairy, dehiscing by short apical valves to release small seeds.

Meconopsis grandis belongs to a taxonomically intricate complex of perennial blue poppies and has historically hybridised in cultivation, giving rise to the widely grown Meconopsis × sheldonii. Variation in flower colour, leaf indumentum and monocarpic versus polycarpic habit has prompted recognition of several subspecies and forms by different authors. Ecologically it is pollinated chiefly by bumblebees attracted to its conspicuous corolla. Though not formally assessed as threatened across its wide range, populations are localised and sensitive to grazing pressure, trampling and the warming of alpine habitats, making it a flagship species for Himalayan montane conservation.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Christopher Grey-Wilson – The Genus Meconopsis

Papaveraceae

Meconopsis paniculata

by G & P Jürgens

(D. Don) Prain

Sikkim2011 89
Sikkim Chopta-valley 4200m, June
BhutanPG2011 321
Bhutan
Sikkim2011 252
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June
Nepal 97 136 G252
Nepal Mewa-Khola 3100m April

Description

Meconopsis paniculata is a stately Himalayan poppy distributed through Nepal, the Indian states of Sikkim and Darjeeling, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China), with cultivated records in Britain and Canada; GBIF documents about 440 occurrences. It grows in the upper temperate to subalpine and lower alpine zone, on open grassy slopes, forest clearings, streamsides and shrubby hillsides, as recorded in the Chopta valley (4200 m) and at Yumthang (3700 m) in Sikkim and at Mewa-Khola (3100 m) in Nepal. Spanning roughly 3000-4200 m, it flowers from spring into early summer (April-June), often forming conspicuous stands on damp, humus-rich slopes.

It is a robust monocarpic herb, forming in its first years a large basal rosette before producing a single tall, branched flowering stem up to 1.5-2 m. The whole plant is densely clothed in golden to rusty, spreading bristly hairs. The basal leaves are large, oblong-lanceolate and pinnately lobed or deeply cut, narrowing into a winged petiole. The inflorescence is an elongate, leafy panicle (the epithet "paniculata") of nodding, broadly cup-shaped flowers; the four (rarely more) petals are pale to clear yellow, surrounding a boss of numerous yellow stamens and a stout ovary crowned by a short style and lobed stigma. The fruit is an oblong, bristly capsule dehiscing by apical pores to shed many small seeds.

Described by Prain from D. Don's basionym, M. paniculata belongs to the monocarpic, bristly-fruited group of Meconopsis allied to M. napaulensis and M. wallichii, a complex whose taxonomy has long been debated owing to hybridisation and variable indumentum. As a monocarpic species it dies after a single flowering, relying entirely on abundant seed for regeneration. The flowers are visited by bumblebees foraging at altitude. Widespread across its range, it is not considered globally threatened, though seed collection and grazing can affect local populations.

Author: (D. Don) Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Grey-Wilson's monograph of the genus Meconopsis