Tag:

Summer

Liliaceae

Cardiocrinum giganteum (var. yunnanense?)

by GP Jürgens

(Elwes) Stearn

Bh09 344 P559
Bhutan Jakar Wangdi 2500m, June
Bh09 346 G561
Bhutan Jakar Wangdi 2500m, June

Description

Cardiocrinum giganteum, the giant Himalayan lily, is a striking woodland geophyte of the eastern Himalaya and southwest China, with georeferenced records from China and naturalised or cultivated populations reported from Japan, Korea, Russia, Canada and Chile among its 173 occurrences. The variety yunnanense is the more eastern, often shorter-stemmed and darker-stemmed expression of the species. It thrives in cool, humid, deeply shaded broadleaved and conifer forest on humus-rich soils. The plant recorded at Jakar, Wangdi in Bhutan at 2500 m in June captures its early-summer flowering within the moist temperate forest belt it favours between about 1500 and 3000 m.

The plant grows from a large, scaled bulb that is monocarpic, flowering once after several years and then dying, leaving offset bulbils to continue the clone. The robust, hollow stem can reach two to three metres or more. The leaves are large, broadly ovate to cordate, glossy, net-veined and long-petiolate, arranged in a basal rosette and scattered up the stem. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme of up to twenty pendent, trumpet-shaped flowers; the perianth is white to creamy, streaked reddish-purple within the throat, and strongly fragrant. The fruit is a large erect, woody capsule splitting to release numerous flat, broadly winged seeds.

Cardiocrinum, segregated from Lilium chiefly by its cordate net-veined leaves and monocarpic habit, comprises a small genus of three species. The taxon is prized horticulturally, and its dependence on intact, humid forest understorey makes it sensitive to logging and habitat disturbance, though it remains locally frequent across its native range.

Author: (Elwes) Stearn · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Lilium and allies (Liliaceae) monograph, Flowers of the Himalaya (Polunin & Stainton)

Ericaceae

Cassiope fastigiata

by GP Jürgens

(Wall.) D. Don

Sikkim2011 135
Sikkim Tanghu 4000m, June
Sikkim2011 137
Sikkim Tanghu 4000m, June

Description

Cassiope fastigiata (Wall.) D. Don is a dwarf evergreen shrublet of the high Himalaya, recorded by GBIF from Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, Pakistan and Bangladesh across some 762 occurrences. It is a characteristic component of the alpine and subalpine zone, forming low cushions and mats on open rocky slopes, moraines, peaty banks and the margins of Rhododendron scrub, typically between 3300 and 4500 m. The plant photographed at Sikkim Tanghu around 4000 m in June, at the onset of the monsoon flowering season, exemplifies its preference for cool, humid, well-drained sites kept moist by snowmelt.

The species forms erect to ascending, much-branched stems clothed in four neat ranks of small, imbricate, scale-like leaves pressed close to the stem in the manner typical of the genus. Each leaf is ovate-oblong and keeled, with a conspicuous narrow membranous white margin and a deep dorsal furrow, giving the shoots a four-angled, whipcord appearance. The solitary nodding flowers arise from the upper leaf axils on slender, often reddish pedicels; the corolla is broadly campanulate, white, five-lobed and about 7-9 mm long, subtended by a reddish calyx. Stamens are ten, with awned anthers, and the fruit is a small globose loculicidal capsule.

Within Ericaceae, Cassiope is placed in the subfamily Cassiopoideae and is distinguished from related heaths by its four-ranked imbricate leaves and campanulate flowers. Cassiope fastigiata is among the most widespread Himalayan species of the genus and is locally abundant, so it is not regarded as threatened, though as a slow-growing alpine specialist it is sensitive to grazing pressure and warming-induced upward shifts of vegetation. It is of biogeographic interest as part of a cold-adapted, largely circum-Himalayan element.

Author: (Wall.) D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Stevens monograph of Ericaceae

Ericaceae

Cassiope selaginoides

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

BhutanPG2011 401
Bhutan Warrtlang-La, 4500m June

Description

Cassiope selaginoides is a dwarf, mat-forming alpine shrub of the Himalaya and Sino-Himalayan ranges, documented in GBIF (about 854 occurrences) from China, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar. It is characteristic of high alpine slopes, rocky ridges, moorland and the upper margins of dwarf-shrub heath, typically growing between 3500 and 4800 m, often forming low cushions and carpets among rocks and moss. The photographed population on the Warrtlang-La in Bhutan at 4500 m in June represents this exposed, high-alpine habitat, where it flowers soon after snowmelt at the start of the brief growing season.

It is a small, prostrate to ascending evergreen shrub with slender, wiry, much-branched stems densely clothed in tiny, imbricate, scale-like leaves arranged in four ranks, giving the shoots a clubmoss-like (selaginoid) appearance from which the epithet derives. The small, nodding flowers are solitary on slender, reddish pedicels arising from the upper leaf axils; each has a persistent calyx and a white, broadly campanulate, five-lobed corolla, sometimes tinged pink, with eight to ten included stamens bearing awned anthers. The fruit is a small, dehiscent, subglobose capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

Cassiope, a small genus of subfamily Cassiopoideae within the Ericaceae, comprises arctic and high-alpine cushion shrubs of which the Himalayan species form a distinctive radiation alongside C. fastigiata and C. wardii. Like other ericaceous heath plants it associates with ericoid mycorrhizal fungi, enabling survival on acidic, nutrient-poor alpine soils. Widespread across the high Himalaya and locally abundant, it is of Least Concern, contributing to the structure and stabilisation of alpine heath communities above the tree line.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Stevens revision of Cassiope and Ericaceae

Papaveraceae

Cathcartia villosa

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 681 01 01
Bhutan Luksor, 3000m July
Bh09 293 G482
Bhutan Tongsa 2400m, June
Sikkim2003 152 G203
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m 08.2003

Description

Cathcartia villosa is an eastern Himalayan poppywort distributed through India, Nepal, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China), the GBIF dataset holding about 110 records (codes for Canada and Great Britain reflect cultivated and herbarium material). It grows in cool, humid montane and subalpine settings: shaded forest margins, mossy rocks, ravine sides and damp banks, broadly between about 2400 and 4000 m. The collections illustrated span this gradient, from Tongsa in Bhutan at around 2400 m and Luksor at 3000 m to Dzongri in Sikkim near 4000 m, recorded between June and August.

It is a softly villous perennial herb clothed throughout in long, spreading yellowish-brown hairs. The leaves are mostly basal, long-petiolate, the blade rounded and palmately lobed to crenate, the whole densely hairy and yielding a coloured latex when broken, as is typical of the poppy family. One or a few nodding, golden-yellow flowers are borne on slender hairy scapes; each has two caducous sepals, four broad spreading petals, numerous stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is an elongate, hairy capsule dehiscing by valves to shed many small seeds.

Long treated within Meconopsis, this plant is now widely referred to the segregate genus Cathcartia, a Sino-Himalayan group of yellow-flowered, villous poppyworts distinguished from true Meconopsis by molecular and morphological evidence; older sources and the source URL still use the name Meconopsis villosa. It is valued in temperate gardens as an elegant woodland perennial. The species is locally frequent across its range and is not formally assessed as threatened, but it depends on cool, moist forest-edge habitats susceptible to deforestation and to climatic warming.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson The Genus Meconopsis

Zingiberacaea

Cautleya gracilis

by GP Jürgens

(Sm.) Dandy

Sikkim2004 336 P598
Sikkim/India Choka 3000m May
Garh 07 92 ergebnis
India Garhwal Trijugi Narayan 2500m, June
Sikkim 2006 210 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Samadan 2300m, May

Description

Cautleya gracilis is a slender ginger widely distributed through the Sino-Himalayan region, documented by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and adjacent Southeast Asia, with well over 650 occurrences making it the best-recorded species of its genus. It is frequently epiphytic or lithophytic, growing on mossy tree trunks, dripping cliffs and humid bank ledges in temperate broadleaved and mixed forest. The illustrated gatherings span Sikkim at Choka around 3000 m, Garhwal near Trijugi Narayan at 2500 m, and West Bengal at Samadan near 2300 m, flowering from May to June; the species generally favours the 1500-3000 m belt under monsoon humidity.

The plant grows from a short, fibrous-rooted rhizome producing a graceful leafy shoot to about 30-60 cm. The distichous leaves are lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed to a sheathing base, glabrous and often glaucous beneath. The inflorescence is a terminal, lax spike of few to several yellow flowers subtended by green or reddish bracts; each flower bears a slender corolla tube, a hooded dorsal lobe, prominent lateral staminodes and a bilobed labellum, with a single fertile stamen typical of the family. The fruit is a capsule splitting to reveal arillate seeds.

Cautleya is a small genus of perhaps two to three species centred on the Himalaya and southern China, closely allied to Roscoea but distinguished by its often epiphytic habit and capsular fruit. The yellow flowers are visited by long-tongued bees and the seeds dispersed when capsules open. Widespread and locally common, C. gracilis is of least concern, though epiphytic populations depend on intact, humid forest canopies vulnerable to logging and desiccation.

Author: (Sm.) Dandy · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Zingiberaceae of the Indian Subcontinent (Sabu)

Pinaceae

Cedrus deodara

by G & P Jürgens

(Roxb. ex D.Don) G.Don

Nepal 99 203 ergebnis
West-Nepal Lara-Lake 2800m, June

Description

Cedrus deodara, the deodar or Himalayan cedar, is a large evergreen coniferous tree of the Pinaceae native to the western and central Himalaya. GBIF data (over 11,000 occurrences) reflect both its natural range across Pakistan, India and Nepal and its extensive cultivation in temperate regions worldwide. In its native belt it forms extensive forests, often dominant, on cool, well-drained mountain slopes generally between about 1,500 and 3,200 m. The tree recorded near Lara Lake in West Nepal at 2,800 m in June represents the upper temperate coniferous zone, where deodar grows in association with blue pine, spruce and oaks.

The tree reaches 40–60 m, with a broadly conical crown and characteristically drooping leader and branch tips. The bark is dark grey and fissured into scaly plates. The needle-like leaves are borne singly on long shoots and in dense whorl-like clusters on short spur shoots; they are stiff, sharp-pointed, 25–50 mm long and glaucous green. Like all true cedars the species is monoecious: pollen cones are erect and catkin-like, shedding pollen in autumn, while the female cones are erect, barrel-shaped, 7–13 cm long, green ripening to reddish-brown, and disintegrate on the tree to release broadly winged seeds.

Cedrus is a small Old World genus of the Atlas, Mediterranean and Himalayan mountains, of which C. deodara is the easternmost member. The deodar is of great economic and cultural importance, valued for its durable, aromatic, decay-resistant timber and revered in South Asian tradition. Though widespread and much planted, native old-growth stands have been depleted by logging, and sustainable management of natural deodar forests remains an ecological priority.

Author: (Roxb. ex D.Don) G.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China Vol. 4, GBIF, Farjon: A Handbook of the World's Conifers (2010)

Orchideaceae

Cephalanthera damasonium

by GP Jürgens

Druce

Bh09 399 G632
Bhutan Punaka, 1400m June
Nepal 99 29 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chere 2850m June

Description

Cephalanthera damasonium, the white helleborine, is a terrestrial orchid with a vast distribution spanning Europe, western Asia, and the Himalayas. While primarily a European species — GBIF records over 116,000 occurrences, predominantly from France, Germany, Switzerland, and Britain — it extends eastward through Turkey, Iran, and the Caucasus into the western and central Himalayas, reaching Bhutan and western Nepal. In the Himalayas, it grows in broadleaved and pine forests on calcareous or base-rich soils at 1,200–3,000 m elevation.

The plant is a rhizomatous, mycoheterotrophic perennial, partially dependent on soil fungi (Cephalanthera species form associations with ectomycorrhizal fungi, particularly Thelephoraceae). Stems are erect, 15–50 cm tall, bearing 3–6 ovate to lanceolate, plicate leaves that decrease in size upward. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme of 3–12 flowers. Flowers are 15–20 mm long, creamy white to ivory, and remain partially closed (a feature related to their autogamous pollination strategy). The lip is short, with a yellowish-orange blotch on the inner surface bearing several raised ridges. Flowering in the Himalayas occurs from May to July.

The Himalayan populations of C. damasonium represent the eastern limit of this predominantly Eurasian species. Their occurrence in Bhutan is biogeographically noteworthy, extending the species' known range far beyond its European centre of diversity.

Author: Druce · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Delforge: Orchids of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East (2006)

Apocynaceae

Ceropegia meleagris 

by G & P Jürgens

H.Huber

Nepal 99 917 ergebnis
West-Nepal Roha 2900m, July
Nepal 99 918 ergebnis
West-Nepal Roha 2900m, July

Description

Ceropegia meleagris is a narrowly endemic herbaceous climber of the Apocynaceae (subfamily Asclepiadoideae), known only from the western Himalaya. GBIF records are few (18 occurrences) and confined to Nepal, indicating a restricted range and limited collection. The species grows in the temperate forest belt, scrambling through shrubs and herbaceous vegetation on banks, in scrub and at forest margins. The photographed plant from Roha in West Nepal at 2,900 m in July reflects its occurrence in the monsoon-moist middle hills, where flowering coincides with the summer rains.

The plant arises from a tuberous or fascicled rootstock and produces slender, twining, often somewhat fleshy stems. The leaves are opposite, simple, narrowly ovate to lanceolate and shortly petiolate. The flowers are the diagnostic feature of the genus: tubular and zygomorphic, with the five corolla lobes united at their tips to form a distinctive lantern- or cage-like canopy over the inflated, slightly curved corolla tube. The mottled, speckled patterning of the corolla evokes the guineafowl plumage from which the epithet meleagris is taken. As in all Ceropegia, the flowers function as temporary kettle traps that detain small Diptera, achieving pollination by means of paired pollinia. The fruit is a slender, paired follicle releasing comose seeds.

Ceropegia is a large, taxonomically intricate genus now construed to include the former Brachystelma and stapeliads, united by their elaborate trap-pollination syndrome. As a Himalayan endemic with very few documented localities, C. meleagris is of biogeographic and conservation interest; its restricted range, tuberous habit and specialised pollination make it potentially vulnerable to habitat disturbance and collection.

Author: H.Huber · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Bruyns: A Revision of Ceropegia (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae)

Apocynaceae

Ceropegia wallichii

by G & P Jürgens

Wight

Garh 07 311 ergebnis
Garhwal Bebra, 2450m, June
Garh 07 312 ergebnis
Garhwal Bebra, 2450m, June

Description

Ceropegia wallichii is a Himalayan twining herb distributed from northwest India (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh) through Nepal to Myanmar. With only 35 occurrences documented on GBIF, it is among the less frequently recorded species of this large genus. The species inhabits margins of warm-temperate and subtropical broadleaved forests, open scrubby slopes, and rocky outcrops at elevations of 1,500–2,800 m. It is often found climbing through low shrubs or trailing over banks in partially shaded situations with moderate monsoon rainfall.
Ceropegia wallichii is a slender, herbaceous, twining perennial arising from a small, globose to ellipsoid tuber, 1.5–3 cm in diameter. Stems are wiry, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, reaching 1–2 m in length. Leaves are opposite, narrowly lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3–8 cm long, acuminate at the apex, with short petioles. The inflorescence is an axillary, few-flowered umbelliform cyme bearing 2–6 flowers. The flowers are the most striking feature: the corolla tube is 2.5–4 cm long, slightly inflated at the base, curved, and pale green to yellowish with purple streaks; the five corolla lobes are linear, connate at the tips to form the characteristic cage-like structure (lantern flower) that functions as a temporary insect trap for pollination. The follicles are paired, slender, up to 12 cm long, containing comose seeds adapted for wind dispersal.
The species was described by Robert Wight based on material originally collected by Nathaniel Wallich. It belongs to Ceropegia section Ceropegia, a primarily Asian lineage of twining herbs with tuberous rootstocks. The photographed specimen from Bebra in Garhwal at 2,450 m documents an occurrence in the western Himalayan portion of the range. Ceropegia wallichii can be distinguished from the related C. pubescens by its glabrous or sparsely hairy stems and narrower leaf blades. Given its sparse occurrence records and reliance on relatively intact forest-edge habitats, the species may merit conservation attention, though a formal IUCN assessment is currently lacking.

Author: Wight · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of British India Vol. 4, Ansari: Asclepiadaceae — Genus Ceropegia, Flora of India (1984), Bruyns et al. (2017)

Urticaceae

Chamabainia cuspidata

by G & P Jürgens

Wight

BhutanPG2011 92 ergebnis
Bhutan Chogcham, 3250m June
Sikkim2011 6
Bhutan Chogcham, 3250m June
Sikkim 2006 228 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Ramman 2100m, May

Description

Chamabainia cuspidata is a small creeping member of the nettle family ranging widely through the Himalaya, southern China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia to Sri Lanka and Indonesia; GBIF records around 713 occurrences across China, Taiwan, Nepal, India, the Philippines, Bhutan and other tropical Asian countries. It is a plant of moist, shaded temperate and subtropical forest, carpeting damp banks, rocks, mossy ground and stream sides beneath the canopy. The images from Chogcham in Bhutan at 3250 m in June and from Ramman in West Bengal at 2100 m in May show it across a broad altitudinal span in cool, humid montane forest, where it forms low, spreading mats on the forest floor.

It is a slender, prostrate to creeping perennial herb with filiform stems rooting at the nodes and forming extensive ground-hugging patches. The leaves are small, opposite, ovate to broadly ovate, with a distinctly cuspidate apex (the source of the epithet) and a crenate-toothed margin, three-veined from the base and, like much of the family, lacking the stinging hairs of true nettles. The plant is monoecious, the minute, apetalous unisexual flowers borne in small dense axillary clusters; staminate flowers with a few stamens and pistillate flowers with a single ovary. The fruit is a small ovoid achene enclosed by the persistent perianth.

Chamabainia is a small genus within the Urticaceae, related to Pilea and the broader Elatostema alliance of shade-loving, mostly herbaceous forest plants; this species is the most widespread member and the type of the genus. Its creeping, mat-forming habit, reduced wind- or self-pollinated flowers and nodal rooting suit it to the humid, low-light understorey it occupies. It is common and widespread, of no conservation concern, but characteristic of well-shaded, moisture-retaining montane forest floors across tropical and subtropical Asia.

Author: Wight · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China (Urticaceae), Friis treatment of Urticaceae