Tag:

Subalpine (2500-3500 m)

Asteraceae

Saussurea leontodontoides

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Sch.Bip.

Garw 2005 104 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Gaushon 3200m, September
Nepal 95 160 P261 ergebnis
Nepal South of Rupina La October

Description

Saussurea leontodontoides is a widespread high-alpine composite of the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau, distributed through China, India, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan and well documented with some 683 GBIF records. It colonises stony alpine slopes, screes, gravelly pastures and open turf, generally between about 3000 and 5000 m. The cited material from Garhwal at Gaushon (3200 m, September) and from south of the Rupina La in Nepal (October) illustrates its broad longitudinal range and its late-summer to autumn flowering, when the rosettes persist on exposed, well-drained substrates baked by intense montane sun and chilled by night frosts.

The plant is a low, more or less stemless perennial herb forming a flat basal rosette from a stout, often woody taproot. The leaves, evoking those of Leontodon as the epithet implies, are oblanceolate in outline and deeply pinnatifid to runcinate, with the surfaces frequently grey-tomentose, and they spread radially against the ground. The capitula are sessile or shortly stalked at the rosette centre, solitary or few, with imbricate, often purple-tinged involucral bracts. The florets are all tubular (discoid) and purple to pink-purple, characteristic of the genus, and the cypselae bear a feathery, plumose pappus aiding wind dispersal.

Saussurea belongs to tribe Cardueae of the Asteraceae, and S. leontodontoides sits among the cushion- and rosette-forming alpine snow-line species adapted to extreme cold, desiccation and high irradiance. Its tap-rooted, ground-hugging habit and woolly indumentum are classic alpine survival traits. Pollination is by alpine insects, and the plumed achenes disperse readily on mountain winds. The species is common and not of conservation concern, though, like related Saussurea, it may be gathered locally for traditional medicinal use.

Author: (DC.) Sch.Bip. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Asteraceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Lipschitz Saussurea monograph

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga brachypoda

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Bhutan2012 70
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 246
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 497
Bhutan Pele-La, 3100m September
Bhutan2012 897
Bhutan Tumching-La, 3850m September
Bhutan2012 70
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September
Bhutan2012 496
Bhutan Pele-La, 3100m September
Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga cordigera

by GP Jürgens

Hook. f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 287 P396 ergebnis
Sikkim Samiti-Lake 2800m, August

Description

Saxifraga cordigera is an alpine perennial endemic to the eastern Himalaya, with GBIF documenting around 89 occurrences spanning Nepal, India, Bhutan and adjacent China. It is a plant of cool, humid high-elevation environments, growing on moist rocky slopes, ledges, banks and the margins of subalpine to alpine meadows where it benefits from constant atmospheric moisture and snowmelt seepage. The plant illustrated near Samiti Lake in Sikkim at about 2800 m in August was recorded during the monsoon flowering period, when these eastern Himalayan slopes are saturated and the saxifrages reach their peak.

It is a tufted to shortly stoloniferous herb forming loose rosettes of leaves that are characteristically cordate to reniform at the base, as the epithet implies, with crenate or dentate margins, somewhat fleshy texture and slender petioles. The flowering stems are erect and glandular-hairy, bearing few-flowered cymose inflorescences. The flowers are pentamerous with five spreading petals that are yellow, frequently spotted or flushed with orange or red, ten stamens, and a bicarpellate, semi-inferior ovary. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the persistent styles to release numerous minute seeds.

The species belongs to the large and taxonomically complex genus Saxifraga, here placed in the yellow-flowered alliance traditionally referred to section Hirculus, a predominantly Sino-Himalayan radiation of moisture-loving alpine herbs. Such species are valuable indicators of intact high-altitude wetland and seepage habitats. While not formally evaluated for conservation status and locally frequent within its range, its dependence on cool, perennially moist niches makes it potentially vulnerable to warming and the desiccation of alpine seeps.

Author: Hook. f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Hooker Flora of British India, Webb & Gornall A Manual of Saxifrages

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga diversifolia

by GP Jürgens

Wall. & Ser.

Nepal 95 134 P227 ergebnis
Nepal south of Rupien La 3600m October
Bhutan2012 501
Bhutan Pele-La 3100m, September
Bhutan2012 500
Bhutan Wangdi 3100m, September

Description

Saxifraga diversifolia Wall. & Ser. is a Sino-Himalayan alpine herb with GBIF recording 742 occurrences across China, Nepal, India, Myanmar, Bhutan and Pakistan. It is a plant of subalpine and alpine meadows, open slopes, shrubberies and damp grassy banks, typically growing between about 3000 and 4500 m. The cited collections — south of the Rupien La in Nepal at 3600 m in October, and from the Pele-La and Wangdi areas of Bhutan around 3100 m in September — show its broad occurrence through the central and eastern Himalaya and its autumn flowering at the close of the monsoon season.

The species is a tufted perennial arising from a short rhizome, with erect, leafy flowering stems. As the epithet diversifolia implies, the foliage is dimorphic: the basal leaves are long-petiolate with cordate to reniform blades, whereas the cauline leaves are progressively sessile and amplexicaul, clasping the stem. The inflorescence is a terminal cyme of several yellow flowers; each flower has five spreading petals, ten stamens, and a bicarpellate, partly inferior ovary. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the divergent styles to release numerous small seeds.

Within the very large genus Saxifraga, this species is placed in the yellow-flowered section Hirculus, a predominantly Asian alpine group well represented in the Himalaya and on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. Several Himalayan species of this section are morphologically close and have been variously circumscribed. The species is pollinated by alpine insects and is not considered threatened, being locally common across its extensive montane range, where it forms part of the diverse high-elevation meadow flora of the eastern Himalaya.

Author: Wall. & Ser. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Webb & Gornall monograph of Saxifrages

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga parnassifolia

by GP Jürgens

D. Don

Bhutan2012 49
Bhutan Chele-La 3800m, September
Bhutan2015 485
Bhutan Chele-La 3800m, September
Bhutan2015 486
Bhutan, Pele-La 3000m, October
Nepal 95 129 P221 ergebnis
Nepal south of Rupien La 3200m October

Description

Saxifraga parnassifolia is a Himalayan saxifrage distributed from Nepal through Sikkim and the adjoining Indian hills into Bhutan and southern Tibet (China), with GBIF recording 208 occurrences across NP, CN, IN and BT. It grows on damp rock ledges, mossy banks, cliff faces and shaded humid slopes in the upper temperate to subalpine zone, broadly between about 3000 and 4000 m. The photographed populations were documented in Bhutan at Chele-La (3800 m, September) and Pele-La (3000 m, October) and in Nepal south of the Rupien La (3200 m, October), reflecting a notably late, autumn flowering period for the species.

The plant is a perennial herb forming small tufts from a short rootstock. As the epithet parnassifolia suggests, its basal leaves resemble those of Parnassia: they are ovate to cordate, long-petiolate, entire or slightly toothed, and somewhat fleshy, clustered in a rosette. The flowering stems are erect and bear a lax, few- to several-flowered cyme. Each flower has five free sepals, five spreading white to greenish or pinkish petals, ten stamens, and a half-inferior ovary of two carpels united below and produced into two divergent styles. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the styles to release numerous minute seeds.

Within the large genus Saxifraga, the species is placed in section Mesogyne/Cymbalaria allies of the broad-leaved Himalayan rosette saxifrages, distinguished by its Parnassia-like foliage and autumnal anthesis. As a chasmophyte of moist montane rock it indicates humid, sheltered microhabitats. It is locally frequent across its Himalayan range and is not considered threatened, though its cliff and ledge habitats are naturally restricted.

Author: D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of China (Saxifragaceae)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga stella-aurea

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 102 P139 ergebnis
Sikkim Choka 2900m, August
Sikkim2003 147 P198 ergebnis
Sikkim Choka 2900m, August

Description

Saxifraga stella-aurea is a Sino-Himalayan alpine herb distributed through China, India, Nepal and Bhutan, with scattered ex situ records in Europe. It inhabits moist alpine meadows, seepage slopes, streamsides and rock crevices, typically between about 2700 and 4500 m. The illustrated plant from Choka in Sikkim at roughly 2900 m, flowering in August at the height of the post-monsoon season, reflects its affinity for cool, humid, well-drained sites where snowmelt and persistent moisture sustain the dense, cushion-forming growth characteristic of high-elevation saxifrages.

The species is a small, tufted perennial forming low rosettes or loose mats from a short rhizomatous base. The basal and cauline leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, entire or obscurely toothed, somewhat fleshy and often ciliate at the margins. The flowering stems are slender and few-leaved, bearing solitary or few yellow flowers. The five petals are obovate to oblong and typically marked with orange or reddish dots, surrounding a hypanthium with ten stamens and a bicarpellate ovary; the fruit is a small capsule dehiscing between the two divergent styles, releasing numerous minute seeds.

The epithet stella-aurea, golden star, refers to the bright stellate yellow corolla. The taxon falls within the large and taxonomically complex section Hirculus, a predominantly Sino-Himalayan alpine group whose species are notoriously difficult to delimit and frequently confused. Like many high-montane Saxifraga, it is an indicator of intact alpine seepage habitats; while not presently threatened given its wide distribution, such communities are sensitive to grazing intensification and climate-driven shifts in snowmelt regimes.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Saxifrages of the World (Webb & Gornall)

Saxifragaceae

Saxifraga strigosa

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Ser.

Bhutan2012 499
Bhutan Pele-La 3100m, September
Bhutan2012 888
Bhutan Ura 3200m, October
Bhutan2012 890
Bhutan Ura 3200m, October

Description

Saxifraga strigosa is a Sino-Himalayan herb distributed through China (including Xizang and Yunnan), Nepal, Bhutan, the Indian Himalaya and northern Myanmar, with several hundred georeferenced records. It occupies cool, damp temperate to subalpine habitats, growing on shaded mossy banks, rock ledges, streamsides and moist forest floors. In Bhutan it has been recorded at Pele-La around 3100 m in September and at Ura near 3200 m in October, its late-season flowering coinciding with the post-monsoon period in well-watered montane terrain.

The plant is a slender annual or short-lived perennial herb with weak, often reddish, strigose-hairy stems that may root at the lower nodes. The basal and lower leaves are petiolate with ovate to orbicular, coarsely toothed or shallowly lobed blades, becoming smaller and sessile upward. The inflorescence is a lax, few- to several-flowered cyme of small flowers on filiform pedicels. Each flower has five spreading, reflexed sepals, five white petals frequently marked with yellow basal spots and reddish dots, ten stamens with clavate filaments, and a bicarpellate ovary that is half-inferior. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule splitting between the divergent styles to release numerous minute seeds.

Saxifraga is a large, predominantly arctic-alpine genus, and S. strigosa belongs to the small-flowered annual element formerly placed in section Diptera (genus Hydatica of some authors). It was described by Seringe from Wallich's collections. Adapted to ephemeral moist microhabitats, it relies on small insects for pollination and on abundant seed for persistence. Common and widespread across the eastern Himalaya, it is of no particular conservation concern.

Author: Wall. ex Ser. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Gornall's classification of Saxifraga (Saxifragaceae)

Schisandraceae

Schisandra grandiflora

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2011 189
Sikkim Lachung 2800m, June
Bh09 249 G417
Bhutan Pele-La, 3100m June
Sikkim 2006 7 ergebnis
India West-Bengal Maneybhajang 2000m, May

Description

Schisandra grandiflora (Wall.) Hook.f. & Thomson is a deciduous, woody climber of the eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. It is a plant of cool, humid temperate forest, growing in mixed broad-leaved and conifer woodland, along forest margins and ravines, where it scrambles over shrubs and into the canopy, generally between about 2,000 and 3,500 m. The cited collections span Lachung in Sikkim at 2,800 m and Pele-La in Bhutan at 3,100 m in June, and Maneybhajang in West Bengal at 2,000 m in May, illustrating its broad occurrence across the moist temperate forest belt of the eastern Himalayan arc.

The plant is a glabrous, twining liana with slender woody stems and alternate, simple leaves that are elliptic to obovate, with serrulate margins and an acuminate apex, borne on reddish petioles. As in all Schisandraceae the flowers are unisexual, the species being dioecious or monoecious; they are solitary and pendulous on slender pedicels, comparatively large for the genus (hence grandiflora), with several white to creamy or pink-tinged perianth segments not differentiated into sepals and petals. The numerous free carpels of the female flower, borne on an elongating receptacle, ripen into a pendent, spike-like aggregate of red, fleshy berries.

Schisandraceae, together with the related Illiciaceae, occupy a basal position among the angiosperms in the order Austrobaileyales, making the family of major significance in studies of early flowering-plant evolution. Several Schisandra species, notably S. chinensis, are renowned medicinal plants, and the aromatic fruits of S. grandiflora are likewise used locally. Its disjunct Sino-Himalayan distribution reflects the ancient, relictual biogeography characteristic of this lineage.

Author: (Wall.) Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 7, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Saunders: Monograph of Schisandra (Systematic Botany Monographs)

Crassulaceae

Sedum multicaule

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Lindl.

Sikkim2003 385 P543 ergebnis
Sikkim Talim (Zemu-valley) 3280m, August

Description

Sedum multicaule is a widespread Himalayan stonecrop ranging from Pakistan eastwards through India, Nepal, Bhutan and into China and Myanmar, and is well collected with around 618 GBIF records. A succulent of rocky habitats, it colonises moist cliffs, boulders, mossy banks, walls and stony slopes, often growing as a lithophyte in the spray of streams across the temperate to subalpine belt, broadly between about 2000 and 4000 m. The documented gathering from Talim in the Zemu valley of Sikkim at 3280 m in August reflects its preference for damp rock faces during the summer growing season.

It is a perennial, somewhat tufted herb with numerous slender, often reddish stems, as the epithet "multicaule" implies, that are decumbent at the base then ascending. The fleshy leaves are alternate, linear to oblong and terete or semi-terete, frequently spurred at the base and crowded along the stems. The inflorescence is a terminal cyme of several branches bearing many small, sessile, star-shaped flowers; these are typically five-merous with narrow, acute yellow petals, ten stamens and free or shortly united carpels. The fruit comprises spreading, many-seeded follicles.

Sedum in the broad sense belongs to the Crassulaceae and exhibits the CAM photosynthesis and water-storing succulence that suit it to seasonally dry, exposed rock surfaces. The Himalayan members form a taxonomically complex assemblage, several segregated by modern authors into related genera. Of no conservation concern given its abundance and broad altitudinal and geographic range, S. multicaule is a characteristic and resilient element of montane rock-crevice vegetation.

Author: Wall. ex Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Crassulaceae monograph (Ohba / 't Hart)

Crassulaceae

Sedum triactina

by GP Jürgens

A. Berger

Bhutan2012 328
Bhutan Dochu-La 3200m, September
Bhutan2014 35
Bhutan Trashigang 1570m, May

Description

Sedum triactina is a succulent herb of the eastern Himalaya and Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan; its c. 329 georeferenced records span a wide temperate to subalpine altitudinal range. It grows on damp rocks, mossy banks, cliff ledges, stream margins and forest floor, generally between 1500 and 3500 m. The two Bhutanese localities documented in the image, Dochu-La at 3200 m in September and Trashigang at 1570 m in May, illustrate the species' broad ecological tolerance, occurring both in cool subalpine forest passes and warmer mid-elevation valleys.

It is a small, fleshy perennial herb with slender, often decumbent to ascending stems rising from a delicate creeping base, sometimes rooting at the nodes. The leaves are succulent, alternate, oblong to spathulate, entire and rather flat, glabrous and somewhat glaucous. The inflorescence is a lax, few-flowered terminal cyme. The flowers are typically pentamerous (the epithet "triactina" alluding to a three-rayed or three-parted character in some flowers), with narrow, spreading, pale yellow to greenish-yellow or whitish petals, ten stamens, and free or basally connate carpels. The fruit comprises several spreading, many-seeded follicles releasing minute seeds.

Described by A. Berger, S. triactina belongs to the large genus Sedum of the stonecrop family Crassulaceae, a group employing CAM photosynthesis as an adaptation to the desiccating conditions of rock and cliff microhabitats. Its small flowers are visited by generalist insects, and vegetative fragmentation supplements seed reproduction. The species is widespread and locally common across its montane range, with no recognised conservation concern, persisting readily on disturbed rocky and roadside substrates.

Author: A. Berger · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, 't Hart & Bleij's account of Sedum (Crassulaceae)