Tag:

Subalpine (2500-3500 m)

Lamiaceae

Nepeta laevigata

by G & P Jürgens

(D.Don) Hand.-Mazz.

Garw 2005 28 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 2950m, September

Description

Nepeta laevigata is a perennial herb widely distributed across the temperate and subalpine Himalaya, ranging from Afghanistan and Pakistan eastwards through northern India and Nepal into south-western China, with a documented occurrence base of some 846 records (additional points from Germany, Norway and the United States reflecting cultivated or vouchered specimens). It favours open grassy slopes, forest margins, alpine meadows and disturbed ground between roughly 2400 and 3600 m. The plant illustrated here was photographed in India's Garhwal, in the celebrated Valley of Flowers at about 2950 m in September, where it flowers in the post-monsoon season among the rich herbaceous turf.

The species forms erect, quadrangular stems arising from a woody rootstock, typically 30-90 cm tall and often branched above. The leaves are opposite, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, crenate-serrate at the margin, cordate or truncate at the base and borne on distinct petioles, the surfaces glabrous to thinly pubescent and gland-dotted. The inflorescence is a slender terminal raceme or spike of well-spaced verticillasters subtended by small bracts; the flowers are bilabiate, the calyx tubular and bluntly toothed, the corolla white to pale violet with a hooded upper lip and a broad, often spotted lower lip. The fruit comprises four smooth nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Membership in Lamiaceae, subfamily Nepetoideae, is confirmed by the aromatic foliage, square stems and characteristic verticillate cymes. Like many catmints, N. laevigata is strongly insect-pollinated, its nectar-rich corollas visited by bees and bumblebees. The species is common across much of its montane range and is not regarded as threatened; it functions as a typical component of Himalayan meadow and forest-edge communities, where its volatile terpenoid oils may deter generalist herbivores.

Author: (D.Don) Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Budantsev revision of Nepeta

Liliaceae

Notholirion macrophyllum

by GP Jürgens

Boiss.

BhutanPG2011 710 01 01 2
Bhutan Pele-La, 2900m July
Nepal 99 31 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June
Nepal 99 32 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June
Nepal 99 379 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June

Description

Notholirion macrophyllum is a Sino-Himalayan bulbous lily ranging through Nepal, Bhutan, northern India and south-western China, with GBIF documenting roughly 189 occurrences across this arc. It favours cool, humid subalpine to lower alpine habitats, occurring on open forest margins, shrubby slopes, grassy banks and moist meadows, often beneath Rhododendron and conifer cover on humus-rich soils. The collections cited from Bhutan at Pele-La around 2900 m in July and western Nepal at Chere near 2850 m in June illustrate its characteristic mid-montane elevation and its phenology, flowering during the early to mid monsoon when ground moisture is abundant.

The plant grows from a small ovoid bulb whose outer scales decay to leave numerous bulblets at the base, a feature typical of the genus and important for vegetative spread. The flowering stem is slender and erect, bearing linear-lanceolate radical leaves and reduced bract-like cauline leaves. The inflorescence is a lax few-flowered raceme of nodding, broadly funnel-shaped flowers; the six tepals are rose-pink to pale lilac or mauve, oblanceolate, spreading at the tips and often darker-veined. Six stamens with versatile anthers surround a slender style ending in a three-lobed stigma. The superior ovary matures into a three-valved loculicidal capsule releasing flat, winged, wind-dispersed seeds.

Notholirion, described in its species by Boissier among others, is a small genus of four to five species allied to Lilium and Fritillaria but distinguished by its monocarpic main bulb that dies after flowering, persisting through offset bulblets. N. macrophyllum is the smallest-flowered member and the most widespread in the central Himalaya. Its reliance on undisturbed subalpine vegetation makes it susceptible to grazing, trampling and forest disturbance, although it remains locally frequent and is sometimes cultivated by enthusiasts of Himalayan bulbs.

Author: Boiss. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya, Sealy revision of Notholirion

Boraginaceae

Onosma griersonii

by GP Jürgens

R.R.Mill

BhutanPG2011 712 01 01
Bhutan Phobjika 2800m July

Description

Onosma griersonii is a narrowly distributed Himalayan herb known from the temperate mountains of Bhutan, the only country from which it is recorded in GBIF, where its three occurrences reflect the rarity of collections of this localised taxon. It is a plant of open, dry, sunny banks, grassy slopes and stony ground in the inner valleys of the central Himalaya, favouring well-drained sites in the broad montane belt. The photographed plant from the Phobjika valley in Bhutan at 2800 m, flowering in July, typifies its occurrence in the cool-temperate mid-elevation zone, where it blooms during the summer monsoon. Though GBIF treats the name as a synonym, current taxonomic opinion accepts Onosma griersonii as the correct name for the entity.

Like other members of its genus it is a coarse, bristly-hairy perennial or biennial herb, the whole plant clothed in stiff, often tubercle-based setae that give it a harsh texture. The leaves are narrowly oblong to linear-lanceolate, entire and sessile, the basal ones forming a rosette. The flowers are borne in terminal scorpioid cymes that uncoil as they open; each flower has a tubular to narrowly campanulate corolla, typically yellow, with included or shortly exserted stamens and a deeply five-lobed calyx. The fruit comprises four hard, smooth nutlets.

Onosma is a large Old World genus centred on the mountains of Central and Southwest Asia, with a number of restricted endemics in the Himalaya. O. griersonii, named for the botanist A. J. C. Grierson, co-author of the Flora of Bhutan, is one such local endemic. Its bristly indumentum and tap-rooted habit are adaptations to dry, exposed montane microhabitats, while its tubular corollas suit pollination by long-tongued bees. As a narrow-range endemic it warrants conservation attention.

Author: R.R.Mill · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Boraginaceae of the Sino-Himalaya, Revision of Onosma (Riedl & Mill)

Cactaceae

Opuntia monacantha

by G & P Jürgens

(Willd.) Haw.

Bhutan2014 693
Bhutan Pele-La 2800m, May

Description

Opuntia monacantha is a prickly-pear cactus native to subtropical South America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) that has become one of the most widely naturalised Opuntia species in the world. Its 4754 GBIF occurrences span Australia, South Africa, the Mediterranean, East Africa, India, China, Nepal, Bhutan and many other regions, almost all representing introduced and frequently invasive populations. In the Himalaya it persists as an escape from cultivation on dry, sunny, rocky slopes, banks, walls and disturbed ground in warm valleys. The record from the Pele-La area of Bhutan at about 2800 m in May is notable as a relatively high-elevation occurrence, the plant having been spread through cultivation as a hedge and ornamental into the inner dry valleys of the eastern Himalaya.

It is a succulent shrub to small tree, sometimes developing a distinct cylindrical woody trunk, with a branched crown of flattened green photosynthetic stem-segments (cladodes or pads). The pads are obovate to oblong, glossy green and somewhat flaccid, bearing areoles that produce tufts of minute barbed glochids and usually one or few (occasionally none) stout spines, the sparse armature giving rise to the epithet monacantha. The leaves are reduced to tiny caducous scales. The flowers are large, solitary, sessile on the pad margin, with a rotate perianth of bright yellow tepals often reddish at the base and numerous stamens. The fruit is a fleshy, obovoid, reddish-purple berry, frequently proliferous, the pulp edible and the seeds dispersed by frugivores.

The genus Opuntia is among the most successful of invasive plant lineages, the readily detached, root-forming cladodes enabling vigorous vegetative spread, while the bird- and mammal-dispersed fruits extend its reach. O. monacantha is regarded as a noxious weed in several countries and has been a target of biological control using cochineal insects. In the Himalayan context it is an introduced naturalised alien rather than a native element; its conservation status is irrelevant in the usual sense, the concern instead being its potential to colonise and degrade dry montane slopes.

Author: (Willd.) Haw. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Anderson The Cactus Family

Orchideaceae

Oreorchis foliosa

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

Garh 07 88 ergebnis
India Garhwal Trijugi Narayan 2500m, June
Garh 07 89 ergebnis
India Garhwal Trijugi Narayan 2500m, June
Bh09 210 G351
Garh 07 281 ergebnis
Bhutan Dochu-La, 3000m June

Description

Oreorchis foliosa is a terrestrial orchid distributed across the Himalaya and into south-western China, with verified occurrences in China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. It grows in the humus-rich shade of temperate broadleaved and coniferous forest, on mossy banks and among leaf litter, generally between about 2400 and 3500 m. The material illustrated, from Trijugi Narayan in Garhwal (India) at around 2500 m and from the Dochu-La in Bhutan near 3000 m, both in June, shows the species flowering in the pre- to early-monsoon period in its characteristic moist, lightly shaded forest-floor habitat.

The plant grows from a chain of subterranean corm-like pseudobulbs (corms) that store reserves through the dormant season. From these arise one or two narrowly lanceolate, plicate (longitudinally pleated) leaves, the foliose character noted in the epithet. The erect scape bears a many-flowered raceme of small flowers; the spreading sepals and petals are yellowish to brownish, and the three-lobed labellum is paler, marked with reddish to purple spots or streaks, with a small basal callus or short spur-like base. The fruit is a pendulous dehiscent capsule releasing the dust-fine seeds typical of the family.

The family is written here as in the source as "Orchideaceae"; the correctly formed family name is Orchidaceae. Oreorchis is a small Asian genus of subfamily Epidendroideae allied to Corallorhiza and Cremastra, and like many forest orchids depends on mycorrhizal fungi for germination and establishment. O. foliosa, described by Lindley, is widespread but typically thinly scattered; while not formally assessed as threatened, such forest-dwelling orchids are sensitive to habitat loss and to collection pressure.

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

Melastomataceae

Osbeckia capitata

by G & P Jürgens

Benth. ex Naudin

Bhutan2012 538
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September
Bhutan2012 539
Bhutan Wangdi 2600m, September

Description

Osbeckia capitata Benth. ex Naudin is a subshrubby herb of the eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF (69 occurrences) from China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh. It occupies open grassy slopes, forest clearings, scrub margins and disturbed banks in the subtropical to lower temperate hill zone, flowering through the late monsoon. The photographed plant from Wangdue Phodrang (Wangdi) in western Bhutan at 2600 m in September is characteristic of its occurrence on warm, humid mid-elevation slopes among grasses and low shrubs.

The plant is an erect to ascending perennial herb with quadrangular, bristly stems bearing opposite, sessile to shortly petiolate leaves. The blades are ovate to lanceolate, setose on both surfaces, with the strongly arcuate three-to-five longitudinal nerves diagnostic of the family. As the epithet capitata indicates, the flowers are aggregated into dense terminal heads or capitate clusters; each flower has four pink to purple petals, a setose, urceolate hypanthium, and the typical melastomataceous androecium of curved stamens whose elongate, beaked anthers open by apical pores. The fruit is a setose urceolate capsule retained within the persistent hypanthium.

Osbeckia is a palaeotropical genus of around 50 species best developed in tropical Asia, separated from Melastoma by its smaller, dry, poricidal-anthered flowers and capsular fruits; the capitate inflorescence distinguishes O. capitata within the Himalayan members. The poricidal anthers are adapted to buzz-pollination by bees, and several congeners have local medicinal use. The species is not assessed as threatened, persisting in open and lightly disturbed montane habitats across its eastern Himalayan range.

Author: Benth. ex Naudin · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Melastomataceae of the Indian Subcontinent, Hansen monograph on Osbeckia

Melastomataceae

Osbeckia nutans

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Bhutan2015 71
Bhutan Wangdi Phodrang 1700m, October
Bhutan2012 422
Bhutan Wangdi 2700m, September

Description

Osbeckia nutans Wall. is a subshrubby herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjoining Southeast Asia, recorded by GBIF (71 occurrences) from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Vietnam. It is a plant of open hillsides, grassy banks, forest clearings and roadside scrub in the subtropical to lower temperate zone, flowering chiefly in the autumn months. The cited Bhutanese material, gathered near Wangdue Phodrang at 1700 m in October and at 2700 m in September, illustrates its tolerance of a fairly wide altitudinal span on the warm, humid southern slopes where it colonises disturbed and seasonally moist ground.

The plant is an erect to ascending perennial with quadrangular, often setose stems bearing opposite, sessile to subsessile leaves. The leaf blades are lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate with the characteristic melastomataceous three-to-five strongly arcuate longitudinal nerves, and the surfaces are clothed in stiff appressed bristles. As the epithet nutans implies, the flowers or buds are inclined to nodding; the showy pink to purplish blooms have four petals, a setose, urceolate hypanthium, and the typical Melastomataceae androecium of geniculate stamens with elongate, beaked anthers opening by terminal pores. The fruit is a setose, urceolate capsule enclosed in the persistent hypanthium.

Osbeckia is a palaeotropical genus of around 50 species centred on tropical Asia, distinguished from the related Melastoma by its smaller, dry, pore-opening capsules. Its poricidal anthers are adapted to buzz-pollination by bees. Several Osbeckia species have ethnomedicinal uses in the region. Osbeckia nutans is locally frequent and not regarded as threatened, persisting well in open and lightly disturbed habitats.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Melastomataceae of the Indian Subcontinent, Hansen monograph on Osbeckia

Oleaceae

Osmanthus suavis

by GP Jürgens

King ex C.B.Clarke

Bh2008 14 G24
Bhutan Thimphu-Chu, 2800m April
Nepal 2001 110 ergebnis ergebnis
East-Nepal Gupka Pokhari 3200m, April

Description

Osmanthus suavis King ex C.B.Clarke is an evergreen shrub or small tree of the olive family endemic to the eastern Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Myanmar (158 GBIF occurrences). It grows in the understorey and margins of temperate broad-leaved and mixed conifer forest, on slopes, ridges and forest edges roughly between 2400 and 3500 m. It was documented in Bhutan along the Thimphu-Chu at 2800 m in April and in eastern Nepal at Gupka Pokhari around 3200 m, also in April, its flowering coinciding with the spring warming of the mid-montane forest belt.

It forms a densely branched shrub with grey, lenticellate bark. The leaves are opposite, coriaceous, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, the margins entire or sparsely spinulose-serrate, glossy dark green above and dotted with minute glands beneath. The fragrant flowers are small and clustered in short axillary fascicles or cymes; the corolla is white to cream, gamopetalous with four spreading lobes united into a short tube, bearing two stamens, and the whole shrub is sweetly scented in flower, as the epithet suavis records. The fruit is an ovoid drupe ripening blue-black, with a single hard-walled stone.

Osmanthus belongs to tribe Oleeae and is centred on East and Southeast Asia, with O. suavis representing the Himalayan extension of this largely Sino-Japanese genus, allied to the fragrant cultivated O. fragrans. Its scented insect-pollinated flowers and drupaceous bird-dispersed fruits are typical of the genus. While not formally threatened, it is dependent on intact temperate forest and is locally valued as an ornamental and for its aromatic blossoms.

Author: King ex C.B.Clarke · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Oleaceae monograph (Green revision of Osmanthus)

Oxalidaceae

Oxalis griffithii

by GP Jürgens

Edgew. & Hook. f.

Bh2008 308 G476
Bhutan Tongsa, 3300m April

Description

Oxalis griffithii is a woodland herb widely distributed across temperate eastern and southern Asia, ranging from the Himalaya (India, Nepal, Bhutan) through China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Myanmar and into Russia, with numerous cultivated and naturalised European records; GBIF logs 6798 occurrences across this broad area. It is a plant of shaded, humus-rich habitats, growing on the floor of temperate broad-leaved and conifer forests, on mossy banks and beside streams, chiefly between about 1500 and 3500 m. The photographed plant from Tongsa (Trongsa) in central Bhutan at 3300 m in April shows it flowering in early spring beneath the still-leafless forest canopy, when light reaches the understorey.

It is a small, delicate perennial herb arising from a slender, scaly, creeping rhizome or bulbil-bearing rootstock. The long-petiolate leaves are basal and trifoliolate, the leaflets obtriangular (broadly obcordate) and notched at the apex, folding downward at night and in dull weather (nyctinasty). The flowers are solitary on slender axillary scapes, with five sepals and five white petals usually marked with fine yellow or pinkish-purple veins at the base. The fruit is an elongate, cylindrical, five-angled loculicidal capsule that dehisces explosively, ejecting the small seeds whose fleshy aril everts to fling them from the parent plant.

The species belongs to Oxalis (Oxalidaceae), the largest genus of its family and the only one of the wood-sorrels well represented in temperate Asia. Its tissues are rich in oxalic acid and soluble oxalates, giving the characteristic sour taste. The explosive ballistic seed dispersal, nyctinastic leaf movements and capacity for vegetative spread by rhizomes and bulbils underlie its wide distribution and ready naturalisation. Common and ecologically adaptable, it is of least conservation concern.

Author: Edgew. & Hook. f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Monograph of the Oxalidaceae (Knuth, Das Pflanzenreich)

Ranunculaceae

Oxygraphis polypetala

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Bhutan2014 918
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Bh2008 568 P855
Bhutan Chele-La 3900m April
Nepal 2001 332 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Rupina-La 3300m, May
Garh 07 408 ergebnis
Garh 07 409 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 4100m, June

Description

Oxygraphis polypetala is a high-alpine buttercup relative distributed across the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau, with records from India, Nepal, China, Russia, Bhutan and Pakistan and around 115 georeferenced occurrences. It is an early-flowering plant of damp alpine turf, snowmelt flushes, gravelly meadows and the margins of melting snow patches, generally between about 3300 and 4500 m. The illustrated collections—Chele-La in Bhutan at 3900–4000 m in April and May, Rupina-La in Gorkha, Nepal at 3300 m in May, and Khiar Kutti in Garhwal, India at 4100 m in June—capture its phenology of blooming almost immediately as the snow retreats.

It is a small, stemless perennial herb forming rosettes from a short rootstock. The leaves are all basal, long-petiolate, with an entire to obscurely crenate, ovate to elliptic, often somewhat fleshy blade. The flowers are solitary on leafless scapes; the perianth is conspicuous, with numerous (commonly ten or more, whence polypetala) narrow, glossy golden-yellow petaloid segments spreading star-like above a green calyx, surrounding many stamens and a domed head of carpels. The fruit is an aggregate of numerous small, beaked achenes borne on an elongating receptacle.

Oxygraphis is a small Asiatic genus segregated from Ranunculus on the basis of its persistent, leathery petals and achene structure; the name combination here, attributed to Hooker and Thomson, is treated as accepted despite synonym status in the source data. Its precocious flowering exemplifies the snowbed strategy of many high-Himalayan herbs that exploit the brief window of meltwater and warmth. Widely distributed and locally abundant, it is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Ranunculaceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan, Tamura's treatment of the Ranunculaceae