Tag:

Spring

Rosaceae

Photinia beauverdiana

by G & P Jürgens

C.K.Schneid.

Bhutan2014 207
Bhutan Trachyangtsa 2120, May
Bhutan2014 208
Bhutan Trachyangtsa 2120, May

Description

Photinia beauverdiana is a temperate East Asian tree centred on China and Taiwan, with records extending to Bhutan and northern Vietnam; the roughly 2675 occurrences also reflect extensive cultivation in Europe, North America and New Zealand. In its native range it grows in mixed montane forest, the image documenting it at Trachyangtsa in Bhutan at about 2120 m in May. It occupies forest margins, open slopes, ravines and secondary woodland on well-drained soils in the cool, humid temperate belt, occurring as a scattered canopy or understorey component rather than forming pure stands.

It is a deciduous shrub or small tree with slender, lenticellate branchlets. The leaves are alternate, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, with finely serrate margins, an acuminate apex, and lateral veins running out to the teeth, turning red before autumn fall. The flowers are small and white, with five petals, numerous stamens and an inferior to semi-inferior ovary, borne in many-flowered terminal corymbs. The fruit is a small ovoid pome, ripening dark red and bearing the persistent calyx, attractive to frugivorous birds that disperse the seeds; it is the seasonal foliage colour and fruiting display that make the species ornamental.

Under GBIF this name is returned as a synonym, with Photinia beauverdiana itself standing as the accepted name; the species sits within subfamily Amygdaloideae (Maloideae) of the Rosaceae, in the pome-bearing alliance allied to Pyrus and Sorbus, and has at times been segregated into related genera as generic limits in the group are revised. Originally described by C.K. Schneider, it is widely valued in horticulture for autumn colour and red fruit. With a broad range and abundant cultivation it is of no conservation concern.

Author: C.K.Schneid. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Photinia and Maloideae generic revisions (Rosaceae)

Rosaceae

Photinia integrifolia

by G & P Jürgens

Lindl.

Bhutan2014 22
Bhutan Sandrup 850m, May
Bhutan2014 481
Bhutan Tongsa 2000m, May

Description

Photinia integrifolia is an evergreen tree or large shrub of broad Indo-Malesian distribution, with verified occurrences across China, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Bhutan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, Korea, Bangladesh and Timor-Leste, and well over a thousand GBIF records reflecting its wide range and abundance. It grows in subtropical to lower-temperate broadleaved and evergreen forest, on slopes and along ridges, generally from near 800 up to about 2500 m. The Bhutanese material cited, from Sandrup at around 850 m and Tongsa near 2000 m, both in May, spans the altitudinal breadth of its habitat from warm foothill forest into cooler mid-elevation woodland.

The tree has smooth grey bark and bears alternate, leathery, glabrous leaves that are oblong to elliptic-lanceolate with entire (rarely obscurely toothed) margins, the integri-folious character of the epithet, tapering to a short petiole. The small white flowers are massed in terminal corymbose panicles; each has five spreading petals, numerous stamens and an inferior to half-inferior ovary. The fruit is a small subglobose pome, red ripening to dark purple-black, containing one or few seeds and readily taken by birds.

Photinia, of subfamily Amygdaloideae (formerly Maloideae), is allied to Pyrus and Sorbus, and P. integrifolia, described by Lindley, is distinguished within the Asian group by its entire-margined evergreen leaves. Ecologically it is a useful timber and fuelwood tree whose bird-dispersed pomes contribute to forest regeneration. Given its very wide distribution and frequency across South and South-East Asia, it is of least conservation concern.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India

Phyllanthaceae

Phyllanthus emblica

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Bhutan2012 534
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September
Nepal 97 68 P104
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1250m April
Nepal 97 67 P103
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1250m April

Description

Phyllanthus emblica, the emblic myrobalan or Indian gooseberry (amla), is a small to medium tree of tropical and subtropical Asia with a very broad distribution embracing India, China, much of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and many introduced ranges, recorded in GBIF by more than 19000 occurrences. It is a plant of deciduous and mixed dry forest, open hillsides, scrub and cultivated and disturbed ground, and is very widely planted, generally from the lowlands up into the hills. The cited material spans Mewa Khola in eastern Nepal at 1250 m, in leaf and flower in April, and Wangdi in Bhutan at 2600 m in September, the latter near the upper elevational limit and reflecting the species' wide ecological amplitude across the southern Himalayan belt.

The tree reaches up to about 8–18 m, with smooth, pale, often flaking bark and slender, feathery branchlets bearing numerous small, distichous, oblong-linear leaves that closely resemble the pinnae of a compound leaf, the whole leafy branchlet being deciduous as a unit. It is monoecious, the small, greenish-yellow, apetalous flowers borne in clusters in the leaf axils. The fruit is the most distinctive feature: a fleshy, globose, pale green to yellowish drupe-like capsule, 1.5–2.5 cm across, with six faint longitudinal furrows, a hard central stone, and a markedly sour, astringent flesh.

Phyllanthus is a vast pantropical genus now placed in the family Phyllanthaceae, segregated from a broadly defined Euphorbiaceae. P. emblica is among the most economically and culturally important of its members: the vitamin-C-rich fruit is a staple of Ayurvedic and traditional medicine and is widely eaten preserved or processed, while the tree yields tannins, dye and timber. It is extensively cultivated and naturalised well beyond its native range. Being abundant, hardy and widely grown, the species is of no conservation concern and is in many areas a familiar element of agroforestry and village landscapes.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, A Monograph of the Genus Phyllanthus (Phyllanthaceae)

Fabaceae

Phyllolobium donianus

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) M.L.Zhang & Podlech

Nepal 2009 27 ergebnis
Nepal Helambu Koktrok 3000m, May

Description

Phyllolobium donianus (correctly P. donianum, the accepted spelling), formerly placed in Astragalus, is a Sino-Himalayan legume distributed from Nepal through northern India, Sikkim and Bhutan into south-western China, with 256 GBIF records concentrated in the central and eastern Himalaya. It grows on open grassy slopes, forest clearings, banks and stony alpine pastures in the temperate to subalpine zone. The cited collection from Koktrok in the Helambu region of Nepal at 3000 m in May places its flowering in the late-spring period on warm-temperate mountain grassland before the onset of the summer monsoon.

It is a perennial herb with slender, ascending to trailing stems arising from a woody rootstock, the herbage thinly clothed in appressed medifixed (dolabriform) hairs typical of the genus. The leaves are imparipinnate with several pairs of small elliptic to obovate leaflets. The flowers are pea-shaped (papilionaceous), borne in axillary racemes on long peduncles, the corolla purplish to violet-blue with a notched standard, oblong wings and a blunt keel, subtended by a campanulate, hairy calyx with short teeth. The fruit is a small, membranous to leathery legume, somewhat inflated and stipitate, dehiscing to release several reniform seeds.

Phyllolobium was segregated from the vast genus Astragalus by Zhang and Podlech on the basis of molecular and morphological evidence, comprising a distinctive Asian clade of milkvetches. P. donianum, transferred from Astragalus donianus DC., exemplifies this realignment. Like other milkvetches it is nitrogen-fixing through rhizobial symbiosis and bee-pollinated; it is widespread and not of conservation concern.

Author: (DC.) M.L.Zhang & Podlech · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Zhang & Podlech monograph of Phyllolobium

Phytolaccaceae

Phytolacca acinosa

by G & P Jürgens

Roxb.

Bhutan2014 111
Bhutan Trashigang 1550m, May

Description

Phytolacca acinosa is a robust herbaceous perennial native to the temperate and subtropical mountains of Asia, from the Himalaya and China eastward to Korea and Japan, and now widely naturalised across Europe, where GBIF records dominate; the more than 40,000 occurrences logged reflect its abundance as an introduced plant across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Britain as much as its native Asian range. Within its indigenous range it grows at forest margins, in clearings and on disturbed or cultivated ground at lower and middle elevations. The photographed plant was recorded in eastern Bhutan at Trashigang around 1550 m in May, a setting typical of this nitrogen-loving herb.

The plant arises from a stout, fleshy, often massive perennial taproot and produces tall, erect, branching, somewhat succulent stems. The leaves are alternate, large, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, entire, with an acute apex and tapering base. The flowers are borne in dense, erect to suberect racemes opposite the leaves; each has five whitish to greenish tepals, the stamens and free carpels typically numbering around eight to ten. The fruit is a fleshy, depressed-globose berry of distinct segments, ripening dark purple-black, each with a single shining seed.

Phytolacca (Phytolaccaceae) is a small genus of pokeweeds known for their berry-like fruits and saponin-rich tissues. P. acinosa is distinguished from the American P. americana by its erect fruiting racemes and free carpels. The young shoots are eaten as a cooked vegetable in Asia, though the root and mature plant are toxic. Far from threatened, it is a successful colonist, now widespread and sometimes weedy beyond its homeland.

Author: Roxb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Nowicke monograph of Phytolaccaceae

Pinaceae

Picea brachytyla

by GP Jürgens

(Franch.) E.Pritz.

Bh2008 298 P457
Bhutan Ura, 3400m April

Description

Picea brachytyla, the Sargent spruce, is a montane to subalpine conifer of the eastern Himalaya and southwest to central China, with GBIF documenting some 1,700 occurrences concentrated in China and Bhutan alongside many cultivated records in Europe, North America and elsewhere reflecting its value as an ornamental and forestry tree. In its native range it forms part of the cool-temperate conifer forests between roughly 2600 and 3800 m, often in mixed stands with fir, hemlock, larch and rhododendron on humid, well-drained mountain slopes fed by the summer monsoon. The photographed tree from Ura in central Bhutan at 3400 m, in April, sits within this upper-montane belt, where the species occupies sheltered valleys and north-facing slopes that retain moisture and snow into spring.

It is an evergreen tree to 20-30 m or more, with a conical to columnar crown and grey-brown, scaly bark, the branchlets pale and often slightly pubescent in the grooves between the pulvini. The needles are linear and flattened in cross-section rather than quadrangular, distinctly two-ranked or pectinate, dark green above and conspicuously marked beneath with two whitish stomatal bands that give the foliage a silvery cast. The pendulous seed cones are cylindrical-oblong, green ripening to brown, with thin, rounded to obtuse, entire-margined scales; the small winged seeds are wind-dispersed.

Picea brachytyla belongs to the flat-needled group of spruces (subgenus Casicta) and is morphologically close to P. spinulosa of the same region, from which it is separated by needle and cone characters; several varieties have been recognised across its longitudinal range, notably the western var. complanata. The species is assessed by the IUCN as Vulnerable, its populations reduced by logging and forest clearance across China, while the Himalayan stands in Bhutan and adjacent areas remain comparatively intact within protected high-mountain forest.

Author: (Franch.) E.Pritz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Farjon's A Handbook of the World's Conifers

Pinaceae

Picea spinulosa

by G & P Jürgens

(Griff.) A.Henry

Bhutan2015 407
Bhutan Jakar 2550, October
Sikkim2004 440 P767
Sikkim/India Lachung 3400m May

Description

Picea spinulosa, the Sikkim or Himalayan weeping spruce, is a coniferous tree endemic to the eastern Himalaya, native to Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal and adjacent China (Xizang); GBIF lists 291 occurrences, many from cultivated arboretum specimens in Europe and North America. In the wild it forms montane coniferous and mixed forests, often on north-facing slopes and in sheltered valleys, generally between about 2300 and 3700 m. The trees illustrated were photographed at Jakar in Bhutan at 2550 m in October and at Lachung in Sikkim at 3400 m in May, spanning the typical altitudinal range.

It is a tall evergreen tree with a conical to columnar crown and pendulous, weeping branchlets that give the species its distinctive habit. The bark is grey and scaly; the needle leaves are flattened, sharply pointed (spinulose, as the epithet notes), borne singly on small peg-like pulvini and showing two whitish stomatal bands beneath. The seed cones are pendulous, cylindrical, green ripening to pale brown, with thin, rounded, entire scales. Pollen and seed cones mature in a single season, and the winged seeds are dispersed by wind from the opening cones.

Picea spinulosa belongs to Pinaceae and is a regional dominant of the eastern Himalayan temperate conifer forests, frequently associating with Tsuga, Abies and broadleaved genera. Its graceful weeping form has led to its planting in temperate arboreta worldwide, accounting for the wide scatter of cultivated records. The species yields useful softwood timber. Although restricted in natural range, it remains locally common; nonetheless its forests are vulnerable to logging, fire and the cumulative effects of land-use change across the eastern Himalaya.

Author: (Griff.) A.Henry · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Conifers of the World, Farjon A Handbook of the World's Conifers

Ericaceae

Pieris formosa

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) D. Don

Bhutan2014 861
Bhutan Chele-La 3000m, May
Bhutan2014 859
Bhutan Chele-La 3000m, May
Sikkim2004 381 658
Sikkim/India Lachung 3000m May

Description

Pieris formosa is an evergreen ericaceous shrub native to the Himalaya and southwestern China, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with cultivated and naturalised records elsewhere accounting for the European, North American, Japanese and other points among its substantial 2971 GBIF occurrences. It occurs in temperate forest, forest margins, thickets and open rocky slopes, generally between 900 and 3300 m. The localities in the caption, Chele-La in Bhutan and Lachung in Sikkim, both around 3000 m in May, represent the cool, humid upper montane forest where the species flowers profusely in spring.

The plant is a much-branched evergreen shrub or small tree reaching several metres, with leathery, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic leaves that are finely serrate, glossy dark green above and frequently flushed bronze or coppery-red when young. The flowers are borne in large, terminal, much-branched panicles; each corolla is small, white, urceolate (urn-shaped) and five-toothed at the mouth, with the stamens enclosed and the ovary superior. Fruit is a small erect, woody, five-valved dehiscent capsule containing numerous minute seeds, the persistent panicles remaining conspicuous after flowering.

Pieris (tribe Lyonieae, subfamily Vaccinioideae) is a small genus of Asian and North American shrubs, and P. formosa is its most robust Himalayan representative, widely grown as an ornamental, notably the form 'Forrestii' selected for its vivid red young growth. Like many Ericaceae it favours acidic, humus-rich soils and harbours grayanotoxins, rendering its foliage poisonous to livestock. Its urn-shaped flowers are pollinated chiefly by bees, and the dust-like seeds are wind-dispersed. The species is common and not threatened across its native range.

Author: (Wall.) D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Bean Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Urticaceae

Pilea symmeria

by G & P Jürgens

Wedd.

Bhutan2014 833
Bhutan Thimphu 2450m, May

Description

Pilea symmeria is a herbaceous member of the nettle family with a broad Asian range, GBIF documenting it from China, Nepal, Bhutan, NE India, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan across some 217 records. It is a plant of shaded, humid habitats, growing on moist rock faces, stream banks, ravines and the floor of broadleaved evergreen forest. The photographed plant from Thimphu in Bhutan at 2,450 m (May) is representative of its mid-montane occurrence, where it favours cool, sheltered and consistently damp microsites typical of the genus.

It is a soft, glabrous perennial or annual herb with succulent, often translucent stems frequently rooting at the lower nodes. The leaves are opposite, equal or somewhat unequal in a pair, ovate to elliptic, with a toothed or crenate margin and conspicuous linear cystoliths visible on the surface, the venation triplinerved at the base as is characteristic of Pilea. The plants are typically monoecious, the minute unisexual flowers borne in small axillary cymes; the male flowers have a 4-merous perianth and explosively dehiscent stamens, while the female flowers produce a small, compressed achene.

The family is here correctly Urticaceae. Pilea is the largest genus of the nettle family and a notoriously difficult one, the species separated on subtle differences in leaf shape, stipules, cystolith pattern and inflorescence. The explosive release of pollen by the recoiling stamens is a hallmark dispersal mechanism of the family. As a widespread, shade-adapted forest herb of no particular rarity, P. symmeria is not regarded as threatened, though it is sensitive to disturbance of the humid forest understorey it requires.

Author: Wedd. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Friis: Urticaceae (in Families and Genera of Vascular Plants)

Orchideaceae

Pinalia amica

by GP Jürgens

(Rchb.f.) Kuntze

Bh2008 320 P495
Bhutan Jakar, 2950m April
Bh2008 321 G496
Bhutan Jakar, 2950m April

Description

Pinalia amica (Rchb.f.) Kuntze, long known under Eria amica, is an epiphytic orchid widely distributed through tropical and subtropical Asia. GBIF records (about 203 occurrences) extend from Nepal, northern India and Bhutan eastward through Myanmar, southern China, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. It grows as an epiphyte, occasionally a lithophyte, on mossy trunks and branches in humid broad-leaved and mixed forest, from the foothills up to about 2000-3000 m. The plant photographed at Jakar in Bhutan at 2950 m in April, flowering in spring, occurs near the upper part of its altitudinal range in cool, moist montane forest where high humidity and shaded, well-aerated bark provide its rooting substrate.

It is a sympodial epiphyte with cylindric to fusiform pseudobulbs or stems clustered on a creeping rhizome, each bearing a few apical leaves. The leaves are oblong-lanceolate, leathery and several-nerved. The inflorescence is a lateral raceme of several to many flowers, the rachis and ovaries usually finely hairy. The flowers are small, cream to pale yellow, often marked with reddish-brown striations; the sepals form a short mentum at the base with the column foot, and the lip is three-lobed and bears longitudinal keels or calli. The pollinarium carries eight waxy pollinia, and the fruit is a ribbed dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

The broadly circumscribed genus Eria has been dismembered on molecular evidence, and species of the Eria amica group are now placed in Pinalia within tribe Podochileae; Pinalia amica is the currently accepted name. Like most epiphytic orchids it depends on mycorrhizal fungi for seed germination and produces enormous numbers of minute wind-dispersed seeds. Widespread across Asia, it is not regarded as threatened overall, though, as with all orchids, it is listed on CITES Appendix II, and local populations are sensitive to deforestation and collection.

Author: (Rchb.f.) Kuntze · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, The Orchids of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ng et al. molecular phylogeny of Eria and allied genera