Tag:

Spring

Ericaceae

Rhododendron wightii

by GP Jürgens

Hook. f.

Sikkim2011 290
Sikkim Lada-La 3950m, June
Bh2008 257 G404
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3750m April
Bh2008 591 P884
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3750m April
Bh2008 592 P885
Bhutan Chele-La, 3850m April
Sikkim2004 224 P383
Sikkim/India Singalila 4000m May

Description

Rhododendron wightii is an Eastern Himalayan shrub or small tree ranging from eastern Nepal through Sikkim and northern West Bengal into Bhutan and adjoining southern Tibet (China), with GBIF recording 251 occurrences over IN, NP, CN and BT alongside cultivated records from Britain and elsewhere. It is a constituent of the upper temperate to subalpine zone, growing in rhododendron thickets, at the forest limit and among open hillsides between about 3300 and 4300 m. The photographed populations span Sikkim (Lada-La 3950 m, June; Singalila 4000 m, May) and Bhutan (Tumching-La 3750 m and Chele-La 3850 m, April), documenting its spring to early-summer flowering.

It is an evergreen shrub to small tree with stout branches. The leaves are leathery, elliptic to obovate, dark green and glabrous above, and conspicuously coated beneath with a dense, suede-like, fawn to rust-coloured indumentum of agglutinate hairs that is diagnostic. The flowers are grouped in lax, one-sided terminal trusses; each campanulate corolla is pale yellow to creamy-yellow, often marked with a crimson basal blotch, and has five lobes. The androecium of ten stamens surrounds a superior ovary topped by a long style, and the fruit is a curved, woody, septicidal capsule releasing numerous small seeds.

Within the genus, R. wightii belongs to subgenus Hymenanthes (the elepidote rhododendrons), allied to the Taliensia group and characterised by its yellow flowers and thick leaf indumentum. Named for the botanist Robert Wight, it is valued in horticulture for hardiness and foliage. Its dwarf-rhododendron habitat is locally extensive, but high-altitude shrublands face pressure from grazing, burning and a warming climate.

Author: Hook. f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Rhododendron (Cullen & Chamberlain, Edinburgh), Hooker's Rhododendrons of the Sikkim-Himalaya

Grossulariaceae

Ribes glaciale

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 2001 373 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal Kharka 3140m, May

Description

Ribes glaciale is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan currant distributed from Afghanistan and Pakistan through Nepal, NW India and Bhutan into SW and central China, with 2,141 GBIF occurrences (records from Europe and the Americas reflect cultivated or naturalised material). It is a shrub of subalpine and temperate forest, forest margins, shrubberies and rocky slopes, typically between about 2,500 and 4,000 m. The Nepalese collection from a kharka (high pasture) at 3,140 m in May captures it flowering in the spring, when it forms a component of mixed deciduous and conifer understorey thickets.

It is a deciduous, unarmed shrub 1–2 m tall with slender, glabrous to sparsely glandular branches. The leaves are alternate, small, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 1.5–4 cm wide, palmately 3–5-lobed with the central lobe longer, the margins toothed, on slender petioles. The plant is functionally dioecious or sub-dioecious; the flowers are borne in short erect racemes, small and reddish to purplish, with a shallow campanulate hypanthium, five reflexed sepals and minute petals. The fruit is a small, globose to ovoid red berry crowned by the persistent calyx.

The species belongs to Ribes subgen. Ribes and is one of several closely allied, lobed-leaved Himalayan currants that can be difficult to separate. GBIF treats the name as accepted; note that the image filename references R. laciniatum, but the named taxon R. glaciale is followed here. The red berries are taken by birds and provide effective dispersal, and the species is widespread and of least concern.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Pakistan, GBIF, Berger: A Taxonomic Review of Currants and Gooseberries (1924)

Grossulariaceae

Ribes luridum

by GP Jürgens

Hook. f. & Thomson

Bhutan2014 606
BhutanPhobjika 2810, May
Sikkim2011 76
Sikkim Tanghu 3900m, June

Description

Ribes luridum is a Sino-Himalayan currant distributed from south-western China through northern Myanmar, Nepal, northern India and Bhutan, with around 348 GBIF occurrences (the records from US, CA, PL and RU largely representing cultivated or herbarium material). It is a shrub of cool-temperate to subalpine forest, scrub margins and rocky slopes, typically between about 2800 and 4000 m. The collections from Phobjika in Bhutan at 2810 m in May and from Tanghu in Sikkim at 3900 m in June bracket this altitudinal range and its late-spring to early-summer flowering, on moist, humus-rich ground at and above the upper forest belt.

It is a deciduous, unarmed shrub with spreading branches and finely glandular young growth. The leaves are alternate, orbicular-cordate in outline and palmately three- to five-lobed, the lobes crenate-serrate, sparsely pubescent and often glandular beneath. The species is dioecious or functionally so, the small flowers borne in short, few-flowered, pendulous racemes; each has a saucer-shaped to shortly campanulate hypanthium and five small, dull purplish to lurid greenish-brown petals and sepals, the colouration alluded to by the epithet. The fruit is a small subglobose berry, glandular-bristly and reddish to dark purple when ripe.

Within Ribes the species sits in the section of unarmed currants and is distinguished by its dingy, glandular flowers and dioecious tendency. The pendulous berries are dispersed by frugivorous birds, an important agent in fragmented montane forest, while the inconspicuous flowers attract small bees and flies. The species is widespread across the eastern Himalaya and faces no recognised conservation threat.

Author: Hook. f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, A Monograph of the Genus Ribes

Grossulariaceae

Ribes takare

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Sikkim2011 365
Sikkim Lada-La 3900m, June
Bh2008 12 P20
Bhutan Thimphu-Chu, 2750m April
Sikkim2004 62 P110
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2700m April
Sikkim 2006 30 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Tonglu 3150m, May

Description

Ribes takare is a Himalayan currant distributed along the temperate and subalpine belt from Afghanistan through Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bhutan into southwestern China and Myanmar, with GBIF recording close to a thousand occurrences across this arc. It grows in moist temperate and upper montane forest, forest margins, shrubberies, ravines and rocky slopes, typically between about 2500 and 4000 m. The image caption documents this range well, with collections from the Lada La in Sikkim at 3900 m in June, the Thimphu Chu in Bhutan at 2750 m in April, Bersay in West Bengal at 2700 m in April, and Tonglu at 3150 m in May, showing both its broad altitudinal span and its spring-to-early-summer flowering as the snowline retreats.

It is a deciduous, spineless (unarmed) shrub up to about 2-3 m tall, with greyish, peeling bark and glandular-pubescent young shoots. The leaves are alternate, palmately three- to five-lobed with crenate-serrate margins and a cordate base, somewhat resembling a maple leaf and often glandular-hairy beneath. The flowers are borne in many-flowered, pendulous racemes; they are small and reddish to purplish-brown, with a saucer-shaped to shallowly campanulate hypanthium, five reflexed sepals, five smaller petals, five stamens and an inferior ovary. The fruit is a glandular-bristly, reddish to purplish-black berry that is edible but rather acidic and somewhat resinous.

The genus Ribes, sole genus of Grossulariaceae, is well represented in the Himalaya, where R. takare belongs to the unarmed, raceme-flowered black-currant alliance and has been treated under synonyms including R. acuminatum and R. glaciale-related names by various authors. Its pendent racemes of nectariferous flowers attract bees and other insects, while the berries are dispersed by birds and small mammals; the species forms an understorey component of moist Himalayan forest. It is widespread and common across its extensive range and is of no conservation concern, while its acidic fruits are gathered locally and its hardiness has drawn modest horticultural interest.

Author: D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Berger's taxonomic review of Ribes

Asparagaceae

Rohdea nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

(Raf.) N.Tanaka

Nepal1992 155 P227 ergebnis
Nepal Simbua-Khola 2000m March 

Description

Rohdea nepalensis is a rhizomatous perennial herb of the Himalaya and adjacent montane Asia, documented by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Thailand across some 133 occurrences. It is a forest-floor species of shaded, moist broadleaved and evergreen forest, growing on humus-rich slopes, banks and rocky ground in the subtropical to warm-temperate zone. The photographed plant was recorded in Nepal in the Simbua-Khola at 2000 m in March, an early-season flowering in the cool, damp understorey characteristic of the species.

It forms clumps from a short, stout rhizome and produces basal, distichous, strap-shaped to oblanceolate leaves that are leathery, arching, prominently veined and tapered to a sheathing base. The inflorescence is a short, dense, sessile or shortly pedunculate spike borne near ground level, carrying numerous small, crowded flowers; each flower has a fleshy, urceolate to campanulate perianth of six connate tepals, usually pale yellow to greenish, with six included stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is a one- to few-seeded berry that ripens red.

GBIF accepts the name, recombined by N. Tanaka, who expanded Rohdea to include species formerly placed in Tupistra and Campylandra; under that classification the plant appears in older literature under those genera. It is treated within an enlarged Asparagaceae (subfamily Nolinoideae, the former Convallariaceae/Ruscaceae). Several Rohdea are cultivated as evergreen ornamentals and used in traditional medicine. Widely distributed in suitable forest, R. nepalensis is of no conservation concern.

Author: (Raf.) N.Tanaka · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Tanaka revision of Rohdea

Rosaceae

Rosa brunonii

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

Bh09 42 P79
Bhutan Timphu 2500m, May
Nepal 99 165 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Tara-Lake 3000m, June

Description

Rosa brunonii, the Himalayan musk rose, is a vigorous climbing or scrambling shrub of the Himalaya and adjacent ranges, recorded by GBIF (435 occurrences) from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with cultivated and naturalised reports in Europe, North America and elsewhere reflecting its long history in gardens. It grows in forest margins, thickets, ravines, hedgerows and on open slopes throughout the temperate zone, generally between about 1500 and 3500 m. The plants illustrated from Thimphu in Bhutan at 2500 m in May and from south of Tara Lake in western Nepal at 3000 m in June capture its early-summer flowering across this elevational band.

The species is a robust, long-trailing shrub with arching, often reddish stems armed with stout, recurved, flattened prickles. The leaves are alternate, imparipinnate with usually five to seven leaflets that are oblong-lanceolate, finely serrate and characteristically greyish-green and softly pubescent beneath, with stipules adnate to the petiole. The flowers are borne in many-flowered corymbose cymes; each is fragrant, with five white, broadly obovate and emarginate petals surrounding numerous yellow stamens, the styles united into an exserted column. The receptacle ripens into a small, ovoid to subglobose, orange-red hip crowned by the deciduous sepals.

Rosa brunonii belongs to section Synstylae, the white-flowered, united-styled climbing roses, and is the principal Himalayan representative of the musk rose group long valued horticulturally and used in the parentage of cultivated ramblers. The clustered, scented flowers attract bees and other insects, and the bird-dispersed hips spread the species along forest edges. It is abundant and ecologically robust throughout its native range and is of no conservation concern.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, The Genus Rosa (Phillips & Rix)

Rosaceae

Rosa sericea

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

Bhutan2014 399
Bhutan Yatong-La 2800m, May
Bhutan2014 400
Bhutan Yatong-La 2800m, May
Nepal 1994 253 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Milka-Danda 2600m May 

Description

Rosa sericea is a Sino-Himalayan rose native to China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, widely grown and naturalised so that GBIF's roughly 2293 occurrences include records from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, North America and beyond. In the wild it is a shrub of the temperate and subalpine zones, occupying open slopes, forest margins, scrub and ravine sides generally between about 2200 and 4000 m. The cited material from the Yatong-La in Bhutan at 2800 m and from the Milka-Danda in eastern Nepal at 2600 m, both flowering in May, is typical of its preference for sunny, well-drained montane situations where it blooms in late spring.

It is an erect, much-branched deciduous shrub whose stout stems bear paired prickles, in some forms broadly flattened and translucent. The leaves are imparipinnate with several pairs of small, oblong, serrate leaflets, the lower surface frequently silky-pubescent, a feature reflected in the epithet sericea. The flowers are solitary and famously distinctive in being four-petalled rather than five-petalled, a rarity in the genus, the petals white to creamy and broadly obcordate, surrounding numerous yellow stamens. After flowering the receptacle develops into a fleshy, pear-shaped to subglobose hip, often red and in some variants bearing conspicuously swollen yellow or red pedicels.

Rosa sericea is placed in section Pimpinellifoliae, the group of small-leaved, prickly Asian and European roses, and is closely allied to R. omeiensis, with which it intergrades; the form with enlarged winged prickles is much prized horticulturally as 'Pteracantha'. Its four-merous corolla is of botanical interest as an exception within a genus otherwise rigidly pentamerous. The bright hips provide autumn forage for birds and small mammals, aiding seed dispersal, and the species is in no way threatened, being common in the wild and long established in cultivation.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of British India, Krüssmann 'Roses' and the genus Rosa monographic literature

Lythraceae

Rotala rotundifolia

by GP Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Koehne

Nepal 97 63 P97
Nepal Mewa-Khola 1195m April

Description

Rotala rotundifolia (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Koehne is a small amphibious herb of the Lythraceae with a wide Asian distribution and an extensive secondary range. GBIF, with 2,686 occurrences, records it natively across China, Taiwan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Japan, and as an introduction in the USA, Australia, Brazil and elsewhere, partly through the aquarium trade. The species inhabits wet paddy margins, ditches, marshes, riverbanks and shallow standing water from the lowlands to around 1,500 m. The illustrated material from the Mewa-Khola in eastern Nepal at 1,195 m, in April, is typical of its subtropical wetland habitat.

The plant is a creeping to ascending annual or short-lived perennial, often rooting at the lower nodes and producing erect flowering shoots. Its stems are slender and four-angled, and the leaves are opposite, sessile, orbicular to ovate (as the epithet indicates) on submerged or basal parts but narrower on emergent shoots, a marked heterophylly. The flowers are minute and sessile, crowded into dense, spike-like terminal racemes; each has a four-lobed campanulate calyx, four small pink to rose-purple petals, and few stamens. The fruit is a small septicidal capsule with a finely striate surface containing numerous tiny seeds.

Rotala rotundifolia is taxonomically variable, with submerged and emergent forms differing strikingly in leaf shape and colour, a plasticity that has made it a popular ornamental aquatic. This same adaptability allows it to behave as an aggressive invasive in introduced regions, where it can clog drainage and displace native wetland flora. In its native Himalayan and Asian range it is an abundant and ecologically unremarkable component of seasonally inundated habitats.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Koehne · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Nepal, Flora of British India Vol. 2, Cook: Aquatic and Wetland Plants of India

Rosaceae

Rubus biflorus

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex Sm.

Bh2008 334 P515
Bhutan Chendebji, 2100m April
Bh2008 335 P516
Bhutan Chendebji, 2100m April

Description

Rubus biflorus Buch.-Ham. ex Sm. is a Himalayan bramble distributed from Pakistan and Afghanistan eastward through Nepal, India, Bhutan and into southern China and Myanmar, with around 651 GBIF records anchored in the temperate Himalaya. It is characteristic of forest margins, scrub, clearings and roadside thickets in the moist temperate zone, generally between about 1800 and 3500 m. The photographed material from Chendebji in central Bhutan at roughly 2100 m, flowering in April, typifies its occurrence in cool, humid mid-montane habitats where it forms dense tangled stands on disturbed and successional ground.

The species is a robust, arching to scrambling shrub whose biennial canes are conspicuously coated with a white, waxy bloom and armed with stout, hooked prickles. The leaves are imparipinnate with three to five ovate, doubly serrate leaflets that are green above and white-tomentose beneath. The flowers, often borne in twos or few-flowered clusters as the epithet suggests, have white petals subtended by a tomentose calyx. The aggregate fruit is a globose, yellow to orange edible drupelet cluster maturing in summer.

Rubus biflorus belongs to the taxonomically complex genus Rubus (Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae), where extensive hybridisation and apomixis complicate species delimitation; it is placed in the white-stemmed Himalayan brambles allied to R. niveus. Widespread, common and ecologically pioneering, it is of least conservation concern, and its fruit is gathered locally while the canes contribute to soil stabilisation on eroded slopes.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, H. Hara Enumeration of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Focke monograph Species Ruborum

Rosaceae

Rubus calycinus

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex D.Don

Bh2008 328 P506
Bhutan Chendebji, 2100m April
Sikkim2004 88 P155
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2600m April
Sikkim 2006 163 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Molley 3000m, May

Description

Rubus calycinus is a creeping Himalayan bramble distributed across China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and into Southeast Asia, with some 255 GBIF occurrences. It is a plant of the floor of moist temperate and subalpine forest, growing on humus-rich banks, mossy slopes and shaded forest margins, generally between about 1800 and 3300 m. The documented populations span Chendebji in Bhutan at 2100 m, Bersay in Sikkim/West Bengal at 2600 m, and Molley at 3000 m, all flowering in April and May, illustrating its early-season anthesis as the forest understorey greens.

Unlike the familiar scrambling brambles, R. calycinus is a small, prostrate, herbaceous to weakly woody perennial with slender, creeping and rooting stems that form low mats, the stems sparsely armed or nearly unarmed and bearing scattered bristles. The leaves are simple, broadly cordate-orbicular and shallowly three- to five-lobed, crenate-serrate at the margin and pilose on both surfaces. The flowers are solitary, white, with a conspicuously enlarged, leafy, lobed calyx that exceeds the petals and gives the species its name. The aggregate fruit is a small reddish drupelet cluster of few segments.

The species belongs to Rubus subgenus Chamaebatus (the herbaceous, simple-leaved creeping brambles), a distinctive group within the genus. It is widespread and not of conservation concern, valued ecologically as ground cover that stabilises forest-floor soils and provides minor forage and fruit for wildlife.

Author: Wall. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Focke monograph Species Ruborum