Tag:

Subalpine (2500-3500 m)

Ericaceae

Gaultheria nummularioides 

by G & P Jürgens

D.Don

Garw 2005 166 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Shertoli 3200m, September

Description

Gaultheria nummularioides D.Don is a prostrate, creeping dwarf shrub of the temperate and subalpine Himalaya and adjacent mountains of East and Southeast Asia. Its range extends through Nepal, NE and NW India, Bhutan, Myanmar and SW China, with outlying records in Malesia (Indonesia, Malaysia) and cultivated occurrences in Japan, Great Britain and the United States; GBIF documents over 1,200 collections across this wide span. It typically grows between 2,000 and 4,000 m in mossy forest margins, on damp rocks, banks and epiphytically on tree trunks, as recorded for the photographed plant from Garhwal at Shertoli, 3,200 m, in September. It favours humid, shaded, acidic substrates and is a characteristic component of Rhododendron–oak understorey and bryophyte-rich rock communities.

The plant forms wiry, much-branched, reddish-brown procumbent stems clothed in stiff brown bristles, rooting at the nodes to form dense mats. Leaves are small, distichous, ovate to rounded (nummularioides referring to the coin-like blade), 5–12 mm long, coriaceous, dark green and glossy above, the margins finely toothed and ciliate. Flowers are solitary and axillary, pendent on short pedicels, the corolla campanulate to urceolate, white tinged pink, 4–5 mm long with five short recurved lobes; the calyx is often reddish. The fruit is a fleshy blue-black berry-like capsule enclosed by the accrescent succulent calyx.

The genus Gaultheria (subfamily Vaccinioideae) is notable for aromatic foliage rich in methyl salicylate; G. nummularioides is locally used as a fragrant and medicinal plant. Its broad Himalayan-to-Malesian distribution illustrates the floristic continuity of the Sino-Himalayan ericaceous element. The species is common and not of conservation concern across most of its range.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Airy Shaw: The Gaultheria-Pernettya complex (Kew Bulletin)

Ericaceae

Gaultheria semi-infera

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) Airy Shaw

Bh09 338 P551
Bhutan Jakar 2600m, June

Description

Gaultheria semi-infera is an Eastern Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan shrub centred on the eastern Himalaya and south-central China, with verified records from China (CN) and India (IN); the relatively modest pool of about 87 georeferenced occurrences reflects its restricted montane range, the records attributed to Canada (CA) and Spain (ES) representing cultivated or herbarium-based outliers rather than naturalised populations. It occupies the temperate to subalpine belt, typically between 2000 and 3500 m, growing in open coniferous and broad-leaved forest, on forest margins, among rhododendron scrub and on rocky banks. The plant photographed near Jakar in central Bhutan at about 2600 m in June is characteristic of this habitat, where the species flowers as the early monsoon develops.

It is a low, evergreen, much-branched shrub with wiry, often reddish-bristly young stems. The leaves are alternate, coriaceous, ovate to elliptic, serrulate or bristle-toothed at the margin, glossy dark green above and paler beneath, with the midrib and veins frequently set with stiff appressed bristles. The flowers are borne in short axillary racemes; each has a five-lobed campanular to urceolate corolla, white tinged pink, with the calyx becoming fleshy and accrescent in fruit. The diagnostic feature is the partly inferior ovary, from which the epithet semi-infera derives, so that the swelling fruit is a fleshy berry-like capsule, half-enclosed by the succulent calyx and ripening blue to blue-black.

The genus Gaultheria (Ericaceae, subfamily Vaccinioideae) is taxonomically complex in the Himalaya, where numerous species intergrade and hybridise. The semi-inferior ovary places this species in a distinctive group bridging the capsular and baccate fruit types within the genus. Like its relatives it produces aromatic, methyl-salicylate-bearing foliage and the ripe fruits are eaten by birds, aiding dispersal. Though not formally assessed as threatened, its dependence on intact temperate forest makes it sensitive to logging and grazing pressure across the Himalayan arc.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) Airy Shaw · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Airy Shaw revision of Himalayan Gaultheria, Lu & Fritsch monographic studies of Gaultheria (Ericaceae)

Ericaceae

Gaultheria trichophylla

by GP Jürgens

Royle

Nepal 2001 411 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Barpak 3050m, May
Garh 07 165 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3550m, June

Description

Gaultheria trichophylla is a low, mat-forming dwarf shrub of the high Himalaya, occurring across Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Myanmar and southwestern China, with disjunct or introduced records from New Zealand, Canada, Chile and France; GBIF documents some 611 collections. It is a plant of open alpine and subalpine slopes, rhododendron scrub margins and humus-rich turf between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed material was gathered in central Nepal at Barpak (Gorkha) near 3050 m in May and in the Garhwal Himalaya at Kinkhola around 3550 m in June, on the moist, well-drained, peaty soils it favours under a cool monsoonal climate.

The plant forms compact, prostrate to ascending mats from slender, wiry, much-branched stems that are finely bristly-hairy and root at the nodes. The leaves are small, alternate, crowded, ovate to elliptic, leathery and shining, with a finely toothed, bristly-ciliate margin. Flowers are solitary in the leaf axils, the corolla urceolate to broadly campanulate, pink to pale rose, five-lobed, with a persistent calyx that becomes fleshy in fruit. The fruit is a depressed-globose capsule enclosed by the swollen, berry-like, bright blue calyx, a diagnostic generic feature aiding bird dispersal.

The genus Gaultheria (Ericaceae) is centred on eastern Asia and the Americas, and G. trichophylla belongs to a group of small-leaved alpine species in which the showy fleshy calyx replaces a true berry. Like its relatives it is calcifuge, demanding acidic substrates and forming ericoid mycorrhizal associations. It is widespread and locally abundant across its core Himalayan range and not regarded as threatened.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 14, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Airy Shaw and Sleumer monograph of Asiatic Gaultheria

Gentianaceae

Gentiana capitata

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don

Garh 07 393 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3200m, June 
Garh 07 420 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3900m, June

Description

Gentiana capitata is a Himalayan annual gentian distributed across Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Pakistan and into Myanmar; GBIF records about 206 occurrences spanning the central and eastern Himalaya. It grows on open alpine and subalpine slopes, grassy meadows, terraced banks and pastures, generally between about 2500 and 4000 m. The photographed plants come from Garhwal, India, at Meggu Kichatti (3200 m) and Khiar Kutti (3900 m), both in June, a setting typical of this small monsoon-season gentian, part of the seasonal herb flora of the western Himalayan high meadows in early summer.

The species is a slender annual with erect, often few-branched, quadrangular stems arising from a fine root system. The leaves are opposite, sessile, ovate to lanceolate, the basal pairs sometimes forming a loose rosette. The flowers are clustered into a dense, head-like or capitate terminal cyme that gives the species its name, sometimes with additional flowers in the upper axils. Each flower has a tubular to funnel-shaped, pale blue to bluish-mauve corolla with five spreading lobes and small plicate folds between them; the calyx is tubular with five teeth. The fruit is a stalked, two-valved capsule releasing numerous minute seeds.

Gentiana capitata Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don belongs to the annual, small-flowered Himalayan section of the genus characterised by capitate inflorescences and plicate corollas. Widespread and locally common across the Himalaya, it tolerates grazed and disturbed ground and is of no conservation concern. As an annual it depends on regular seed production and the brief monsoon season, and it is a familiar component of the high-meadow flora pollinated by insects drawn to its blue flower clusters.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Halda: The Genus Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana depressa

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

Nepal 95 367 P653 ergebnis
Nepal Pansing 3150m, October
Nepal 95 368 P654 ergebnis
Nepal Pansing 3150m, October
Nepal 95 420 P733 ergebnis
Nepal Pansing 3150m, October

Description

Gentiana depressa is a cushion-forming alpine gentian of the Himalaya, native to Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, the c. 301 georeferenced records tracing a range across the central and eastern high ranges. It grows in open alpine turf, on grassy and stony slopes, banks and amongst dwarf shrubs, generally between about 3000 and 4500 m, and is a notable autumn-flowering species. The plant was photographed at Pansing in Nepal at 3150 m in October, a season and elevation typical of the species, which produces its broad flowers late in the year as the surrounding herbage senesces.

It is a low, prostrate perennial forming dense mats, with creeping, much-branched stems clothed in crowded, small, ovate to elliptic leaves arranged in tight rosettes and overlapping pairs. The flowers are large relative to the plant and sit terminally, almost sessile within the leaf cluster, depressing the foliage around them (depressa). The corolla is broadly campanulate to funnel-shaped, pale greenish-yellow to whitish or sky-blue, conspicuously speckled and streaked within, with five short lobes separated by small plicate folds (plicae). The calyx is tubular and five-toothed; the fruit is a many-seeded capsule, often on a short stipe, releasing fine winged seeds.

Gentiana (tribe Gentianeae) is divided into numerous sections, and G. depressa belongs to the Himalayan autumnal cushion gentians of section Frigida and allies, distinguished by their plicate corollas and prostrate, mat-forming habit. The broad pale flowers borne flat against ground level are an adaptation to the cold, wind-exposed late-season alpine environment, maximising warmth for the developing capsule. Widespread and locally common across its range, the species is not regarded as threatened, though specialised cushion-formers are sensitive to trampling and climatic warming.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ho & Liu monograph of Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana loureiroi

by G & P Jürgens

(G.Don) Griseb.

Bhutan2014 670
Bhutan Phobjika 2900m, May
Bhutan2014 671
Bhutan Phobjika 2900m, May

Description

Gentiana loureiroi is a small Asian gentian distributed from China and Hong Kong through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar to India and Bhutan, with more than 500 GBIF records making it one of the better-documented species in this account. It is a plant of open grassy places, pasture, roadside banks and moist montane meadows, generally in the lower and middle montane belt. The collection from Phobjika in central Bhutan at about 2900 m, flowering in May, typifies its occurrence in damp, short-turf glacial-valley grasslands where it appears early in the season among grazed sward.

The plant is a low, slender annual or short-lived perennial with prostrate to ascending, often branched stems forming small mats or tufts. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to elliptic, sessile, with cartilaginous margins, the basal ones frequently forming a loose rosette. The flowers are solitary and terminal on the branchlets, with a tubular calyx of five lobes and a funnelform to salverform corolla that is typically blue to violet-blue, the five spreading lobes alternating with smaller plicate folds in the sinuses. The fruit is a stipitate capsule projecting from the withered corolla and releasing numerous minute seeds.

Described by G. Don and combined in Gentiana by Grisebach, G. loureiroi belongs to the largely small-flowered annual section of the genus characteristic of disturbed and grazed montane grassland. Its wide geographic and elevational range, tolerance of human-modified habitats and prolific seed production make it ecologically resilient and of least conservation concern across its extensive distribution.

Author: (G.Don) Griseb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Ho & Pringle's account of Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana maeulchanensis

by GP Jürgens

Franch.

Bh2008 446 G697
Bhutan Gogona, 3400m April
BH2008 537 G815
Bhutan Limbukha, 2200m April
Bh2008 538 P816
Bhutan Limbukha, 2200m April

Description

Gentiana maeulchanensis is a small annual or biennial gentian of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China, known from a comparatively modest 60 records spanning China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar. It occupies open meadows, grassy banks, terraced field margins and moist disturbed ground, generally between 2000 and 3600 m, flowering early in the season before the monsoon. The illustrated plants were collected in Bhutan at Gogona (3400 m) and at Limbukha (2200 m), both in April, the latter site lying among the lower cultivated valleys where the species descends to its altitudinal minimum.

The plant is a slender, often branched herb a few centimetres to about 20 cm tall, with a basal rosette and small opposite cauline leaves that are ovate to spathulate with cartilaginous, often whitish margins. The flowers are solitary and terminal or borne in lax cymes; the calyx is tubular with a membranous keel and unequal lobes. The corolla is funnelform to campanulate, blue to pale violet, with five spreading lobes alternating with shorter, fringed or toothed plicae in the sinuses, a defining feature of the section. The capsule is exserted on a stipe at maturity and releases numerous minute seeds.

The species belongs to the predominantly annual Himalayan-Chinese assemblage of small gentians, where it is distinguished by its plical fringing and early phenology. Such early flowering exploits the brief window before competing monsoon vegetation, and the flowers are pollinated by early-emerging insects. With a restricted but stable distribution, it has not been assessed but warrants attention where its lower-elevation habitats are subject to agricultural change.

Author: Franch. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ho & Liu monograph of Gentiana

Gentianaceae

Gentiana pedicellata

by GP Jürgens

(D.Don) Wall.

Nepal 1994 80 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Jaljale Himal
2900m April
Nepal1992 43 W61 ergebnis
Nepal Nundhaki 1600m March 
Nepal 99 227 ergebnis
West-Nepal Gumghadi 2400m, June

Description

Gentiana pedicellata is a small annual gentian widely distributed across the Himalaya and into south-western China and Sri Lanka, with records also from Myanmar, Laos and Bangladesh and a documented base of some 466 occurrences (European and East Asian points largely cultivated or curated). It occupies open grassy slopes, terraced fields, forest clearings and moist disturbed ground over a broad altitudinal span. The images here span eastern Nepal's Jaljale Himal at 2900 m in April, Nundhaki at 1600 m in March, and Gumghadi in west Nepal at 2400 m in June, reflecting a flowering season tied to spring and early summer at middle elevations.

The plant is a slender, diminutive annual a few centimetres to about 15 cm tall, often branched from the base. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to elliptic, sessile or shortly petiolate and somewhat fleshy, the lower forming a loose basal rosette. The flowers are solitary and terminal on conspicuously elongate, thread-like pedicels (the source of the epithet), the calyx tubular with five lobes, and the corolla narrowly funnel-shaped, pale blue to bluish-white with intervening plicate folds between the five spreading lobes. The fruit is a stalked, two-valved capsule exserted from the persistent calyx, releasing numerous minute seeds.

Gentiana pedicellata belongs to the Gentianaceae and to the annual gentians (section Chondrophyllae), a group well represented in the temperate Himalaya by many small, ephemeral species. Its long pedicels readily distinguish it from related dwarf annuals. The flowers are insect-pollinated, opening in bright conditions, and the light seeds are dispersed passively. Common, weedy and adaptable across a wide range, the species is of least conservation concern.

Author: (D.Don) Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ho & Liu monograph of Gentiana

Geraniaceae

Geranium collinum

by G & P Jürgens

Stephan ex Willd.

Nepal 99 259 ergebnis
West-Nepal Loccu 3400m, June
Nepal 99 342 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 3800m, June

Description

Geranium collinum (Stephan ex Willd.) is a perennial cranesbill of wide continental distribution, ranging from eastern Europe and the Caucasus through Russia, Turkey, Iran and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) into Afghanistan, Pakistan, the western Himalaya and western China and Mongolia. The roughly 3,200 GBIF records trace a steppe-and-mountain belt across temperate Asia. It is characteristic of moist alpine meadows, damp grassland, streamsides and open subalpine slopes, typically between 2,500 and 4,000 m, as shown by the West Nepal collections from Loccu at 3,400 m and Kalmura at 3,800 m, both in June at the height of the monsoon-flush flowering season.

The plant grows from a stout, woody, branched rootstock and produces ascending to decumbent, much-branched stems clothed in spreading, often retrorse hairs. The leaves are long-petiolate and palmately divided into five to seven deeply incised, oblong-cuneate lobes, the upper cauline leaves becoming shortly stalked and smaller. The flowers are borne in lax, paired cymes; the five petals are pale pink to lilac-purple, obovate and slightly notched, conspicuously veined with darker lines. The fruit is the characteristic geraniaceous schizocarp with a long beak (rostrum), splitting at maturity into five awned mericarps that disperse the seeds by an explosive ballistic mechanism.

Geranium collinum belongs to a taxonomically complex group of pink-flowered perennial cranesbills and is somewhat variable in leaf dissection and indumentum across its vast range, having given rise to numerous infraspecific names. Its presence in alpine pastures makes it a component of high-altitude grazing communities, and the tannin-rich rootstock has been used in folk medicine. The species is widespread and not of conservation concern.

Author: Stephan ex Willd. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Pakistan, GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Yeo: Hardy Geraniums (2002)

Geraniaceae

Geranium donianum

by G & P Jürgens

Sweet

BhutanPG2011 106
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3450m June
Sikkim2003 181 G247
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m 08.2003

Description

Geranium donianum is an alpine cranesbill of the Himalaya and southwestern China, recorded by GBIF from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar across roughly 795 occurrences. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadows, open grassy slopes, scrub margins and stony turf, generally at high elevations where it forms part of the herb-rich alpine sward. The photographed plants were found in Bhutan at Tsochenchen at 3450 m in June and in Sikkim at Dzongri at 4100 m in August, situations typical of its preference for sunny, well-drained montane grassland through the brief alpine summer.

It is a low, tufted perennial arising from a stout, often woody rootstock, with somewhat spreading, hairy stems. The leaves are orbicular to reniform in outline and palmately divided nearly to the base into several wedge-shaped, deeply lobed segments, the lobes again toothed; basal leaves are long-petiolate. The flowers are relatively large and showy, with five free, obovate petals that are typically deep pink to purplish-red and conspicuously darker-veined, sometimes notched at the apex. There are ten stamens and a five-lobed superior ovary; the fruit is the characteristic beaked schizocarp of the genus, whose mericarps separate elastically at maturity to fling out the seeds.

GBIF accepts the name. Within Geranium it belongs among the Himalayan alpine cranesbills allied to G. orientali-tibeticum and related taxa, a group well represented across the high ranges. The vivid dark-veined petals serve as nectar guides for bee and fly pollinators. Widespread and locally common in alpine pastures, G. donianum is assessed as of least conservation concern.

Author: Sweet · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Yeo monograph of Geranium