Tag:

Subalpine (2500-3500 m)

Zingiberacaea

Hedychium ellipticum

by G & P Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex Sm.

Bhutan2012 469
Bhutan Wangdi 2500m, September

Description

Hedychium ellipticum is a rhizomatous perennial of the family Zingiberaceae, one of the ornamental ginger lilies native to the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Southeast Asia. GBIF data document its occurrence across Bhutan, Nepal, northeast India, Myanmar, Thailand and southern China, with additional records reflecting cultivated material outside its native range. It grows in moist, shaded broad-leaved and evergreen forest, on humus-rich banks, ravine sides and rocky slopes, typically between about 1,000 and 2,400 m. The plant photographed near Wangdue Phodrang (Wangdi) in Bhutan at around 2,500 m in September represents the upper part of this altitudinal band, where flowering coincides with the late monsoon.

The species develops a stout, horizontally creeping rhizome from which arise erect, leafy pseudostems up to 1–1.5 m tall. The leaves are distichous, sessile or shortly petiolate, with elliptic to oblong-elliptic blades that are glabrous above and may be pubescent beneath, tapering to an acuminate apex, with a conspicuous ligule at the leaf sheath. The inflorescence is a dense terminal spike bearing imbricate green bracts, each subtending one or more flowers. The flowers are showy and fragrant, white with a long, slender corolla tube; the labellum is broad and bilobed and the filament conspicuously exserted, the whole flower built on the characteristic Hedychium plan with a single fertile stamen. The fruit is a globose capsule splitting to reveal seeds enveloped in a bright orange-red aril.

Hedychium is a horticulturally important genus, and several Himalayan species including H. ellipticum and the related H. spicatum are used in traditional medicine and as a source of aromatic rhizomes. The flowers are adapted to pollination by long-tongued insects and hawkmoths, attracted by scent and the slender nectar tube. Within the genus the elliptic leaf form and white, exserted-stamen flowers distinguish this species; care is needed in herbarium identification because it has frequently been confused with allied taxa of the H. spicatum complex.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Nepal, Wood: A Revision of Hedychium (Zingiberaceae)

Plantaginaceae

Hemiphragma heterophyllum

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2015 39
Bhutan Dochu-La 2700m, October
Sikkim2004 301 G524
Sikkim/India Choka 3800m May
Nepal 1994 90 ergebnis
Ost-Nepal Jaljale Himal
3100m April

Description

Hemiphragma heterophyllum is a widespread Asian creeping herb extending along the Himalaya from Pakistan through Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and northeast India to China and Taiwan, and southward into the mountains of Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, with naturalised records elsewhere; GBIF logs 2751 occurrences across this broad range. It grows on open banks, grassy slopes, mossy rocks, forest paths and disturbed ground in the temperate to alpine zone, roughly 2500 to 4000 m. The cited records from Dochu-La in Bhutan (2700 m, October), Choka in Sikkim (3800 m, May) and the Jaljale Himal in eastern Nepal (3100 m, April) demonstrate its wide elevational and seasonal amplitude.

It is a small, mat-forming perennial herb with slender, much-branched, prostrate and rooting stems. The leaves are conspicuously dimorphic, as the epithet heterophyllum indicates: those on the main stems are broad, orbicular to reniform and crenate, while the clustered axillary fascicles bear numerous narrow, needle-like (acicular) leaves. The flowers are small, solitary and nearly sessile in the leaf axils, with a campanulate calyx and a pink to white rotate-campanulate corolla. The fruit is the most striking feature: a fleshy, berry-like, bright scarlet to orange globose capsule that is exserted among the foliage and conspicuous in fruit.

The sole species of the genus Hemiphragma, it is now placed in Plantaginaceae following the dismemberment of the traditional Scrophulariaceae, having formerly been assigned to that family. Its brightly coloured fleshy fruits suggest endozoochorous dispersal by birds, unusual within its largely dry-fruited relatives. The species is abundant, ecologically versatile and frequently colonises trodden or disturbed habitats, so it is of least conservation concern; its capacity to establish outside its native range is reflected in scattered exotic records.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Genera Plantarum and Hooker's Flora of British India

Orchideaceae

Hemipilia puberula

by G & P Jürgens

(King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng

BhutanPG2011 66 ergebnis
Bhutan Menchuang, 2650m June

Description

Hemipilia puberula is a terrestrial orchid of the temperate Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded from China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar, with 41 GBIF occurrences indicating a relatively restricted eastern Himalayan and southwest Chinese distribution. It grows on grassy and rocky slopes, in open forest margins and among scrub in the cool montane to subalpine zone, generally between about 2400 and 3500 m. The illustrated plant was found at Menchuang in Bhutan at around 2650 m in June, in the upper temperate belt where flushed slopes and forest edges support a scattered terrestrial orchid flora.

The plant develops from a small ovoid or ellipsoid tuber and typically bears one (sometimes two) basal leaf that is ovate to elliptic and frequently spotted or mottled with purplish blotches above. The slender erect stem carries a lax raceme of a few showy flowers. These are rosy-purple to pinkish-lilac, with spreading sepals and petals and a prominent, broad, flabellate lip that is often notched or lobed at the apex and bears a slender backward-pointing spur; the epithet puberula refers to the fine minute pubescence on the plant. The fruit is an erect ribbed capsule.

The basionym authority (King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng reflects the modern recircumscription of Hemipilia to include species formerly placed in Chusua and segregated from Ponerorchis, supported by molecular phylogenetic study. The genus belongs to tribe Orchideae and is a Sino-Himalayan group of tuberous terrestrial orchids. With its limited range and showy flowers, H. puberula is locally uncommon and potentially vulnerable to grazing and collection, and is regulated under CITES Appendix II.

Author: (King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb), Tang, Xiang & Peng (Hemipilia phylogeny)

Didymocarpinae

Henckelia calva

by GP Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) D.J. Middleton & Mich. Müller

Sikkim2003 59 P79
Sikkim above Yoksam 2750m August
Sikkim2003 60 G80
Sikkim Yoksam 1800m, August

Description

Henckelia calva (C.B.Clarke) D.J.Middleton & Mich.Müller is a perennial herb of the Gesneriaceae (the input subtribe name Didymocarpinae notwithstanding), distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjacent ranges. GBIF (a sparse 12 occurrences) records it from northern India, Bhutan and Myanmar, where it grows on shaded, moss-covered rocks, damp banks and forest understorey in humid broad-leaved and evergreen forest. The two Sikkim records at Yoksam, at 1,800 m and 2,750 m, both in August during the monsoon, indicate a montane preference broadly between 1,500 and 3,000 m, where high atmospheric humidity supports its growth.

The plant is a soft, more or less rhizomatous herb. Leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, often somewhat fleshy, with a crenate to serrate margin and a relatively sparse indumentum (the epithet "calva", meaning bald or glabrescent, alludes to this comparatively smooth surface). The inflorescences are axillary cymes bearing showy zygomorphic flowers; the corolla is tubular and bilabiate, white to pale violet or bluish, the throat sometimes marked with yellow. There are two fertile stamens with cohering anthers, and the ovary is superior, maturing into the elongate, narrowly cylindrical, twisted capsule characteristic of Henckelia, which splits to release numerous minute seeds.

The species was transferred from Didymocarpus to a recircumscribed Henckelia following molecular phylogenetic studies of Old World Gesneriaceae by Middleton, Möller and collaborators, a reclassification that reshaped generic limits in the subtribe Didymocarpinae. As a narrow-range, hygrophilous understorey herb of the eastern Himalaya, it is intrinsically vulnerable to forest disturbance and habitat loss, and its few documented occurrences underline the need for continued field survey of the region's Gesneriaceae.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) D.J. Middleton & Mich. Müller · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of China Vol. 18, GBIF, Weber & Burtt: Remarks on the classification of Gesneriaceae

Didymocarpinae

Henckelia pumila

by GP Jürgens

D.Don A.Dietr.

Sikkim2003 23 G27
Sikkim Rathong-Chu 1200m, August
Garw 2005 214 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Simkarok 2680m, September
Bhutan2015 89
Bhutan Galephug 600m, October

Description

Henckelia pumila is a small gesneriad of the eastern and central Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Burma, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Thailand and Vietnam, with close to 600 occurrences in GBIF. It is a plant of shaded, humid habitats, growing on moist rock faces, mossy boulders, stream banks and shaded earth cuttings within evergreen broad-leaved and subtropical hill forest. Its wide altitudinal amplitude is reflected in the collection localities given for the illustrated material, ranging from the Rathong Chu in Sikkim at 1200 m in August and Galephug in Bhutan at only 600 m in October up to Simkarok in Indian Garhwal at 2680 m in September, indicating tolerance of both warm subtropical and cool temperate forest understorey.

The plant is a small perennial or facultatively annual herb with a short, often weak stem and crowded, opposite or subopposite leaves that are ovate to elliptic, crenate-serrate and softly hairy, frequently somewhat fleshy and unequal in a pair. The flowers are borne singly or in few-flowered cymes on slender peduncles from the leaf axils. The corolla is tubular and weakly two-lipped, white to pale lilac or bluish, often with a yellow throat or coloured markings, with the lower lip the more spreading. There are two fertile stamens with coherent anthers, and the ovary is superior, developing into the slender, elongate, twisted or straight loculicidal capsule typical of the genus.

The family is given as Didymocarpinae on the source page, the subtribal name within the Gesneriaceae to which Henckelia belongs; the species is correctly a member of the Gesneriaceae. The genus Henckelia has been substantially recircumscribed following molecular study, with numerous Asiatic didymocarpoid species transferred into and out of it, and H. pumila sits within this Sino-Himalayan radiation of rock-dwelling gesneriads. Its capacity to colonise moist shaded rock and its broad elevational range make it locally frequent, and it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: D.Don A.Dietr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 18, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, A Revision of the Genus Henckelia (Gesneriaceae)

Orchideaceae

Herminium clavigerum

by GP Jürgens

(Lindl.) X.H.Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang

Bhutan2012 839
Bhutan Trontsa 2850m, October

Description

Herminium clavigerum is an alpine terrestrial orchid distributed across the eastern and central Himalaya and adjacent ranges, with documented occurrences in Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Russia (GBIF logs roughly 220 records). It favours open grassy slopes, moist alpine meadows and the margins of shrubberies, typically between about 2800 and 4000 m. The photographed plant near Trongsa (Trontsa) in central Bhutan at 2850 m, flowering in October, reflects its late-season autumnal anthesis at the lower end of its altitudinal range, where it grows among damp turf in cool, humid montane conditions.

The species is a slender, glabrous geophyte arising from small ovoid or globose tubers. The erect stem bears a few cauline leaves that are narrowly oblong to lanceolate, sheathing at the base and gradually reduced upward into bracts. The inflorescence is a lax to fairly dense terminal raceme of small, greenish to yellowish-green flowers. The lateral sepals are oblong and spreading, the petals narrower; the labellum is the diagnostic organ, deeply three-lobed with elongate, often clavate (club-thickened) lateral lobes, and the spur is short and saccate. The column is short, bearing distinctive clavate caudicles, and the fruit is a small ellipsoid capsule releasing dust-fine seed.

Long placed in the genus Herminium, the species was recombined as Platanthera clavigera by Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang following molecular studies that redefined generic limits within subtribe Orchidinae. Like many Orchidaceae it depends on mycorrhizal associations for germination and is pollinated by small insects. Though not assessed as threatened, its restriction to fragile alpine grassland renders it sensitive to grazing and habitat disturbance.

Author: (Lindl.) X.H.Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China (Orchidaceae), Pridgeon et al. Genera Orchidacearum

Orchideaceae

Herminium edgeworthii

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook.f. ex Collett) X.H. Jin. Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang

Bhutan2012 195
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3300m September

Description

Herminium edgeworthii is a terrestrial Himalayan orchid distributed across Pakistan, Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and the wider western to eastern Himalayan arc, documented by around 161 GBIF records. It inhabits open alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes and forest clearings in the temperate to lower alpine zone. The plant imaged in the Haa (Haar) Valley of Bhutan at 3300 m in September shows the species in characteristic high-meadow habitat, flowering toward the end of the monsoon growing season when many terrestrial Himalayan orchids reach anthesis.

It is a slender, glabrous terrestrial herb arising from one or two small subterranean tubers. The stem bears a few basal to lower-cauline leaves that are linear to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, sheathing at the base. The inflorescence is a slender, many-flowered terminal raceme of small, greenish to yellowish-green flowers. Each flower is non-resupinate or subresupinate, with a hooded arrangement of sepals and petals and a characteristically lobed, often forward-projecting lip; the column is short and the pollinia are attached to small viscidia, as is typical of the genus. The fruit is a small, erect, dehiscent capsule releasing abundant dust-like seeds.

This taxon, originally described under Herminium and long treated in segregate genera (its full citation reflecting a transfer by Jin, Schuit., Raskoti and Huang), illustrates the considerable nomenclatural revision the Herminium-Platanthera complex has undergone in light of molecular phylogenetics; the himalayaflora link to platanthera-edgeworthii records its earlier placement. Ecologically the species depends on intact montane grassland and, like all orchids, on mycorrhizal associations for establishment. It is widely distributed and locally frequent, not assessed as threatened, but is sensitive to meadow degradation and grazing pressure.

Author: (Hook.f. ex Collett) X.H. Jin. Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, An Annotated Checklist of the Orchids of Nepal, Pridgeon et al. Genera Orchidacearum (monograph)

Orchideaceae

Herminium jaffreyanum

by G & P Jürgens

King & Pantl.

Nepal 99 706 ergebnis
Nepal Pugmo 3210m, July

Description

Herminium jaffreyanum is a terrestrial orchid native to the central and eastern Himalayas, distributed across Nepal, northeast India (Sikkim, Darjeeling), Bhutan, and adjacent parts of southern China (Xizang). The species occurs in montane meadows, grassy slopes, and open scrubland at elevations of 2,800–4,200 m, favouring well-drained, humus-rich soils. It is a component of the subalpine herbaceous flora, as evidenced by collections from Pugmo in Nepal at 3,210 m, where it flowers during the monsoon season in July.
The plant arises from a small, ovoid tuber and produces slender, erect stems 10–25 cm tall. The basal leaves are typically two, oblong-elliptic to lanceolate, 3–8 cm long, sheathing the stem at the base. The inflorescence is a lax, elongate raceme bearing numerous small, greenish-yellow flowers approximately 3–4 mm across. Each flower has a trilobed lip with a short, saccate spur; the lateral lobes are linear and divergent, while the mid-lobe is tongue-shaped. The column is short with two widely separated pollinia. Fruits are small, erect capsules containing dust-like seeds.
Herminium jaffreyanum belongs to a taxonomically complex genus within the subtribe Orchidinae, and its delimitation from allied species such as H. mackinnonii requires careful examination of lip morphology and spur structure. The species is relatively poorly collected, with only about 25 occurrence records documented in GBIF, suggesting it may be genuinely scarce or under-surveyed across its range. Its dependence on intact subalpine grasslands makes it potentially vulnerable to overgrazing and habitat conversion. Like all orchids, it falls under CITES Appendix II, and further field surveys across the Nepal–Sikkim corridor are needed to clarify its conservation status.

Author: King & Pantl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Pearce & Cribb: The Orchids of Bhutan (2002), King & Pantling: The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalaya (1898)

Orchideaceae

Herminium josephi

by GP Jürgens

Rchb.f.

BhutanPG2011 125
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3500m June
BhutanPG2011 262 scaled
BhutanPG2011 624 scaled
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3500m June
Bh09 196 G335
Bhutan above Thimphu, 3000m June

Description

Herminium josephi is a small terrestrial orchid of the alpine and upper subalpine Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with 259 GBIF occurrences clustered along the high mountain chain. It is a plant of open alpine turf, grassy slopes and the moist margins of meadows above the treeline, generally between about 3000 and 4300 m. The illustrated material was gathered in Bhutan at Tsochenchen at around 3500 m and on the slopes above Thimphu at about 3000 m, both in June, when these short-grazed alpine swards flower in the brief window after snowmelt.

The plant arises from one or two small ovoid or globose tubers and produces a slender, erect stem with a few narrow, lanceolate to linear leaves toward the base. The inflorescence is a slender, cylindrical, many-flowered spike of tiny green to yellowish-green flowers. The individual flowers are inconspicuous and somewhat hooded, with the dorsal sepal and petals connivent over the small column; the lip is narrow and characteristically lobed, and the genus is distinguished by its minute flowers and, in many species, a very short or saccate rather than spurred lip. The fruit is a small erect capsule.

Herminium is a genus of tribe Orchideae centred on temperate Asia, with the Sino-Himalayan alpine zone forming a major centre of diversity; H. josephi, described by Reichenbach f., is one of its characteristic high-elevation members. The minute green flowers suggest fly or small-insect pollination typical of the genus. As a widespread alpine species it is not considered threatened, though heavy grazing and climate-driven shifts of the alpine belt may affect local abundance.

Author: Rchb.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb)

Orchideaceae

Herminium lanceum

by GP Jürgens

(Thunb. ex Sw.) Vuijk

Sikkim2003 380 G536
Sikkim Tista valley 3300m August

Description

A terrestrial orchid of remarkably wide distribution across temperate and montane Asia, from the Himalaya through China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan to South-East Asia and Australasia, with nearly 1950 GBIF occurrences spanning India, Nepal, China, Japan, the Philippines and beyond. It grows in grassy slopes, open meadows, forest clearings and herb-rich banks, generally between about 1000 and 3500 m. The illustrated plant was recorded in August in the Tista valley of Sikkim at around 3300 m, a moist, grassy subalpine setting typical of its summer flowering.

The species is a slender tuberous geophyte arising from one or two small, ovoid root-tubers. The erect stem bears a few narrowly lanceolate to linear, sheathing leaves clustered toward the base and grading into bracts above. The inflorescence is a long, slender, densely many-flowered cylindrical raceme of small green to yellowish-green flowers. Each flower has spreading sepals, narrow petals and a distinctive three-lobed labellum with elongate, often divergent lateral lobes and a short to spurless base; the column is short, bearing two pollinia attached to viscidia for insect removal. The inferior, twisted ovary ripens into a small erect, ribbed capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Accepted by POWO and GBIF, H. lanceum is the most widespread member of the genus Herminium, the muskorchids, and shows considerable variation in stature and floral detail across its enormous range, with several segregate varieties recognised by some authors. Its small green flowers are adapted to inconspicuous insect pollination, and like all orchids it depends on mycorrhizal fungi for germination. Despite habitat loss in places, its vast range and abundance render it secure; it is listed under CITES Appendix II as a member of Orchidaceae.

Author: (Thunb. ex Sw.) Vuijk · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Pridgeon et al. Genera Orchidacearum