Tag:

Spring

Pinaceae

Tsuga dumosa 

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Eichler

Nepal 2001 283 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Lambra Kharka 3000m, May

Description

Tsuga dumosa, the Himalayan hemlock, is a large evergreen conifer distributed across the Himalaya from central Nepal eastward through Sikkim, Bhutan, and northeast India into southern China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou), Myanmar, and northern Vietnam. It is a characteristic component of cool temperate and upper montane forests at elevations of 2,000–3,500 m, where it often forms pure stands or grows in association with Abies, Picea, Acer, and Rhododendron species. The species has been documented at Lambra Kharka in the Gorkha district of Nepal at approximately 3,000 m, near the upper limit of its elevational range.
Tsuga dumosa is a tree attaining 25–40 m in height with a trunk up to 1.5 m in diameter, bearing a broadly conical to irregular crown. The bark is dark greyish-brown, deeply fissured and scaly on mature trees. Leaves are linear, flattened, 10–25 mm long and 2–3 mm wide, with a rounded or emarginate apex, dark glossy green above with two conspicuous white stomatal bands beneath, arranged in a pectinate (comb-like) pattern on lateral shoots. Male strobili are small, axillary, and globose. Female seed cones are pendulous, ovoid to oblong, 1.5–2.5 cm long, with thin, rounded cone scales that open at maturity to release two small winged seeds per scale. The cones mature in a single season.
Tsuga dumosa is the sole Himalayan representative of the genus Tsuga, which comprises approximately nine species with a disjunct distribution between eastern Asia and North America. Phylogenetic studies place it sister to the East Asian T. chinensis complex. The species is of considerable ecological importance as a canopy dominant in Himalayan temperate forests, providing critical habitat for epiphytic bryophytes, lichens, and orchids. Its timber is locally valued for construction. While not currently assessed as threatened globally, localized deforestation and climate-driven upward range shifts pose potential concerns for some populations.

Author: (D.Don) Eichler · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Farjon: A Handbook of the World's Conifers (2017)

Ericaceae

Vaccinium nummularia

by GP Jürgens

Hook. f. & Thomson ex C.B. Clarke

Bh2008 392 G607
Bhutan Gogona 3250m, May
Vaccinium nummularia
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2700m April

Description

Vaccinium nummularia is an eastern Himalayan blueberry relative distributed through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, south-central China and Myanmar, with around two hundred and ten GBIF records (a few cultivated or herbarium entries from Britain and the United States reflecting its horticultural interest). It is a characteristic epiphyte or terrestrial shrub of moist temperate forest, growing on mossy tree trunks, banks and cliff faces in the cloud-forest belt. The illustrated plants from Gogona in Bhutan at 3250 m in May and from Bersay in the Sikkim/West Bengal hills at 2700 m in April typify its mid- to upper-temperate, high-humidity habitat.

The species is a low, much-branched evergreen shrub whose young stems and leaf undersides are conspicuously clad in stiff, brown, bristly hairs (setae). The leaves are small, ovate to orbicular, coriaceous and nearly sessile, distichously arranged, with finely serrulate, setose margins, the rounded outline giving rise to the epithet nummularia ('coin-like'). The flowers are borne in short axillary racemes; the corolla is urceolate (urn-shaped), red to pink and waxy, with a small five-lobed limb, and the calyx, ovary and pedicels are likewise setose. The fruit is a globose, purplish-black, edible berry.

Vaccinium nummularia is an accepted species within Vaccinium (Ericaceae, subfamily Vaccinioideae), allied to the setose-leaved Himalayan epiphytic blueberries. Its epiphytic habit, leathery setose leaves and bird-dispersed berries are adaptations to the humid, mossy cloud-forest canopy, and it is cultivated by specialist growers for its handsome bristly foliage and red urn-shaped flowers. The species is locally common and not assessed as threatened, but it depends on intact, humid temperate forest.

Author: Hook. f. & Thomson ex C.B. Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Sleumer revision of Asian Vaccinium (Ericaceae monograph)

Ericaceae

Vaccinium retusum

by GP Jürgens

(Griff.) Hook. f. ex C.B. Clarke

Bhutan2014 576
Bhutan Bhutan 2950m, May
Sikkim2004 71 G163
Sikkim West-Bengal, Bersay 2700m April
Sikkim 2006 20 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Tonglu 3100m, May

Description

Vaccinium retusum is an evergreen Himalayan shrub distributed through Nepal, India, Bhutan and into adjacent China and northern Indochina (NP, IN, BT, VN, CN, MM, LA, with cultivated and other records), amounting to some 254 occurrences. It is a plant of cool, humid temperate forest, growing as a shrub or small tree among Rhododendron, oak and conifer woodland, on mossy banks and forest margins, and frequently as an epiphyte or hemi-epiphyte on the limbs of larger trees. The cited gatherings span 2700 to 3100 m in Bhutan, Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal (Bersay, Tonglu), flowering in the April-May spring, an elevation and season typical of its occurrence in the mist-laden middle-montane belt.

The plant is a glabrous, much-branched shrub with reddish young shoots. The leaves are leathery and evergreen, elliptic to obovate with a characteristically retuse or emarginate apex from which the epithet derives, the margins entire or finely toothed and the venation reticulate beneath. The flowers are borne in short axillary racemes; the corolla is urceolate (urn-shaped) and white to pinkish, with a five-toothed limb, enclosing the included stamens whose anthers bear terminal tubules. The fruit is a globose, many-seeded berry, ripening dark purple-black and crowned by the persistent calyx.

Vaccinium (the blueberry and bilberry genus, tribe Vaccinieae of the Ericaceae) is richly developed in the Sino-Himalayan region, where many species are epiphytic. The urceolate corolla and inferior, berried ovary are diagnostic, and the flowers are pollinated by bees attracted to nectar. The fleshy berries are dispersed by birds, accounting for the establishment of epiphytic seedlings high in the forest canopy. Widespread and locally common, V. retusum is not considered threatened, though it depends on the persistence of intact temperate broadleaf forest.

Author: (Griff.) Hook. f. ex C.B. Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Vaccinium (Sleumer monograph of Asian Vaccinieae)

Ericaceae

Vaccinium vacciniaceum

by GP Jürgens

(Roxb.) Sleumer

Nepal 97 77 P127
Nepal above Meta-Khola 1850m April
Nepal 97 90 P151
Nepal above Meta-Khola 1850m April

Description

Vaccinium vacciniaceum is a shrub of the eastern Himalaya and adjoining ranges, recorded by GBIF from India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh across about 187 occurrences. It is characteristically epiphytic or lithophytic, growing on the trunks and branches of forest trees and on mossy rocks in humid temperate and subtropical broad-leaved and evergreen forest, typically between roughly 1500 and 2700 m. The plant photographed above the Meta-Khola in Nepal at about 1850 m, in April, reflects this moist mid-montane forest habitat where high humidity and abundant epiphytic moss support its growth.

The plant is a small, much-branched evergreen shrub, often pendent or scrambling when epiphytic, with a somewhat woody, swollen base. The leaves are alternate, leathery, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, with an acuminate apex, an entire or finely serrulate margin, and prominent venation. The flowers are borne in short axillary racemes and are urceolate (urn-shaped), the corolla white to pale pink with five short recurved lobes, subtended by small bracts; the stamens have awned anthers opening by terminal pores, as is typical of the genus. The fruit is a small globose berry, ripening dark and fleshy, attractive to birds that disperse the numerous tiny seeds.

The species, transferred to Vaccinium by Sleumer in his comprehensive treatment of Asian Ericaceae, belongs to the largely epiphytic Sino-Himalayan element of the genus. Its epiphytic habit and dependence on humid, moss-rich forest tie it closely to intact, well-shaded montane woodland, and the fleshy berries indicate ornithochorous dispersal. Although not formally assessed as threatened, epiphytic Vaccinium are sensitive to forest clearance and to declines in the canopy humidity on which their establishment depends.

Author: (Roxb.) Sleumer · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Sleumer revision of Asian Vaccinium (Ericaceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Apocynaceae

Vallaris solanacea

by GP Jürgens

(Roth) Kuntze

Bhutan2014 231 1
Bhutan Karu-Chu 1800m, May
Bhutan2014 234
Bhutan Karu-Chu 1800m, May
Nepal 97 28 P45
Nepal Dhoban 735m April

Description

Vallaris solanacea is a woody climber of tropical and subtropical Asia, broadly distributed from the Indian subcontinent and the Himalayan foothills through Indochina, southern China and the Malesian region (gbif_countries: IN, TH, CN, NP, MM, US, ZZ, LK, MY, GP, KH, LA, BD, BT, VN, ID, PK, SC), with GBIF documenting some 536 occurrences. It grows in lowland and submontane forests, thickets, riverine scrub and forest margins, often scrambling over shrubs and small trees. The illustrated gatherings range from Dhoban in Nepal at about 735 m, flowering in April, up to Karu-Chu in Bhutan near 1800 m in May, reflecting its preference for warm, humid lower hill country.

The plant is a glabrous to finely pubescent liana with milky latex and opposite, elliptic to ovate leaves that are entire, pinnately veined and shortly petiolate. The flowers are borne in axillary or terminal cymes and are fragrant, with a white, rotate to broadly campanulate corolla bearing five spreading lobes, the throat marked with hairy appendages; the floral form recalls a Solanum, the resemblance enshrined in the epithet. The androecium consists of five stamens with connivent anthers adhering to the stigmatic head, and the fruit is a pair of slender, spreading follicles releasing comose seeds adapted to wind dispersal.

A member of subfamily Apocynoideae, Vallaris is a small Indomalayan genus of latex-bearing twiners. V. solanacea is locally valued as an ornamental for its sweetly scented blossoms and is used in traditional medicine, while its latex and tissues, like those of many Apocynaceae, contain bioactive compounds. Widespread and adaptable, it is of no conservation concern across its extensive range.

Author: (Roth) Kuntze · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Flora Malesiana account of Apocynaceae

Orchideaceae

Vanda bicolor

by GP Jürgens

Griff.

Bhutan2014 121
Bhutan Trashigang 1550m, May
Bhutan2014 122
Bhutan Trashigang 1550m, May

Description

Vanda bicolor is a comparatively rare epiphytic orchid of the eastern Himalaya, known from Bhutan, north-east India, Nepal and adjacent southern China, with GBIF recording only about 35 occurrences that underline its localised distribution. It grows on the trunks and larger limbs of trees in warm-temperate to subtropical broad-leaved forest, generally at lower-montane elevations between roughly 1000 and 1800 m, in humid, partially shaded conditions. The illustrated plant from Trashigang in eastern Bhutan at 1550 m, flowering in May, is typical of the foothill forests where the species reaches its centre of abundance.

A monopodial epiphyte, it forms a stout, erect to ascending stem clothed in two ranks of strap-shaped (ligulate), leathery, channelled leaves with unequally bilobed, praemorse tips, and produces thick aerial roots. The inflorescence is a short, few- to several-flowered axillary raceme of large, fleshy, fragrant flowers. As the epithet indicates, the flowers are bicoloured: sepals and petals are broad, somewhat clawed and tessellated or flushed brownish over a paler ground, contrasting with the small, trilobed, spurred labellum. The fruit is an elongate, ribbed dehiscent capsule containing copious minute seeds.

Vanda comprises strap-leaved monopodial orchids of tropical Asia, within which V. bicolor is set apart by its flower colouration and labellum structure. Like all Vanda it is listed on CITES Appendix II, and its naturally restricted range, low population density and desirability to collectors make it vulnerable to habitat loss and illegal trade, warranting careful local protection.

Author: Griff. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Orchids of Bhutan, Genera Orchidacearum (Pridgeon et al.)

Orchideaceae

Vanda cristata

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Lindl.

Nepal 1994 224 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Mewa-Khola 1900m April 

Description

Vanda cristata is an epiphytic orchid distributed along the Himalaya from northern India through Nepal and Bhutan into southwestern China, with cultivated and naturalised records reflected in the GBIF dataset (136 occurrences across NP, IN, BT, CN and horticultural reports from CR, DE, TH and US). It inhabits humid, broad-leaved and mixed evergreen forest belts, growing as a twig and trunk epiphyte in dappled light, typically at montane elevations between roughly 1200 and 2200 m. The plant photographed in eastern Nepal in the Mewa Khola valley at about 1900 m in April illustrates its characteristic flowering during the pre-monsoon dry season, when cooler nights and high atmospheric humidity prevail.

The species is a compact, monopodial epiphyte with a short, erect stem clothed in the persistent imbricate bases of distichous leaves. The leaves are linear-ligulate, coriaceous, channelled above and unequally bilobed at the apex. Few-flowered racemes arise laterally from the leaf axils, bearing one to several long-lasting, waxy, fragrant flowers. The sepals and petals are yellowish-green, oblong and somewhat reflexed, while the three-lobed labellum is the diagnostic feature: the small lateral lobes flank a prominent fleshy mid-lobe marked with crimson to maroon longitudinal striations, narrowing to a sharply forked or bristled apex. The short column bears a terminal anther with waxy pollinia.

Within Vanda, V. cristata belongs to a group of small-statured, cool-growing Himalayan species and is sometimes placed in the segregate genus Trudelia, a treatment not adopted by POWO. Pollination is by bees attracted to the patterned labellum, and the long flowering period favours outcrossing. As with most showy Vanda species it is subject to horticultural collection pressure, and although not formally assessed as threatened it is protected under CITES Appendix II governing international trade in wild-collected orchids.

Author: Wall. ex Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Vanda (Motes)

Orchideaceae

Vanda griffithii

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

Bhutan2014 269
Bhutan Trithangebe near a farmhouse 700m, May

Description

Vanda griffithii is an epiphytic orchid of the eastern Himalaya, documented in GBIF from Bhutan, India and Nepal across a modest 19 occurrences, reflecting both its localised distribution and the under-collection of canopy epiphytes. It inhabits warm to cool broad-leaved forest, growing on tree trunks and branches at low to mid elevations, roughly 700-1800 m. The photographed plant was recorded in Bhutan at Trithangebe, perched near a farmhouse at about 700 m in May, illustrating its tolerance of disturbed and semi-cultivated settings where suitable phorophytes persist.

It is a monopodial epiphyte with a short to elongate stem clothed in distichous, ligulate, leathery leaves that are channelled and obliquely praemorse (toothed) at the apex, with stout aerial roots anchoring the plant. The inflorescence is a short axillary raceme of a few fleshy, long-lived flowers; the sepals and petals are subequal, spreading, typically greenish-yellow to brownish and often barred or tessellated, while the small three-lobed labellum bears a saccate or shortly spurred base characteristic of the genus. The column is short and footless, with a beaked anther cap and waxy pollinia, and fertilised flowers develop into an elongate, ribbed capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Vanda (Orchidaceae, subtribe Aeridinae) is a horticulturally celebrated genus of monopodial epiphytes, and like all orchids it is listed on CITES Appendix II, regulating international trade. Reproduction depends on specific pollinators and mycorrhizal fungi for seed germination. Its narrow Himalayan range and reliance on intact forest canopy render it vulnerable to deforestation and over-collection for the ornamental trade.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, The Orchids of Bhutan, CITES Appendix II listing, Genera Orchidacearum

Plantaginaceae

Veronica cana

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Benth.

Sikkim 2006 333 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tolung 2450m, May

Description

Veronica cana is a Himalayan speedwell distributed from Pakistan and northern India (Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh) through Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar to southwestern China (Xizang, Yunnan) and Japan. It occurs in open forest clearings, grassy slopes, rocky banks, and montane scrub at elevations of 1,500–3,500 m. The species has been recorded from the Tolung area in West Bengal at 2,450 m, where it flowers in May during the pre-monsoon season. It favours well-drained, often stony soils in areas receiving moderate to high rainfall.
Veronica cana is an erect to ascending perennial herb, 15–40 cm tall, arising from a slender, creeping rhizome. The stems are simple or sparingly branched, densely covered with short, grey-white, appressed hairs that give the plant a characteristically canescent appearance — hence the epithet "cana" (grey-haired). Leaves are opposite, sessile or subsessile, ovate to lanceolate, 2–5 cm long and 1–2 cm wide, with a crenate to serrate margin and dense, soft pubescence on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme, 5–15 cm long, bearing numerous flowers on short, erect pedicels. The corolla is rotate, four-lobed, 5–8 mm in diameter, pale blue to lilac with darker veins. Stamens are two, exserted. The fruit is an obcordate, compressed capsule 3–5 mm wide, emarginate at the apex, containing numerous minute seeds.
Veronica cana belongs to a complex of pubescent, racemose-flowered Himalayan speedwells that have been variously treated taxonomically. Molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed that Veronica in the broad sense (including former Pseudolysimachion and Veronicastrum segregates) is monophyletic within Plantaginaceae. V. cana is distinguished from the related V. laxa by its denser canescent indumentum and more compact racemes. Ecologically, the species is a characteristic element of Himalayan montane grasslands and forest-edge communities, contributing to ground-layer diversity in habitats increasingly threatened by overgrazing and land-use intensification.

Author: Wall. ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Albach et al.: Phylogeny of Veronica (2004)

Adoxaceae

Viburnum cotinifolium

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Bhutan2014 863
Bhutan Chele-La 3100m, May
Bhutan2014 965
Bhutan Chele-La 3400m, May
Bh2008 554 P838
Bhutan Paro 1950m April

Description

Viburnum cotinifolium is a Himalayan and Central Asian shrub distributed from Afghanistan and Pakistan eastward through Kashmir and the Indian Himalaya, Nepal and Bhutan to western and southwestern China; GBIF records 714 occurrences, principally from Pakistan, Nepal, India, China and Bhutan. It inhabits open temperate forest, scrub, forest margins, ravines and dry rocky slopes, mostly between about 1500 and 3500 m. The cited records from Chele-La in Bhutan at 3100 and 3400 m in May and from Paro at 1950 m in April illustrate its broad elevational range and its spring flowering, when the white-pink corymbs open as the new foliage flushes in the western Bhutanese borderlands.

It is a deciduous shrub with stellate-tomentose young branchlets and opposite, broadly ovate to orbicular leaves that recall those of Cotinus (whence the epithet), the blades entire to obscurely toothed, three- to five-veined at the base and densely grey stellate-pubescent beneath. The flowers are small, white tinged pink, all fertile and aggregated into dense, rounded, peduncled corymbose cymes; each has a short campanulate corolla with five spreading lobes. The fruit is an ovoid, somewhat compressed drupe ripening from red to glossy black, containing a single flattened, grooved stone, and is edible.

The species belongs to Viburnum, transferred with the genus from the traditional Caprifoliaceae to the Adoxaceae on molecular evidence. Its showy fertile corymbs attract diverse insect pollinators, while the colourful drupes are dispersed by birds; the fruits are also gathered locally for food. Widespread, hardy and ornamental, it is cultivated in temperate gardens and is of least conservation concern throughout its extensive range.

Author: D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Pakistan, A Monograph of the Genus Viburnum (Kern / Hara studies)