Tag:

Summer

Ranunculaceae

Clematis graveolens 

by GP Jürgens

Lindl.

Nepal 99 978 ergebnis
West-Nepal Dunai 2150m, July

Description

Clematis graveolens Lindl. is a Sino-Himalayan climber of the western and central Himalaya and adjacent Central Asia, with records from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and China; the GBIF dataset of 236 occurrences also reflects scattered cultivated material in Europe and North America. It occupies dry, open hillsides, rocky slopes, scrub margins and stony riverbanks in the temperate and subalpine belt, broadly between 1500 and 3500 m. The photographed plant near Dunai in West Nepal at about 2150 m, flowering in July, typifies its preference for warm, well-drained, sun-baked terrain in the monsoon-sheltered inner valleys.

The species is a woody-based, scrambling perennial climbing by means of twining, sensitive petioles. The leaves are opposite and pinnately to bipinnately compound, the segments narrowly lanceolate to linear, often pinnatifid, glaucous and somewhat fleshy, emitting a strong foetid odour when bruised that gives the plant its epithet. Flowers are solitary or in few-flowered cymes, nodding and broadly campanulate; the four spreading to recurved tepals are yellow to greenish-yellow, thinly tomentose without and glabrescent within. Numerous stamens surround the pubescent carpels. The fruit is a head of compressed achenes, each bearing a long, persistent, plumose style forming the characteristic feathery awn.

Within Clematis the species belongs to section Meclatis (the yellow-flowered, Atragene-allied group typified by C. orientalis and C. tibetana), distinguished by its campanulate yellow flowers and divided, malodorous foliage. It is a hardy xerophyte adapted to the continental, low-rainfall pockets of the western Himalaya, and is used locally in folk medicine as a counter-irritant. Widespread and frequent in disturbed scrub, it is of no conservation concern and has occasionally entered horticulture as a drought-tolerant ornamental.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Magnus Johnson — The Genus Clematis

Ranunculaceae

Clematis phlebantha 

by G & P Jürgens

L.H.J.Williams

Nepal 99 708 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Pungmo 3400m, July
Nepal 99 707 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Pungmo 3400m, July

Description

Clematis phlebantha L.H.J.Williams is a rare Himalayan endemic restricted to western Nepal, where GBIF records only 46 occurrences (the additional Netherlands record reflecting cultivated or herbarium material). It is a plant of dry, rocky, sun-exposed slopes and arid river gorges in the rain-shadowed valleys of the trans-Himalaya, growing at around 3000 to 3600 m. The plant photographed at Pungmo in West Nepal, at about 3400 m in July, exemplifies its association with the semi-arid inner valleys of the Dolpo region, where it scrambles over rock and shrubs in a markedly dry montane climate.

The species is a sprawling, woody-based climber or sub-shrub with silvery, silky-hairy stems and foliage that lend the plant a distinctive pale, felted appearance. The leaves are pinnate, with several segments that are densely silky beneath, an adaptation to its arid, high-light habitat. The flowers are solitary or few, borne on long pedicels, with no true petals; the showy floral parts are the four to six spreading, creamy-white to pale tepals, conspicuously marked with prominent purplish or reddish veins (phlebantha referring to this vein pattern). The fruit is an aggregate of achenes, each bearing a long, persistent, plumose style that aids wind dispersal.

First described from western Nepal, C. phlebantha is celebrated among horticulturists, having been introduced to cultivation following its discovery, and is valued for its silvery foliage and veined flowers. Its strict endemism and limited known range make it a species of notable biogeographic and conservation interest, characteristic of the specialised flora of the dry inner Himalayan valleys. Its narrow distribution warrants monitoring, as such restricted-range endemics are inherently vulnerable to habitat change.

Author: L.H.J.Williams · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Grey-Wilson monograph of Clematis, Stainton Flowers of the Himalaya

Ranunculaceae

Clematis roylei

by G & P Jürgens

Rehder

Nepal 99 469 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3200m, June

Description

Clematis roylei is a Himalayan climber of the buttercup family, with about 66 GBIF occurrences recorded from India and Nepal. It is a plant of moist temperate forest and the shrubby ecotones between forest and open slope, scrambling over shrubs, herbaceous vegetation and embankments in cool, humid montane settings. The material photographed at Churta-Khola in West Nepal at about 3200 m in June was recorded at the start of the monsoon, when the temperate forest zone is flushed with new growth and these herbaceous climbers come into flower. The species occupies a broadly montane band along the central and western Himalaya.

It is a slender, somewhat woody-based herbaceous to subscandent climber whose petioles and rachises twine to provide support, the leaves being opposite and compound, typically pinnate to ternate with toothed or lobed, acuminate leaflets. The nodding, campanulate flowers lack true petals; the floral envelope consists of four (occasionally more) connivent sepals that are commonly bluish, purple, violet or dull yellow and frequently softly hairy on the margins and outer surface. The numerous stamens surround a cluster of carpels which, in fruit, develop into the characteristic achenes each tipped by a long, persistent, plumose feathery style that aids wind dispersal.

Clematis is a large, cosmopolitan genus, and roylei belongs to the nodding-flowered Himalayan assemblage allied to the C. connata group, with which it has often been associated taxonomically. These climbers contribute to the structural complexity of forest margins and provide nectar to montane pollinators. The species is locally distributed but not formally evaluated; its persistence is tied to the maintenance of intact mid-montane forest and shrubland habitats.

Author: Rehder · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Hooker Flora of British India, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Tamura Ranunculaceae

Ranunculaceae

Clematis tibetana var. vernayi 

by G & P Jürgens

(C.E.C.Fisch.) Grey-Wilson

Nepal 99 712 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Bauli-Khola 3500m, July
Nepal 99 713 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Bauli-Khola 3500m, July
Nepal 99 714 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Bauli-Khola 3500m, July

Description

Clematis tibetana var. vernayi is a Himalayan and Tibetan climber recorded principally from China and Nepal among its roughly 289 occurrences, the records from New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada reflecting its popularity in horticulture rather than a natural range, since this is the celebrated nodding yellow-flowered clematis widely cultivated in temperate gardens. In the wild it inhabits open subalpine and alpine slopes, scrub, rocky banks and dry valley sides, often scrambling over shrubs and boulders in well-drained, sunny situations. The photographed plant from the Bauli-Khola in West Nepal, at about 3500 m and flowering in July, is typical of its high-montane occurrence in the inner, drier Himalayan valleys.

It is a woody-based, semi-scandent perennial climbing by twining petioles, with deeply divided, pinnately compound leaves whose narrow leaflets are often lobed, toothed and somewhat glaucous, an adaptation to the dry, exposed habitat. The flowers are solitary, nodding and broadly campanulate to lantern-shaped, lacking true petals; the showy structures are four thick, leathery sepals coloured deep yellow, frequently flushed purple-brown outside, surrounding numerous stamens. The fruit is a head of achenes each bearing a long, conspicuously plumose persistent style, forming the silvery feathery seed-heads characteristic of the genus and aiding wind dispersal.

Clematis section Meclatis, the yellow-flowered Asian group to which this taxon belongs, has been studied in detail by Grey-Wilson, who recombined the variety; the thick-sepalled, glaucous, dry-habitat forms of the C. tibetana complex have long been valued by gardeners as the orange-peel clematis for their unusually substantial sepals. Ecologically the plumed achenes exploit wind for dispersal across open terrain. Widespread in the wild and abundant in cultivation, the variety is of no conservation concern, and its garden derivatives remain among the most familiar Himalayan contributions to ornamental horticulture.

Author: (C.E.C.Fisch.) Grey-Wilson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grey-Wilson's monograph Clematis the Genus

Ranunculaceae

Clematis tongluensis

by G & P Jürgens

(Bruehl) Tamura

BhutanPG2011 157 5
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Clematis tongluensis is a Himalayan climber recorded from Nepal, Bhutan, India, China and Myanmar, with additional cultivated or vouchered material noted from Canada; GBIF holds around 58 occurrences. It is a plant of temperate to subalpine forest, scrambling through shrubberies, over forest-edge thickets and along open slopes, generally between about 2700 and 3700 m. It was photographed at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m in June, where it climbs through rhododendron and conifer woodland margins, flowering at the onset of the summer monsoon.

The species is a woody to semi-woody climber with ribbed, somewhat pubescent stems that twine and clamber by means of the petioles. The leaves are ternate to pinnate, the leaflets ovate to lanceolate, acuminate and serrate, often thinly hairy. The flowers, borne singly or in few-flowered cymes, are nodding and broadly campanulate, lacking true petals; the four (rarely more) thick, spreading to recurved sepals are usually creamy-white to pale yellow, sometimes flushed purplish, with tomentose margins. Numerous stamens surround the carpels, and the fruit is a head of achenes each bearing a long, plumose persistent style.

Clematis tongluensis sits within the bell-flowered Sino-Himalayan groups of the genus, allied to the Montanae and related sections, and has at times been treated under or confused with the variable C. montana complex. Its nodding campanulate flowers and montane forest habitat are diagnostic. The species is fairly widely distributed and faces no recognised conservation threat, though it depends on the persistence of intact temperate broad-leaved and coniferous forest.

Author: (Bruehl) Tamura · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, A Revision of the Genus Clematis (Grey-Wilson), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Liliaceae

Clintonia udensis

by G & P Jürgens

Trautv. & C.A.Mey.

Nepal 99 154 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3500m, June

Description

Clintonia udensis is a woodland perennial with a remarkably wide East Asian to Himalayan distribution, recorded from China, Japan, Russia (Far East), Korea, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan, with over 3800 GBIF occurrences across this temperate arc. It is a shade-loving plant of moist, humus-rich coniferous and mixed forests, fir and rhododendron understorey, bamboo thickets and damp shaded gullies, typically between about 2500 and 4000 m in the Himalaya. The plant photographed south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3500 m in June, flowering as the high forests emerge from winter, exemplifies its preference for cool, sheltered subalpine forest floors where deep leaf litter retains moisture.

The species arises from a short, creeping rhizome and produces a basal rosette of two to five broadly elliptic to oblong-obovate leaves that are conspicuously parallel-veined, entire and ciliate at the margin, sheathing at the base. A leafless scape rises above the foliage bearing a terminal raceme of a few nodding, campanulate flowers. The six white tepals are oblong and free, subtending six stamens with linear anthers, and the superior ovary matures into a fleshy, ellipsoid to ovoid berry that ripens from green to a deep blue-black, containing several seeds and crowned by the persistent style base.

Clintonia is a small Holarctic genus of about five species traditionally placed in the Liliaceae and treated by some authors within an expanded Convallariaceae or Uvulariaceae. C. udensis is the sole Asian representative and the only one with white flowers and a black berry, the remaining species being North American. Its disjunct amphi-Pacific generic distribution is a classic example of the East Asian–North American floristic link. The berries are dispersed by birds, and the species is widespread and common; it is of no particular conservation concern.

Author: Trautv. & C.A.Mey. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 24, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3, Flora of Nepal, A Monograph of the Genus Clintonia (Liliaceae)

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis foetens

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 425 G591
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4250m August

Description

Codonopsis foetens is an alpine herb of the eastern Himalaya, distributed across China, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal, with about 712 georeferenced records in GBIF. It occupies high-elevation meadows, alpine scrub, screes and rocky slopes, typically between roughly 3500 and 4800 m. The plant illustrated was photographed in Sikkim's Chopta Valley at 4250 m in August, during the monsoon flowering season, where it grows among dwarf rhododendron scrub and damp alpine turf in the upper subalpine to alpine zone.

The species is an erect to ascending perennial herb arising from a thickened root, with simple or sparingly branched stems bearing small, scattered, ovate to lanceolate leaves. The flowers are solitary and terminal, nodding, with a broadly campanulate corolla that is pale blue to greyish-blue or violet and conspicuously marked internally with darker veins or blotches. The five corolla lobes are short and the throat often bears coloured patterning; the fruit is a capsule subtended by the persistent calyx lobes and releasing numerous minute seeds at maturity.

Codonopsis (Campanulaceae) is well diversified in the Sino-Himalayan alpine flora, and as the epithet foetens indicates, this species emits a strong, unpleasant odour when the foliage is bruised, a trait shared with several relatives and thought to deter herbivores while attracting particular insect visitors. The pendent bell-shaped flowers are pollinated chiefly by bumblebees. Restricted to high alpine habitats, C. foetens is not formally assessed as threatened but is dependent on intact alpine vegetation and is potentially sensitive to grazing pressure and climate-driven shifts in the alpine belt.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hong Monograph of the Genus Codonopsis

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis subsimplex

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson

Sikkim2003 439 P610 2
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4000m August
Sikkim2003 424 P590
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4250m August

Description

Codonopsis subsimplex is an alpine herb of the eastern Himalaya, distributed across Nepal, India (Sikkim), Bhutan and adjacent China, with about 101 georeferenced records in GBIF. It grows in high-elevation meadows, scrub margins, rock crevices and stony alpine slopes, typically within the belt between about 3500 and 4500 m. The plants illustrated were photographed in Sikkim's Chopta Valley at 4000 and 4250 m in August, at the height of the monsoon flowering season, where it occurs among dwarf shrubs and damp turf in the upper alpine zone.

The species is a slender perennial herb arising from a thickened, fleshy rootstock, with stems that are erect to weakly ascending and, as the epithet suggests, little branched. The leaves are small, alternate or scattered, ovate to lanceolate, and shortly petiolate to nearly sessile. The flowers are solitary and terminal, nodding on slender pedicels, with a broadly campanulate corolla typically pale bluish, greenish or purple-tinged and often marked internally with darker veining or coloured spots. The five corolla lobes are shallow; the fruit is a capsule crowned by the persistent calyx, dehiscing to release numerous small seeds.

Codonopsis (Campanulaceae) is a genus of the temperate and alpine Asian flora well represented in the Himalaya, several members of which are characterised by a distinctive foetid odour when bruised. Pollination is largely by bumblebees attracted to the pendent bell-shaped flowers. The fleshy roots of various Codonopsis species are valued in regional herbal medicine. C. subsimplex is restricted to high alpine habitats and, while not formally assessed as threatened, depends on intact alpine pasture and is sensitive to overgrazing and climatic warming.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hong Monograph of the Genus Codonopsis

Campanulaceae

Codonopsis thalictrifolia

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Sikkim2003 122 P163
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August
Sikkim2003 265 P364
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August
Sikkim2003 266 P367
Sikkim Dzongri 3950m, August

Description

Codonopsis thalictrifolia is a Sino-Himalayan alpine herb of the bellflower family, GBIF recording about 217 occurrences from Nepal, China, India and Bhutan. It is a plant of the upper subalpine and alpine zones, growing in open turf, among dwarf rhododendron scrub, on stony slopes, moraine and moist rock ledges generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The population photographed at Dzongri in western Sikkim at 3950 m, flowering in August during the late monsoon, is characteristic of its occurrence in cool, humid, high-elevation meadow and shrub habitats where it blooms toward the end of the short alpine summer.

It is a slender, glabrous, somewhat glaucous perennial herb arising from a fleshy rootstock, the stems erect to ascending and often weakly clambering through surrounding vegetation. The leaves are small and finely divided or pinnately lobed, recalling the foliage of a meadow-rue (Thalictrum), from which the epithet derives. The flowers are solitary and nodding on slender pedicels; the corolla is broadly campanulate, pale blue to greenish or violet-tinged and frequently marked within by darker veining, with five short lobes, five stamens and an inferior to half-inferior ovary. The fruit is a capsule dehiscing to release numerous small seeds.

Described by Wallich, C. thalictrifolia belongs to the genus Codonopsis (Campanulaceae), the bonnet-bellflowers, several of which emit the group's characteristic foetid odour when bruised. It is locally frequent and not regarded as threatened, though tied to intact alpine turf and scrub. Ecologically its nodding, bell-shaped flowers are adapted to pollination by bumblebees and other robust alpine insects, and it is valued horticulturally as a delicate plant of the high mountains.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Codonopsis (Lammers/Hong monograph)

Orchideaceae

Coelogyne articulata

by GP Jürgens

(Lindl.) Rchb.f.

Bh09 220 P373
Bhutan Dochu-La, 2900m June
Bh09 356 P573
Bhutan Dochu-La, 2900m June

Description

Coelogyne articulata (long widely known as Pholidota articulata) is an epiphytic orchid distributed broadly across tropical and subtropical Asia, from India, Nepal, Bhutan and China through Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina and Malesia to New Guinea, with 733 occurrences in GBIF. It grows as an epiphyte on tree trunks and mossy branches, occasionally as a lithophyte on shaded rocks, in evergreen and mixed broadleaved forest from the lowlands up to about 2900 m. The Bhutanese collection figured, from Dochu-La at 2900 m in June, marks the upper, cool-temperate edge of its range, where it flowers in the early monsoon in humid, shaded forest.

The plant has a creeping rhizome bearing a chain of cylindrical to fusiform pseudobulbs jointed end to end, each successive bulb arising from the apex of the last, producing the articulated, beaded habit reflected in the epithet. Each pseudobulb carries one or two oblong-lanceolate, plicate leaves. The slender, pendulous inflorescence is a distichous, secund raceme of many small flowers subtended by conspicuous boat-shaped bracts; the flowers are whitish to pale pink, with concave sepals, narrow petals and a saccate, concave lip. The fruit is a small ribbed dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

The genus name on the source page reflects past placement in Pholidota; molecular phylogenetics has shown Pholidota to be nested within Coelogyne (Orchidaceae, subfamily Epidendroideae), and POWO accepts the combination Coelogyne articulata. The input family is given as "Orchideaceae"; the accepted family is Orchidaceae. Widespread, locally common and tolerant of secondary forest, the species is not regarded as threatened, though all wild orchids are listed on CITES Appendix II.

Author: (Lindl.) Rchb.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Coelogyne (A Synopsis)