Tag:

Subalpine (2500-3500 m)

Asteraceae

Ainsliaea aptera

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2014 513
Bhutan Yatong-La 3200m, May
Nepal 1989 58
Nepal Bagachap 2300m, April
Nepal 1994 76 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Jaljale Himal
3000m April

Description

Ainsliaea aptera is a Himalayan rosette herb distributed along the range from Afghanistan and Pakistan through India, Nepal and Bhutan into China and Myanmar, with 358 GBIF occurrences. It grows in the understorey and on shaded banks of temperate broadleaved and conifer forest, on mossy slopes and rock ledges, generally between about 2000 and 3500 m. The illustrated material spans Bhutan's Yatong-La at 3200 m in May, Bagachap in central Nepal at 2300 m in April, and the Jaljale Himal of eastern Nepal at 3000 m in April, indicating a spring-flowering plant of cool, humid forest floors.

It is a perennial herb with a short rhizome bearing a basal rosette of ovate to elliptic, long-petiolate leaves that are firm, with cordate to rounded bases, entire or shallowly toothed margins, and often a sparse covering of hairs. From the centre rises a slender, nearly leafless scape carrying a narrow, spike-like or racemose arrangement of small, sessile capitula. Each head contains a few tubular florets with slender, deeply lobed, white to pinkish corollas. The cypselae are ribbed and clothed in a pappus of plumose (feathery) bristles, a diagnostic feature of the genus.

Described by de Candolle, Ainsliaea belongs to the basal asteraceous tribe Pertyeae (formerly Mutisieae), an Asian lineage notable for its plumose pappus and frequently spike-like inflorescences. The genus is centred on the Sino-Himalayan region and is of interest for the phylogeny of early-diverging Asteraceae. Widespread along the Himalayan forest belt, A. aptera is not regarded as threatened, though it depends on intact shaded forest habitat.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Revision of Ainsliaea (Mitsui & others), Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton)

Lamiaceae

Ajuga lobata 

by G & P Jürgens

D.Don

Sikkim 2006 23 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Tonglu 3100m, May

Description

Ajuga lobata is an eastern Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan element distributed across Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, northern Myanmar and adjacent south-western China, with some 172 georeferenced occurrences documented. It is a plant of cool-temperate forest margins, mossy banks and open grassy slopes within the upper-montane to subalpine belt, typically between about 2400 and 3500 m. The population photographed at Tonglu (3100 m) on the Singalila ridge of West Bengal in May, flowering as the monsoon approaches, is characteristic: it favours humus-rich, freely draining soils in light shade beneath Rhododendron and oak.

It is a low, perennial, somewhat creeping herb arising from a slender rootstock, the quadrangular stems frequently decumbent at the base and rooting at the lower nodes before ascending. The leaves are opposite, ovate to obovate, the lamina conspicuously lobed or coarsely crenate-dentate, narrowed into a winged petiole and often tinged purplish beneath. Flowers are borne in axillary verticillasters forming a leafy terminal spike; the corolla is bluish to violet, two-lipped with a strongly reduced upper lip and a prominent, spreading three-lobed lower lip, the four didynamous stamens exserted. The fruit comprises four reticulate-rugose nutlets seated in the persistent campanulate calyx.

Within Ajuga (Ajugoideae) the species is distinguished by its markedly lobed leaves, a feature echoed in the epithet. Its montane distribution makes it a useful indicator of intact temperate forest ecosystems, and like many bugles it is visited by bees and serves as a minor nectar source. No conservation concern is presently recognised given its broad range, though it is locally restricted to suitable forest habitat.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, A Revision of the Genus Ajuga (Labiatae)

Lamiaceae

Ajuga lupulina

by G & P Jürgens

Maxim.

Nepal 99 387 ergebnis
West-Nepal Sallibagar-Khola 3100m, June

Description

Ajuga lupulina is a robust perennial herb of the Sino-Himalayan region, distributed across China, Nepal and India and extending into Mongolia; GBIF logs about 1205 occurrences with its centre in the Tibetan Plateau borderlands and the high Himalaya. It grows on open alpine and subalpine slopes, gravelly pastures, riverbanks and stony meadows, generally between about 2500 and 4300 m. The photographed plant was found in West Nepal at Sallibagar Khola at roughly 3100 m in June, a typical setting for this conspicuous species among the early-summer flora of the western Himalayan valleys.

The species is an erect perennial arising from a stout rootstock, with quadrangular stems that are villous, especially at the nodes. The leaves are opposite, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, toothed and softly hairy. The plant is most readily recognised by its dense, elongate, spike-like terminal inflorescence in which large, broadly ovate, often pale or purplish-tinged floral bracts overlap conspicuously and conceal the flowers, giving a hop-like aspect that explains the epithet lupulina. The flowers have a bilabiate corolla with a much-reduced upper lip and a conspicuous trilobed pale yellowish to whitish lower lip; the four stamens are didynamous and exserted. The fruit comprises four reticulate nutlets enclosed by the persistent calyx.

Ajuga lupulina Maxim. is widespread and common across its broad Sino-Himalayan range and of no conservation concern. It is valued in traditional Tibetan and Chinese herbal medicine, and the genus is known for neo-clerodane diterpenoids and ecdysteroids. Its large imbricate bracts make it one of the most recognisable Himalayan bugles and a useful field marker of alpine pastures.

Author: Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, taxonomic revisions of Ajuga (Lamiaceae)

Nartheciaceae

Aletris glabra

by GP Jürgens

Bureau & Franch.

Sikkim2011 29
Sikkim Lachen 2760m, June

Description

Aletris glabra is a rosette-forming perennial herb of the Nartheciaceae, distributed across the eastern Himalaya and East Asia. GBIF data (nearly 1,300 occurrences) confirm a native range spanning China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the Korean peninsula, India, Nepal and Bhutan. The species grows in moist, open habitats including subalpine and alpine meadows, grassy slopes, marshy ground, bog margins and forest clearings, typically in the temperate to subalpine belt. The collection from Lachen in northern Sikkim at 2,760 m in June reflects its occurrence in damp montane grassland and meadow flushes in the early summer flowering season.

The plant forms a basal rosette of narrowly lanceolate to linear, soft, grass-like leaves. From the centre arises a slender, erect flowering scape bearing a narrow, elongate raceme of small flowers. The flowers are campanulate to narrowly tubular, white to greenish-white, with six perianth lobes united below into a tube; unlike the mealy or warty-flowered relatives, the perianth of A. glabra is comparatively smooth, the epithet glabra denoting this glabrous character. There are six stamens inserted on the tube, and a superior to half-inferior, three-locular ovary. The fruit is a small, ovoid to ellipsoid loculicidal capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

The genus Aletris was long placed in the Liliaceae or Melanthiaceae but is now referred, with Narthecium, to the small monocot family Nartheciaceae within the Dioscoreales. The group is of phylogenetic interest as an early-diverging lineage of the order. As a plant of wet meadows and bog margins, A. glabra is an indicator of intact damp grassland; though widely distributed and secure overall, such wetland habitats are locally threatened by drainage and grazing.

Author: Bureau & Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Tamura: The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants – Nartheciaceae

Nartheciaceae

Aletris gracilis

by G & P Jürgens

Bureau & Franch.

BhutanPG2011 71 ergebnis
Bhutan Menchuang, 2650m June

Description

Aletris gracilis is a small, grass-like perennial of the Himalaya and southwest China, recorded by GBIF across some 214 occurrences from China, Nepal, Bhutan and India, an accepted species of cool, open mountain habitats. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadows, damp grassy slopes, forest clearings and the margins of streams and bogs, typically between about 2400 and 4000 m, favouring moist, acidic, peaty soils. The photographed plant from Menchuang in Bhutan at 2650 m, flowering in June, falls within the lower part of this range and at the onset of the monsoon, when the species sends up its slender flowering spikes among the short turf of damp open ground in the upper-temperate to subalpine zone.

The plant forms a basal rosette of narrow, linear to lanceolate, grass-like leaves arising from a short rhizome with fibrous roots. From the rosette rises a slender, erect, glandular-pubescent scape bearing a narrow terminal raceme of small, shortly pedicellate flowers. Each flower has a tubular to narrowly campanulate, six-lobed perianth that is conspicuously roughened or mealy-glandular on the outer surface, white to pale pink and persistent, enclosing six stamens with the filaments inserted on the perianth tube. The fruit is a small ovoid to ellipsoid capsule partly enclosed by the persistent perianth, releasing numerous minute seeds.

Aletris was long placed in the Liliaceae but is now referred to the small family Nartheciaceae within the order Dioscoreales, a placement supported by molecular and morphological evidence; the genus is disjunct between eastern Asia and eastern North America. A. gracilis belongs to the Asian, glandular-perianthed assemblage and is distinguished from relatives such as A. pauciflora by stature, leaf width and the texture of the perianth. Widespread across the eastern Himalaya and frequent in suitable bog and meadow habitats, it is of no particular conservation concern.

Author: Bureau & Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, Revision of Aletris (Nartheciaceae) by Huber and collaborators

Amaryllidaceae

Allium fasciculatum

by G & P Jürgens

Rendle

Nepal 99 888 ergebnis
West-Nepal Suli-Khola 2900m, July

Description

Allium fasciculatum is a Himalayan onion ranging across the central and eastern Himalaya into the south-eastern Tibetan plateau, with GBIF records from China, Nepal, India, Afghanistan and Bhutan and around 325 documented occurrences. It is a plant of open temperate to subalpine slopes, grassy meadows, rocky pastures and forest clearings, generally between about 2,400 and 3,600 m. The plant photographed at Suli Khola in West Nepal at 2,900 m, flowering in July, exemplifies its midsummer anthesis in the moist, monsoon-fed grasslands of the central Himalaya where it often grows among other alpine herbs.

The plant is a bulbous perennial with clustered, narrowly conical to cylindrical bulbs attached to a short rhizome, the outer tunics membranous to fibrous. The leaves are few, basal, linear and flat to channelled, usually shorter than the scape. The inflorescence is a terminal umbel of densely to loosely fascicled flowers borne on a slender solid scape and subtended by a membranous spathe; the small flowers have six free, white to pale pinkish or greenish tepals, exserted or included stamens, and a superior ovary. The fruit is a small loculicidal capsule producing black angular seeds.

The species belongs to Allium, now placed in an expanded Amaryllidaceae (subfamily Allioideae) following molecular systematic revisions that subsumed the former Alliaceae. Within the genus it falls among the Himalayan rhizomatous-bulbed alliums whose delimitation remains partly unresolved. Like many wild alliums it is gathered locally as a flavouring and pot-herb. It is not considered threatened, being widespread and tolerant of grazed montane grassland.

Author: Rendle · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, GBIF, Stearn: A Synopsis of the Asiatic species of Allium

Amaryllidaceae

Allium humile

by G & P Jürgens

Kunth

Garh 07 131 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3450m, June
Garh 07 428 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3450m, June

Description

Allium humile is a small alpine bulbous perennial of the Amaryllidaceae (subfamily Allioideae), distributed through the Himalaya and adjoining Central Asian ranges. GBIF records (over 200 occurrences) indicate a native range across India, Pakistan and China, with further cultivated or vouchered material elsewhere. It is a plant of open alpine meadows, grassy slopes, screes and moist pastures, frequently in areas flushed by snowmelt, typically between about 3,000 and 4,500 m. The collection from Kinkhola in Garhwal at 3,450 m in June captures its flowering in early summer following the retreat of snow on high-altitude grassland.

The plant grows from a small ovoid bulb clothed in membranous tunics. The leaves are basal, few, narrowly linear and flat to channelled, shorter than or about equalling the short scape. The scape is leafless and bears a compact, more or less hemispherical to globose umbel of relatively few flowers, subtended in bud by a membranous spathe. The flowers are stellate to campanulate, white to pale pinkish, the six tepals with a darker midvein; the six stamens are shorter than or about equalling the perianth. The fruit is a small, three-valved loculicidal capsule containing black seeds.

Allium, the largest genus of the Amaryllidaceae, is characterised by its onion-scented herbage, umbellate inflorescence enclosed in a spathe and trimerous flowers. The dwarf, low-growing habit indicated by the epithet humile is an adaptation to the wind-exposed, short-season alpine environment. As a component of high-altitude grassland and snow-flush communities, the species is sensitive to overgrazing and trampling, though its broad montane distribution affords it overall security.

Author: Kunth · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China Vol. 24, GBIF, Stearn: The Genus Allium in the Himalaya

Alliaceae

Allium wallichii

by GP Jürgens

Kunth

Bhutan2012 30
Bhutan Chele-La 3400m, September

Description

Allium wallichii is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan onion widely distributed through SW China, Nepal, NE India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan, GBIF recording around 1,300 occurrences (with cultivated records reaching Europe). It is a plant of the subalpine and alpine zone, growing in open meadows, grassy slopes, forest clearings and damp pastures, generally between about 2,300 and 4,800 m. The photographed plant from Chele-La in western Bhutan at 3,400 m (September) is characteristic, flowering in the late-monsoon period when the high meadows are at their richest.

It is a perennial herb arising from a slender, oblique rhizome bearing a poorly developed, narrowly conic bulb. The leaves are basal, several, narrowly linear to lorate and flat or shallowly keeled, sheathing the lower part of the triangular or angled scape. The inflorescence is a terminal, many-flowered umbel that is hemispherical to globose and lacks bulbils; the flowers are stellate, with six spreading purple to reddish-purple (rarely whitish) tepals, exserted stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is a small loculicidal capsule.

The family is given verbatim as Alliaceae, the segregate now generally subsumed within Amaryllidaceae subfamily Allioideae. Allium wallichii is gathered as a wild vegetable and flavouring (jimbu and related condiments) across the Himalaya and is used medicinally, which together with grazing places local pressure on accessible populations. The species is morphologically variable across its wide range, and its rhizomatous, non-bulbous habit and flat leaves distinguish it within the alpine Himalayan alliums; it is not currently regarded as globally threatened.

Author: Kunth · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Stearn: The Genus Allium in the Himalaya

Asteraceae

Anaphalis busua

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 160
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
Bhutan2012 160
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
BhutanPG2011 833 01 01 1
Bhutan Chele-La, 3400m July

Description

Anaphalis busua is a Himalayan everlasting widespread from Pakistan and India through Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar into south-western China, with additional records from Sri Lanka; the 619 occurrences confirm a broad montane range, while points labelled Belgium represent cultivated or erroneous data. It occupies open grassy slopes, forest clearings, banks and disturbed ground from roughly 1500 to 3600 m. The documented Bhutanese material from the Haa Valley at about 3200 m in September and from the Chele-La at 3400 m in July illustrates its long flowering season across the temperate and lower subalpine zones of the eastern Himalaya.

The species is a perennial herb with a woody rootstock producing erect, white-woolly stems. The leaves are sessile, linear to oblong-lanceolate, somewhat decurrent, green and thinly arachnoid above and densely white-tomentose beneath, with revolute margins. The capitula are small and numerous, aggregated into dense terminal corymbs; each head is heterogamous and functionally dioecious, with the involucre of papery, pearly-white, radiating phyllaries that give the genus its everlasting quality. The florets are tubular and whitish, the outer female and filiform, the inner mostly functionally male. The cypselae are minute and oblong, crowned by a pappus of slender, barbellate, basally free bristles.

Anaphalis is a large genus of the Gnaphalieae especially diverse in the Sino-Himalayan region, distinguished from Helichrysum and Gnaphalium by its scarious involucres and predominantly dioecious heads. A. busua belongs to the broad-leaved Himalayan group and is taxonomically variable, with several related forms intergrading. The dry chaffy phyllaries persist long after flowering, favouring wind dispersal of the small achenes. The species is common and weedy in disturbed montane habitats and is of no conservation concern.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Hilliard & Burtt Gnaphalieae studies

Asteraceae

Anaphalis nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

(Spreng.) Hand.-Mazz.

Garh 07 207 ergebnis
India Garhwal Panwali 3300m, June

Description

Anaphalis nepalensis is a widespread Sino-Himalayan everlasting distributed across China, Taiwan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Myanmar, with over 3600 georeferenced records making it one of the better-documented Himalayan composites. It occupies open alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes, rocky pastures and forest clearings, generally between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from Panwali in the Garhwal Himalaya at 3300 m, flowering in June, typifies its grassy mid-alpine habitat where it forms low cushions or spreading patches in short turf.

It is a perennial, white-woolly herb arising from a creeping rhizome, with prostrate to ascending stems clothed in dense grey-white tomentum. The leaves are oblanceolate to spathulate, often crowded in a basal rosette and reducing upward, cottony on both surfaces. The capitula are arranged singly or in small terminal clusters and are dioecious or subdioecious; the conspicuous part is the spreading ring of dry, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts surrounding the small yellowish disc florets, an arrangement that gives the genus its "pearly everlasting" character. The achenes bear a pappus of fine barbellate bristles.

The persistent, scarious bracts retain their form long after flowering, an adaptation suiting the plant to harsh, exposed alpine conditions and aiding identification. Anaphalis nepalensis is a variable species with several recognised varieties differing in stature and leaf form, and it is sometimes confused with related Himalayan congeners. Common and ecologically adaptable, it is not of conservation concern and is occasionally grown as a rock-garden ornamental.

Author: (Spreng.) Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Compositae monographs (Handel-Mazzetti)