Tag:

Subalpine (2500-3500 m)

Orchideaceae

Dendrobium rotundatum

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

Nepal 97 424 P815
Nepal Tashigaon 3100m May

Description

Dendrobium rotundatum Hook.f. is an epiphytic orchid of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent ranges, distributed through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and into south-western China and Myanmar, with a GBIF record of about 122 occurrences (including a cultivated citation from Belgium) that reflects its relatively narrow distribution and inconspicuous habit. It grows perched on the trunks and branches of trees in cool, humid temperate broadleaf and mixed forest, where mossy bark and high atmospheric moisture sustain its epiphytic roots. The illustrated plant was recorded at Tashigaon in eastern Nepal at 3100 m in May, an elevation at the cool, montane end of the genus's range and a season corresponding to flowering as spring conditions return to the forest.

It is a small epiphyte with slender, often pendent to ascending stems (pseudobulbs) that are somewhat swollen and jointed, bearing distichous, thin-textured, oblong to lanceolate leaves along their length, these often deciduous in the dormant season. The flowers are produced from the nodes, solitary or few together, and are relatively small; the sepals and petals are subequal, with the lateral sepals united at the base to the column foot to form a short, rounded mentum or chin, an attribute echoed in the epithet rotundatum. The labellum is entire to obscurely three-lobed, the disc often bearing low ridges or a callus, and the column is short and footed in the typical Dendrobium pattern. The fruit is a ribbed, dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Dendrobium, with its centre of diversity in tropical and subtropical Asia, is one of the largest orchid genera, and the cool-growing, small-flowered Himalayan species such as D. rotundatum represent its montane, temperate fringe. As an epiphyte it depends on intact, humid old-growth forest and on mycorrhizal fungi for seed germination, making it sensitive to logging and habitat degradation. Like most orchids it is listed under CITES Appendix II to regulate international trade, and although not separately assessed as threatened, its restricted range and habitat specificity warrant ongoing monitoring of wild populations.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Orchids of Nepal (Raskoti), The Genus Dendrobium (Wood)

Hydrangeaceae

Deutzia corymbosa

by GP Jürgens

R.Br. ex G.Don

BhutanPG2011 820 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3400m July

Description

Deutzia corymbosa is a flowering shrub of Himalayan temperate forests, with GBIF documenting 99 occurrences from India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, plus a few cultivated or vouchered records from Europe and North America. It grows on forest margins, shrubby slopes, rocky banks and clearings in the temperate to lower subalpine zone, often in mixed broadleaved and conifer forest. It was recorded on the Chele-La in Bhutan at about 3400 m in July, a high-summer flowering at the upper part of its range where the white corymbs are conspicuous against the montane scrub.

It is a deciduous shrub with erect to arching branches and exfoliating bark on the older stems. The leaves are opposite, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrate, and clothed in stellate hairs that give the foliage a slightly rough texture characteristic of the genus. The inflorescence is a flattened, many-flowered corymb, as the epithet corymbosa indicates; each flower has five white, spreading petals, five sepals, ten stamens with the toothed or winged filaments typical of Deutzia, and three to four styles. The fruit is a small, hemispherical to top-shaped, several-valved capsule.

Deutzia (Hydrangeaceae) comprises shrubs of east Asia, Central America and the Himalaya, with a rich Sino-Himalayan representation and many ornamental species; the corymbose-inflorescenced group to which D. corymbosa belongs is distinctive within the genus. Widely grown and hybridised in horticulture, it is common across its broad native range and not of conservation concern. As an element of the temperate Himalayan shrub layer, it is of biogeographic interest within the disjunct east-Asian to Himalayan distribution pattern shown by many Hydrangeaceae.

Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Zaikonnikova's monograph of Deutzia (Hydrangeaceae)

Ranunculaceae

Dichocarpum adiantifolium

by GP Jürgens

(Hook.f. & Thomson) W.T.Wang & P.K.Hsiao

Nepal 97 310 G614
Nepal Honggaon 2300m May
Sikkim 2006 33 2 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Tonglu 3200m, May

Description

Dichocarpum adiantifolium is a slender woodland buttercup relative of the Sino-Himalayan region, distributed through Taiwan, China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, with the comparatively rich total of about 286 GBIF records. It grows in cool, shaded, humus-rich situations: moist temperate forest floors, mossy rocks, ravine banks and streamsides, generally between about 2000 and 3500 m. The collections illustrated, from Honggaon in Nepal at around 2300 m and Tonglu in West Bengal at about 3200 m, both in May, represent its typical spring-flowering forest habitat.

It is a delicate, glabrous perennial herb arising from a short rhizome. The leaves are mostly basal, long-petiolate and compound, divided into numerous small, thin, fan-shaped to obovate leaflets that recall the fronds of a maidenhair fern (Adiantum), hence the epithet. Slender scapes bear loose, few-flowered cymes of small flowers, each with five white, petaloid sepals and small tubular or two-lipped nectary petals, numerous stamens and usually two carpels. The diagnostic fruit is a pair of divergent, flattened follicles spreading widely at maturity, a feature reflected in the generic name (from the Greek for divided fruit).

Dichocarpum is a small east Asian and Himalayan genus segregated from Isopyrum and allied to Thalictrum and Aquilegia within the Ranunculaceae; D. adiantifolium was originally described under Isopyrum and later transferred by Wang and Hsiao. The paired spreading follicles and ferny foliage make it readily recognisable. It is a fairly widespread forest-understorey species and is not regarded as threatened, though as a shade-demanding mesophyte it depends on intact, humid temperate forest and would be sensitive to logging and forest fragmentation.

Author: (Hook.f. & Thomson) W.T.Wang & P.K.Hsiao · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Wang & Hsiao Revision of the Genus Dichocarpum

Papaveraceae

Dicranostigma lactucoides

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Nepal 99 399 ergebnis
West-Nepal Talphi 2830m, June
Nepal 99 551 ergebnis
West-Nepal Talphi 2830m, June
Nepal 99 552 ergebnis
West-Nepal Talphi 2830m, June

Description

Dicranostigma lactucoides Hook.f. & Thomson is a yellow-flowered Himalayan poppy relative known from about 145 records in Nepal, China, India and Bhutan. It is a plant of dry, open, often disturbed ground: stony slopes, rock crevices, river terraces, field margins and roadside banks in the inner valleys, generally in the warm-temperate to subalpine belt between roughly 2500 and 4000 m. The individual photographed at Talphi in West Nepal at 2830 m in June reflects its preference for sunny, well-drained, somewhat ruderal sites in the comparatively arid trans-Himalayan rain-shadow.

The species is an erect annual to short-lived perennial herb containing yellow to orange latex. The basal leaves form a rosette and are oblanceolate in outline, pinnately lobed to lyrate-pinnatifid with a large terminal lobe, glaucous and somewhat lettuce-like, whence the epithet "lactucoides." Cauline leaves are smaller and clasping. The flowers are borne on slender pedicels; two caducous sepals enclose four broad, crinkled, bright yellow petals surrounding numerous stamens. The fruit is the diagnostic feature of the genus: a slender, elongate, more or less cylindrical siliqua-like capsule dehiscing from the apex, crowned by a short style with a forked (bifid) stigma, and releasing many small seeds.

Dicranostigma is a small Asian genus close to Glaucium and Chelidonium in tribe Chelidonieae, distinguished by its elongate capsule and divided stigma; D. lactucoides is its principal Himalayan representative. Like its allies it contains benzylisoquinoline alkaloids and has been used locally in folk medicine. As a ruderal, weedy colonist of open ground it is resilient to moderate disturbance and is not regarded as threatened across its Sino-Himalayan range.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Hooker's Flora of British India, monograph of Papaveraceae tribe Chelidonieae

Didymocarpinae

Didymocarpus podocarpus

by G & P Jürgens

C.B.Clarke

BhutanPG2011 78 ergebnis 1
Bhutan Menchuang, 2800m June

Description

Didymocarpus podocarpus is an eastern Himalayan gesneriad recorded from Nepal (NP), India (IN) and Bhutan (BT), with 59 GBIF occurrences reflecting its relatively localised montane distribution. It is a lithophyte and epiphyte of shaded, humid temperate forest, growing on moss-covered rocks, cliff faces and tree trunks where atmospheric humidity is high, typically in the 2000-3000 m belt. The illustrated material was gathered at Menchuang in Bhutan at about 2800 m in June, during the early monsoon when the genus comes into flower.

It is a perennial herb with a short rhizomatous base and erect to ascending stems bearing opposite or whorled leaves clustered toward the apex. The leaf blades are ovate to elliptic, crenate-serrate at the margin, and often somewhat fleshy with sparse hairs. The inflorescence is an axillary cyme of several flowers; the calyx is tubular and shortly lobed, while the corolla is tubular and two-lipped with a spreading limb in shades of purple to violet. Only two stamens are fertile, a diagnostic feature of Didymocarpus, the anthers cohering in pairs. The fruit is a slender, elongate, podocarpic (long-pointed) capsule that dehisces to release numerous minute seeds, the epithet alluding to this fruit form.

Didymocarpus is a large Asian genus centred on the Sino-Himalayan and Southeast Asian region, traditionally placed in subtribe Didymocarpinae of Gesneriaceae, the rank cited here verbatim as the family field. Many species are narrow-range rock specialists vulnerable to habitat disturbance, and several Himalayan taxa, including this one, are of biogeographic interest as components of the moist broadleaf forest gesneriad flora.

Author: C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, The Gesneriaceae of the Indian subcontinent, Monograph of the genus Didymocarpus (Weber & Burtt)

Didymocarpinae

Didymocarpus punduanus var. pulchrus

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) Su.Datta & B.K.Sinha

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Bhutan2012-485-1024x702.jpg
Bhutan Wangdi 2800m, September
Bhutan2012 486
Bhutan Wangdi 2800m, September

Description

Didymocarpus punduanus var. pulchrus is an eastern Himalayan member of the Gesneriaceae, known from the moist montane forests of Bhutan and the adjacent Himalaya. No georeferenced GBIF occurrences are currently available for this infraspecific taxon, reflecting its narrow circumscription and limited collecting. Like its relatives it is a saxicolous to terrestrial herb of shaded, humid habitats, growing on mossy rock faces, cliff ledges, ravine banks and damp forest slopes in the temperate zone. The photographed plant from Wangdi (Wangdue Phodrang) in Bhutan, at 2800 m and flowering in September, indicates a preference for cool, sheltered mid-montane sites with high humidity.

The plant is a small perennial herb, frequently with a short rhizomatous rootstock and opposite, ovate to elliptic leaves that are crenate-serrate and softly pubescent, with the bullate, sunken venation typical of the genus. The flowers are borne in axillary, pedunculate cymes; each has a tubular, somewhat two-lipped corolla, often purple to violet or pinkish, with a slightly oblique limb of five rounded lobes. There are two fertile stamens (the reduction characteristic of Didymocarpus) with cohering anthers, plus staminodes. The gynoecium develops into the elongate, narrowly cylindrical, septicidal capsule diagnostic of the genus, splitting to release numerous minute seeds.

The family placement given here as "Didymocarpinae" refers to the subtribe Didymocarpinae of the Gesneriaceae (tribe Trichosporeae), within which Didymocarpus is a large Asian genus centred on the Himalaya and Southeast Asia. This taxon, based on a Clarke epithet and recombined by Datta and Sinha, is treated at varietal rank; the source links to a Didymocarpus pulcher page, reflecting nomenclatural movement around the name. As a narrowly distributed forest endemic it is potentially of conservation interest but remains formally unassessed.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) Su.Datta & B.K.Sinha · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, The Gesneriaceae of the Eastern Himalaya, A revision of Didymocarpus (Gesneriaceae)

Orchideaceae

Dienia cylindrostachya 

by G & P Jürgens

Lindl.

Nepal 99 891 ergebnis
West-Nepal Suli-Khola 2900m, July

Description

Dienia cylindrostachya is a terrestrial orchid distributed across the Himalaya and adjacent montane Asia, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, Myanmar and Pakistan, with GBIF documenting some 98 georeferenced occurrences. It favours humus-rich, shaded forest floors, mossy banks and damp grassy slopes in the temperate zone, typically between about 1500 and 3000 m. The photographed plant was found in West Nepal along the Suli-Khola at 2900 m in July, an elevation and season that coincide with its summer flowering during the monsoon, when soil moisture and atmospheric humidity are at a maximum.

The species is a small, glabrous herb arising from a fleshy, ovoid pseudobulb or thickened stem-base. It bears a few thin, plicate, ovate-elliptic to lanceolate leaves that are membranous and sheathing at the base. The inflorescence is an erect, slender, densely many-flowered cylindrical raceme, from which the epithet derives, carrying numerous minute, non-resupinate flowers in shades of greenish-yellow to purplish. The sepals and petals are small and spreading; the lip is broad, often auriculate or saccate at the base, and the column is short and stout. The fruit is a small, ellipsoid, ribbed capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Long placed in Malaxis, the species is now treated in Dienia (Malaxidinae, Epidendroideae), a segregate distinguished by non-resupinate flowers and column structure. The family is rendered "Orchideaceae" in the source but the taxon belongs to the Orchidaceae. As an easily overlooked terrestrial of intact temperate forest, it is sensitive to deforestation, though its wide Asian range affords some resilience.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Genera Orchidacearum (Pridgeon et al.)

Caprifoliaceae

Dipsacus inermis

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2015 479
  Bhutan Pele-La 3200m, October
Garw 2005 272 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kunol 2450m, September

Description

Dipsacus inermis is a tall biennial or short-lived perennial herb widely distributed through the temperate Himalaya and into China and Myanmar, with naturalised and casual occurrences recorded as far afield as Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Turkey and the United States among its 830-odd documented records. Within its native range it grows in forest clearings, along streamsides, in damp meadows and on disturbed slopes from about 1800 to 3500 m. The illustrated plants come from Pele-La in Bhutan at 3200 m in October and from Kunol in Garhwal, India, at 2450 m in September, the latter date capturing the fruiting season.

The species develops a furrowed, sparsely prickly to nearly unarmed stem (whence the epithet inermis), distinguishing it from the strongly spiny teasels. Leaves are opposite, the lower petiolate and often lyrate-pinnatifid, the cauline sessile and lanceolate, frequently connate at the base. The inflorescence is a dense ovoid to globose capitulum subtended by linear involucral bracts; the receptacular bracts are awned. Individual flowers are small, with a four-lobed whitish to pale purple corolla and an epicalyx surrounding each floret; the calyx is cup-shaped and the fruit an achene crowned by the persistent calyx.

Formerly placed in the family Dipsacaceae, the genus is now subsumed within an enlarged Caprifoliaceae following molecular reclassification. The plant is insect-pollinated and its seed-heads provide forage for granivorous birds. It is a vigorous coloniser of disturbed ground, accounting for its sporadic naturalisation outside Asia; it carries no conservation concern across its extensive native distribution.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flowers of the Himalaya, Caprifoliaceae monograph

Asteraceae

Doronicum kamaonense

by G & P Jürgens

(DC.) Alv.Fern.

Garh 07 333 ergebnis
India Garhwal Mahji 2650m, June

Description

Doronicum kamaonense is a perennial herb of the temperate and subalpine Himalaya, distributed across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and south-western China, with some 191 georeferenced occurrences documented in the GBIF network. It is a plant of moist alpine meadows, open grassy slopes, stream margins, the edges of birch and rhododendron scrub, and rocky pastures, typically occurring between about 2500 and 4000 m elevation. The plant photographed at Mahji in the Indian Garhwal Himalaya at 2650 m in June, when its golden flower heads coincide with the early monsoon flush of the high pastures, sits squarely within this favoured montane zone, where snowmelt keeps the substrate cool and humus-rich.

The species forms a short, ascending or erect stem 15–45 cm tall arising from a knotty, often shortly creeping rhizome bearing fibrous roots. The basal leaves are long-petiolate with ovate to cordate, crenate or sinuate-dentate blades, while the cauline leaves become sessile and clasping, reduced upwards. The stems and foliage are clothed in glandular and eglandular hairs. Flower heads are usually solitary, terminal and radiate, 3–5 cm across, subtended by a hemispherical involucre of narrow, acuminate, pubescent phyllaries. The bright yellow ray florets are ligulate and pistillate; the disc florets are tubular and hermaphrodite. The fruit is a ribbed cypsela, those of the ray often lacking a pappus while the disc achenes bear a pappus of barbellate bristles.

Within Doronicum, a Eurasian genus of the tribe Senecioneae, D. kamaonense belongs to the assemblage of Himalayan leopard's-banes that diversified along the great montane arc. Its combination of cordate basal leaves and typically single heads distinguishes it from related taxa, though intergrading populations and broad morphological plasticity have long complicated its circumscription. Like many high-altitude Senecioneae it is insect-pollinated and flowers with the brief alpine growing season. The species is widespread and locally common across its range and is not regarded as threatened, though grazing pressure and trampling locally affect meadow populations.

Author: (DC.) Alv.Fern. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Pakistan, A Revision of the Genus Doronicum (Compositae)

Asteraceae

Doronicum roylei

by G & P Jürgens

DC.

Nepal 99 467 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3200m, June

Description

Doronicum roylei is a Himalayan leopard's-bane distributed from Pakistan and the Western Himalaya through India and Nepal into Bhutan, with GBIF recording 67 occurrences across PK, IN, NP and BT. It grows in subalpine and alpine meadows, on open grassy slopes, among shrubberies and along moist banks, broadly between about 3000 and 4200 m. The photographed plant was found in West Nepal at Churta-Khola near 3200 m, flowering in June. In the GBIF backbone the name is flagged as a SYNONYM, with Doronicum roylei itself given as the accepted name, so that binomial is retained here as the correct designation.

The species is a perennial herb arising from a short, often tuberous or knotty rhizome, with erect, simple or sparingly branched, glandular-hairy stems. The basal and lower leaves are petiolate, ovate to cordate and toothed, while the upper cauline leaves become sessile and amplexicaul, clasping the stem. The capitula are large, radiate and usually solitary (or few), with an involucre of narrow green phyllaries; the bright yellow ray florets are female and ligulate, surrounding numerous yellow, tubular, bisexual disc florets. The fruit is a cypsela, typically with a pappus of fine bristles on the disc florets, in the manner characteristic of the genus.

Doronicum is a genus of the tribe Senecioneae centred on the temperate mountains of Eurasia, with a notable Himalayan and Central Asian radiation. As a showy meadow composite it is a typical component of Himalayan summer-flowering alpine flora. It is locally common across its range and is not regarded as threatened, though grazing pressure affects accessible high pastures.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of China (Asteraceae: Senecioneae)