Tag:

Summer

Onagraceae

Epilobium conspersum

by GP Jürgens

Hausskn.

Sikkim2003 213 G297
Sikkim Dzongri 3900m, August

Description

Epilobium conspersum is a perennial herb of the Sino-Himalayan and East Asian mountains, distributed through southwestern China, Nepal, northern India, Myanmar, Bhutan and Japan, with introduced records in the United States; GBIF documents about 134 occurrences. It is a plant of moist, open subalpine and alpine habitats such as stream banks, wet meadows and gravelly flushes, typically between about 3000 and 4200 m. The photographed plant was collected at Dzongri in western Sikkim at around 3900 m in August, on the cool, wet ground this willowherb favours during the monsoon. In GBIF the name carries the status SYNONYM, while Epilobium conspersum is here recognised as the accepted name for this Himalayan material.

The plant produces erect to ascending stems from a perennating base that overwinters by leafy rosettes or short turions. The leaves are opposite below and alternate above, sessile or shortly petiolate, lanceolate to ovate, with a toothed margin, the stems often finely hairy in lines. The flowers are borne in the upper leaf axils; as in the genus they have an inferior, elongate ovary, four notched pink to rose-purple petals, four sepals and eight stamens. The fruit is a long, slender, four-valved capsule that splits to release numerous seeds, each bearing a silky coma for wind dispersal.

Epilobium (Onagraceae) is a large temperate and cold-region genus in which the comose seeds and elongate capsular fruit are diagnostic. The Himalayan species form a taxonomically intricate group, and the synonymy reflected in the GBIF status underscores their nomenclatural complexity. Widespread along its moist alpine corridor, the species is not considered threatened.

Author: Hausskn. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 13, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Raven monograph of Old World Epilobium

Orchideaceae

Epipactis helleborine 

by G & P Jürgens

(L.) Crantz

Nepal 99 880 ergebnis
West-Nepal Suli-Khola 3200m, July

Description

Epipactis helleborine, the broad-leaved helleborine, is among the most widespread terrestrial orchids in the world, native across Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia and naturalised extensively in North America. Its enormous GBIF dataset of over 378,000 occurrences spans France, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, the United States, Canada and much of Eurasia, reflecting its tolerance of woodland, scrub, road verges and disturbed ground from the lowlands to the mountains. Within the Himalaya it ascends to high elevations, the material illustrated here coming from West Nepal at Suli-Khola at 3200 m in July, where it flowers in shaded summer pastures and forest edges on calcareous or humic soils.

The plant is a stout, leafy perennial herb growing from a short rhizome with numerous fleshy roots. The erect stem bears several broadly ovate to lanceolate, plicate, spirally arranged cauline leaves that diminish into bracts upward. The inflorescence is a one-sided, many-flowered raceme of nodding flowers; each flower has greenish to purplish ovate tepals and a distinctive two-part labellum comprising a cup-shaped hypochile holding nectar and a heart-shaped, recurved epichile bearing two basal bosses. The column is short, and pollination is typically effected by wasps; the fruit is a pendent, ribbed capsule releasing innumerable dust-like seeds.

Epipactis helleborine is taxonomically variable, encompassing numerous regional ecotypes and segregate microspecies, and is notable for its partial mycoheterotrophy, drawing carbon from ectomycorrhizal fungi which permits it to grow in deep shade. Its colonisation of urban and ruderal habitats has made it a successful adventive, and in parts of North America it is regarded as weedy. The species is of least conservation concern globally given its abundance and ecological adaptability.

Author: (L.) Crantz · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora Europaea, Genera Orchidacearum, The Genus Epipactis: A Monograph, Orchids of the Himalaya

Orchideaceae

Epipactis royleana

by G & P Jürgens

Lindl.

Nepal 99 177 ergebnis
West-Nepal Lara-Lake 3000m, June

Description

Epipactis royleana Lindl. is a terrestrial orchid of central and western Asia and the Himalaya, with GBIF documenting some 262 occurrences across Nepal, India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and Russia, with scattered records farther afield. It typically grows in moist habitats such as streamsides, marshy meadows, seepage slopes and open coniferous woodland from the montane to subalpine zones, often between about 1500 and 3500 m. The plant photographed at Lara-Lake in West Nepal, at roughly 3000 m in June, illustrates its preference for the damp, lake-margin grasslands of the high Himalayan valleys.

The species is a rhizomatous perennial with erect, leafy stems arising from a short creeping rootstock. The leaves are alternate, ovate to lanceolate, sheathing at the base and prominently veined. The inflorescence is a lax, one-sided terminal raceme of several to many resupinate flowers; each flower has spreading, greenish to purplish-tinged sepals and petals, with a labellum divided into a cup-like basal hypochile and a triangular, often pinkish epichile. As in all Epipactis, the column bears a single anther and the pollinia are mealy, and the fruit is a pendulous, ridged capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Epipactis is a Holarctic genus in which Himalayan and central Asian taxa form a distinct group; E. royleana is among the more widespread members, exhibiting considerable variation in flower colour across its range. Like other members of the genus it depends on mycorrhizal fungi for germination and early establishment, and its small seeds are wind-dispersed. The species is not currently regarded as threatened across its broad distribution, though, as a wetland-associated orchid, local populations are sensitive to drainage and habitat disturbance.

Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Delforge Orchids of Europe and Asia

Asteraceae

Erigeron multiradiatus

by GP Jürgens

(Lindl. ex DC.) Benth. & Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 371
Bhutan Dur-Tso, 4000m June
Sikkim2003 429 G596
Sikkim Chopta Valley 4100m August

Description

Erigeron multiradiatus (Lindl. ex DC.) Benth. & Hook.f. is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan fleabane distributed through China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan, with around 1400 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It is a plant of alpine and subalpine meadows, open grassy slopes, rocky ground and forest clearings, generally between about 2700 and 4500 m. The collections from Dur-Tso at 4000 m in June and the Chopta valley in Sikkim at 4100 m in August are characteristic of its high-altitude summer flowering across the central and eastern Himalaya.

It is a tufted perennial herb arising from a short rhizome, with erect, simple or sparingly branched stems bearing spreading hairs. The basal leaves are oblanceolate to spatulate, narrowed to a petiole and entire to slightly toothed, forming a rosette; the cauline leaves are smaller, sessile and clasping. The solitary or few terminal capitula are large and showy, with an involucre of narrow, hairy, somewhat purplish phyllaries; the numerous, very fine ray florets, alluded to in the epithet multiradiatus, are pinkish-purple to violet and surround a central disc of yellow tubular florets. The fruit is a small, compressed, hairy cypsela topped by a double pappus of fine bristles.

Erigeron is a large, taxonomically intricate genus, and the densely many-rayed alpine Himalayan species form a distinctive assemblage within it, recognised by their broad showy heads and high-elevation habitat. A widespread and locally common alpine herb, E. multiradiatus is of no particular conservation concern, though it is valued horticulturally and in regional traditional medicine.

Author: (Lindl. ex DC.) Benth. & Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan Compositae account

Ranunculaceae

Eriocapitella rivularis

by GP Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Christenh. & Byng

Bh09 197 P337
Bhutan above Thimphu, 3000m June
Bh09 68 P118
Bhutan above Thimphu, 3000m June
Nepal 99 169 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Tara-Lake 3000m, June

Description

Eriocapitella rivularis (formerly Anemone rivularis) is a widely distributed montane herb of the Sino-Himalayan region. GBIF records span China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan, extending to Sri Lanka, with introduced or cultivated occurrences in Europe, Japan and North America, totalling close to 2000 georeferenced collections. It favours moist alpine and subalpine meadows, stream banks, open slopes and forest margins, generally between 2000 and 4200 m. The populations illustrated here were photographed above Thimphu in Bhutan and south of Tara-Lake in West Nepal, both at around 3000 m and flowering in June, typical of its early-summer phenology in the central Himalaya.

It is an erect perennial 20-80 cm tall arising from a stout rootstock, the stems and petioles clothed in spreading white hairs. Basal leaves are long-petiolate and palmately 3-5-lobed, the segments coarsely toothed and bristly. The inflorescence is a lax cyme subtended by a leafy involucre of sessile bracts. Flowers are showy, with 5-6 white petaloid sepals often tinged bluish on the reverse and numerous stamens bearing conspicuous blue-violet anthers; true petals are absent. The fruit is an aggregate of flattened, narrowly winged achenes terminating in a slender hooked beak that aids epizoochorous dispersal.

The transfer to the segregate genus Eriocapitella reflects molecular work resolving the paraphyly of Anemone sensu lato. Pharmacologically it is notable as a source of triterpenoid saponins and is used in Himalayan folk medicine. Its broad ecological amplitude, abundant achene production and wind-aided dispersal render it locally common and of no conservation concern, a characteristic component of grazed Himalayan pasture.

Author: (Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Christenh. & Byng · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Monograph of the genus Anemone (Ranunculaceae)

Ranunculaceae

Eriocapitella rupicola

by G & P Jürgens

(Cambess.) Christenh. & Byng

BhutanPG2011 207
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3500m June
BhutanPG2011 586
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Miluthang, 4450m July
Nepal 99 130 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June
Nepal 99 529 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June

Description

Eriocapitella rupicola, formerly Anemone rupicola, is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan herb distributed from Pakistan through Nepal, India and Bhutan into China, with around 507 GBIF occurrences. It grows in alpine and subalpine habitats, on rocky slopes, cliff ledges, open meadows, stony pastures and among boulders, often in well-drained sites in the upper subalpine to alpine zone. The images document it widely in the range: Bhutan at Tsochenchen around 3500 m in June and along the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at Miluthang near 4450 m in July, and West Nepal south of Rara Lake at about 3800 m in June, where its white blooms open through the early summer.

It is a perennial herb arising from a stout rootstock, with basal leaves that are ternately to palmately divided into toothed, deeply cut segments, hairy on the surfaces. The flowering stems are erect and bear an involucre of stalked, leaf-like bracts below the flowers. The flowers are solitary or few, comparatively large and showy, with several (commonly five) petaloid white sepals, often flushed pink or bluish on the reverse, and numerous stamens surrounding a head of carpels. The fruit is a head of densely woolly, long-hairy achenes, the indumentum aiding wind dispersal.

The species has been transferred to Eriocapitella, a segregate genus carved from the broadly circumscribed Anemone on molecular and morphological grounds by Christenhusz and Byng; POWO accepts this placement, with Anemone rupicola as a synonym. The woolly achene heads (the basis of the generic name) are characteristic. The showy white flowers attract generalist alpine insect pollinators. Widespread across the Himalaya, it is common and of least conservation concern.

Author: (Cambess.) Christenh. & Byng · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Christenhusz & Byng revision of Anemone s.l.

Lamiaceae

Eriophyton tuberosum 

by G & P Jürgens

(Hedge) Ryding

Nepal 99 751 ergebnis
West-Nepal Poksundo-Lake 3650m, July

Description

Eriophyton tuberosum is a high-alpine Himalayan labiate with a narrow distribution, GBIF holding only about 46 occurrences from Nepal, India and China. It is a plant of the alpine and subnival zones, occurring on open turf, scree margins, moist rocky slopes and stream-side flushes generally between about 3300 and 4300 m, enduring intense insolation, short growing seasons and cold nights. The population photographed beside Phoksundo (Poksundo) Lake in West Nepal at 3650 m, flowering in July at the height of the monsoon growing season, is typical of its restricted occurrence in cool, moist, high-elevation meadow and rock habitats of the western and central Himalaya.

It is a low perennial herb arising from a swollen tuberous rootstock, as the epithet indicates, with short, ascending to decumbent stems. The leaves are opposite and decussate, ovate to rounded, crenate, and—like many members of this alpine assemblage—somewhat fleshy and often woolly or villous, an adaptation to the harsh climate. The flowers are borne in axillary whorls toward the stem apex; each has a tubular, toothed calyx and a two-lipped corolla in shades of pink, purple or violet, with four didynamous stamens beneath the upper lip. The fruit comprises four smooth nutlets in the persistent calyx.

Transferred by Ryding to Eriophyton from Hedge's original placement, this species reflects a modern recircumscription absorbing several small Himalayan genera (notably Alajja) into an expanded Eriophyton of woolly alpine mints. Its very low occurrence count and narrow high-altitude band make it a regional endemic of conservation interest, sensitive to grazing and alpine warming, and a nectar source for high-altitude bumblebees.

Author: (Hedge) Ryding · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Ryding revision of Eriophyton (Lamiaceae)

Lamiaceae

Eriophyton wallichii

by GP Jürgens

Benth.

Sikkim2003 319 P458
Sikkim Saniti-Lake 4300m August
Sikkim2003 322 P457
Sikkim Saniti-Lake 4300m August

Description

Eriophyton wallichii is a high-alpine perennial of the central and eastern Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Afghanistan, with some 605 georeferenced occurrences documented in GBIF. It is a characteristic plant of open screes, moraines and frost-heaved gravels of the upper alpine and subnival zones, typically between 3500 and 5000 m, where the growing season is brief. The photograph from the Saniti Lake area of Sikkim at about 4300 m in August captures the species in its preferred scree habitat at the height of the short montane summer.

The plant forms a stout, deeply buried rhizome from which arise short, ascending stems almost entirely concealed by the foliage. The most conspicuous feature is the dense covering of long, silky white woolly hairs that envelop the upper leaves, an adaptation buffering the flowers against cold and excessive radiation. The leaves are opposite, broadly ovate to suborbicular, becoming progressively larger and more densely lanate upward, where the uppermost pairs form a protective bracteal cup. The bilabiate flowers are borne in the axils of these terminal leaves, with a tubular calyx and a pink to purplish corolla whose lower lip is spreading; the fruit comprises four smooth nutlets enclosed within the persistent calyx.

The genus Eriophyton sensu lato (incorporating elements formerly placed in Alajja and Stachyopsis) is a small, distinctly Sino-Himalayan group of the Lamiaceae adapted to the harshest alpine environments. The pronounced indumentum exemplifies the convergent woolliness seen in unrelated subnival cushion and scree plants such as Saussurea and Soroseris. Long valued in Tibetan and Himalayan ethnomedicine, E. wallichii remains locally frequent across its broad range and is not presently considered threatened, though its specialised scree habitat is sensitive to glacial retreat and shifting alpine climates.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Harley et al. Labiatae in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants

Brassicaceae

Erysimum robustum

by G & P Jürgens

D.Don

Nepal 99 423 ergebnis
Nepal Talphi 2830m, July
Nepal 99 72 ergebnis
Nepal Chauta-valley, 2800m, July

Description

Erysimum robustum is a Himalayan wallflower distributed through Nepal, northern India and SW China (Xizang and Yunnan), as reflected in the GBIF country records (NP, IN, CN) and some 89 occurrences. The plants illustrated here were photographed in western Nepal at Talphi (c. 2,830 m) and in the Chauta valley (c. 2,800 m) in July. It is a montane to subalpine species favouring open, well-drained sites: stony pastures, dry slopes, roadside banks and the margins of cultivation, generally between 2,500 and 3,800 m, where it forms conspicuous yellow-flowered stands during the summer monsoon. The GBIF backbone treats the name as a synonym, but it is here regarded as the accepted name Erysimum robustum following regional floristic usage.

It is a biennial or short-lived perennial herb with an erect, robust, often branched stem clothed, like the rest of the plant, in appressed two- to several-rayed malpighiaceous hairs that give a greyish cast. The leaves are linear to oblanceolate, entire to remotely denticulate, the lower ones petiolate and the upper sessile. The inflorescence is an elongating ebracteate raceme of bright yellow flowers with four clawed petals in the cruciferous pattern and tetradynamous stamens. The fruit is a long, narrow, four-angled siliqua, somewhat torulose and ascending on a stout pedicel, containing a single row of oblong seeds in each locule.

The genus Erysimum is taxonomically difficult owing to extensive variation in indumentum and habit, and several Himalayan entities have been variously lumped or split; trichome branching patterns and siliqua characters remain the most reliable diagnostic features. As a widespread, weedy-tolerant species of disturbed montane ground, E. robustum is not of conservation concern and can act as an early colonist of bare slopes.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Polatschek: Revision der Gattung Erysimum

Celastraceae

Euonymus frigidus

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Sikkim 2006 184 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Samadan 2300m, May
BhutanPG2011 82 ergebnis scaled
Bhutan Menchuang 2850m, June

Description

Euonymus frigidus is a Himalayan spindle tree distributed from central Nepal through northeast India, Sikkim, Bhutan, and northern Myanmar to southwest China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Xizang). GBIF records over 1,570 occurrences, with the majority from China and the eastern Himalayas. The species inhabits cool-temperate and subalpine broadleaved and mixed forests, often growing along forest margins, stream gullies, and shaded slopes at elevations of 1,800–3,200 m. Collections from Samadan in West Bengal at 2,300 m and from Menchuang in Bhutan at 2,850 m illustrate its typical occurrence in the mid-elevation broadleaved forest zone of the eastern Himalayan slopes.
Euonymus frigidus is a large deciduous shrub or small tree, reaching 3–8 m in height, with smooth, greyish-green bark on younger branches. Leaves are opposite, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 6–14 cm long, acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, with finely crenate-serrate margins, glabrous on both surfaces, and turning reddish-purple in autumn. The inflorescence is an axillary, dichasial cyme bearing 7–15 flowers on slender peduncles. Flowers are tetramerous, small, 6–8 mm in diameter, with greenish-yellow to purplish petals and a conspicuous four-lobed disc. The fruit is a deeply four-lobed capsule, pink to crimson at maturity, splitting to reveal four seeds each enclosed in a bright orange aril — a striking ornamental feature.
The specific epithet 'frigidus' alludes to the cold-temperate habitats in which this species predominantly occurs. Euonymus frigidus is distinguished from the closely related E. hamiltonianus by its generally larger leaves, more deeply lobed capsules, and preference for higher elevations. The conspicuous arillate fruits are an important food source for frugivorous birds, including minivets and laughingthrushes, which serve as effective dispersal agents. The species is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental in European and North American gardens for its vivid autumn colour and decorative fruit.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 11, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Grierson & Long: Flora of Bhutan (1991)