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Summer

Asteraceae

Anaphalis busua

by GP Jürgens

DC.

Bhutan2012 160
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
Bhutan2012 160
Bhutan Haar-Valley, 3200m September
BhutanPG2011 833 01 01 1
Bhutan Chele-La, 3400m July

Description

Anaphalis busua is a Himalayan everlasting widespread from Pakistan and India through Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar into south-western China, with additional records from Sri Lanka; the 619 occurrences confirm a broad montane range, while points labelled Belgium represent cultivated or erroneous data. It occupies open grassy slopes, forest clearings, banks and disturbed ground from roughly 1500 to 3600 m. The documented Bhutanese material from the Haa Valley at about 3200 m in September and from the Chele-La at 3400 m in July illustrates its long flowering season across the temperate and lower subalpine zones of the eastern Himalaya.

The species is a perennial herb with a woody rootstock producing erect, white-woolly stems. The leaves are sessile, linear to oblong-lanceolate, somewhat decurrent, green and thinly arachnoid above and densely white-tomentose beneath, with revolute margins. The capitula are small and numerous, aggregated into dense terminal corymbs; each head is heterogamous and functionally dioecious, with the involucre of papery, pearly-white, radiating phyllaries that give the genus its everlasting quality. The florets are tubular and whitish, the outer female and filiform, the inner mostly functionally male. The cypselae are minute and oblong, crowned by a pappus of slender, barbellate, basally free bristles.

Anaphalis is a large genus of the Gnaphalieae especially diverse in the Sino-Himalayan region, distinguished from Helichrysum and Gnaphalium by its scarious involucres and predominantly dioecious heads. A. busua belongs to the broad-leaved Himalayan group and is taxonomically variable, with several related forms intergrading. The dry chaffy phyllaries persist long after flowering, favouring wind dispersal of the small achenes. The species is common and weedy in disturbed montane habitats and is of no conservation concern.

Author: DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 20-21, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Hilliard & Burtt Gnaphalieae studies

Asteraceae

Anaphalis nepalensis

by GP Jürgens

(Spreng.) Hand.-Mazz.

Garh 07 207 ergebnis
India Garhwal Panwali 3300m, June

Description

Anaphalis nepalensis is a widespread Sino-Himalayan everlasting distributed across China, Taiwan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Myanmar, with over 3600 georeferenced records making it one of the better-documented Himalayan composites. It occupies open alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes, rocky pastures and forest clearings, generally between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed plant from Panwali in the Garhwal Himalaya at 3300 m, flowering in June, typifies its grassy mid-alpine habitat where it forms low cushions or spreading patches in short turf.

It is a perennial, white-woolly herb arising from a creeping rhizome, with prostrate to ascending stems clothed in dense grey-white tomentum. The leaves are oblanceolate to spathulate, often crowded in a basal rosette and reducing upward, cottony on both surfaces. The capitula are arranged singly or in small terminal clusters and are dioecious or subdioecious; the conspicuous part is the spreading ring of dry, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts surrounding the small yellowish disc florets, an arrangement that gives the genus its "pearly everlasting" character. The achenes bear a pappus of fine barbellate bristles.

The persistent, scarious bracts retain their form long after flowering, an adaptation suiting the plant to harsh, exposed alpine conditions and aiding identification. Anaphalis nepalensis is a variable species with several recognised varieties differing in stature and leaf form, and it is sometimes confused with related Himalayan congeners. Common and ecologically adaptable, it is not of conservation concern and is occasionally grown as a rock-garden ornamental.

Author: (Spreng.) Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Compositae monographs (Handel-Mazzetti)

Asteraceae

Anaphalis nepalensis var. monocephala

by GP Jürgens

(DC.) Hand.-Mazz.

Sikkim2003 187 P255
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m 08.2003
Nepal 99 274 ergebnis
West-Nepal Loccu 3800m, June
Garw 2005 150 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Kuari-Pass 3900m, September

Description

Anaphalis nepalensis var. monocephala is a high-alpine pearly everlasting of the Himalaya and adjacent China, recorded from Nepal, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Taiwan and south-west China across 426 georeferenced occurrences. It occupies open alpine turf, screes, rocky slopes and gravelly moraine in the upper alpine zone. The cited collections at Dzongri in Sikkim (4000 m), Loccu in west Nepal (3800 m) and the Kuari Pass in Garhwal (3900 m) confirm its preference for elevations of roughly 3500-4800 m, where it flowers through the short summer and into early autumn. The variety is distinguished from typical A. nepalensis chiefly by its solitary or few terminal capitula on dwarf, cushion-forming stems.

It is a low, mat- or cushion-forming perennial herb with a branched woody caudex and short, white-woolly (lanate) stems and foliage. The leaves are spathulate to oblanceolate, crowded toward the base, densely grey-tomentose and frequently bearing a tuft of wool at the apex. The capitula are usually solitary (monocephalous), comparatively large, and surrounded by numerous papery, pearly-white, radiating involucral bracts that simulate ray florets; the true florets are small and yellowish, the plant being functionally dioecious. The fruit is a tiny cypsela crowned by a pappus of barbellate bristles.

The genus Anaphalis belongs to tribe Gnaphalieae (the cudweeds and everlastings), in which dry, persistent scarious bracts give the inflorescences their lasting quality. The white bracts and clustered florets attract small flies and bees, while the plumed cypselae are wind-dispersed. The variety is locally frequent in high Himalayan pastures and is not considered threatened, though sensitive to heavy grazing and trampling.

Author: (DC.) Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Nepal, Hilliard & Burtt Gnaphalieae studies

Asteraceae

Anaphalis xylorhiza

by G & P Jürgens

Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f.

Sikkim2003 260 P358
Sikkim Dzongri 4000m, July

Description

Anaphalis xylorhiza is a high-alpine pearly-everlasting of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 416 georeferenced occurrences indicating a fairly frequent species along the inner high ranges. It grows in alpine meadows, on stony slopes, screes and rocky ridges above the treeline, typically between roughly 3500 and 4800 m. The plant was photographed at Dzongri in Sikkim at 4000 m in July, a setting representative of its ecology, flowering at the height of the monsoon on open, well-drained, frequently grazed alpine ground.

As the epithet xylorhiza indicates, it is a perennial herb with a thick, woody rootstock from which arise low, white-woolly stems. The leaves are linear to narrowly oblong or spathulate, often crowded toward the base, grey-green and clothed in a dense persistent felt of appressed hairs on both surfaces, the bases sometimes decurrent. The capitula are small and aggregated into compact terminal corymbose clusters; each head is surrounded by dry, papery, pearly-white involucral bracts that give the genus its everlasting quality. The plants are essentially dioecious, with male and female heads on separate individuals, and the fruit is a minute cypsela bearing a pappus of slender bristles.

Anaphalis (tribe Gnaphalieae) is centred in Asia and is distinguished from the closely allied Antennaria and Helichrysum by its corymbose, scarious-bracted heads and its functionally dioecious breeding system; A. xylorhiza belongs to the woody-rooted, high-elevation Himalayan group. Its dense indumentum and persistent papery bracts are adaptations to cold, irradiation and desiccation in the alpine zone. Widespread and locally abundant, it is not considered threatened, although heavy summer grazing affects accessible populations.

Author: Sch.Bip. ex Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hooker Flora of British India (Asteraceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace globifera

by G & P Jürgens

Duby

BhutanPG2011 669 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Thitha-Tso, 4300m July
Sikkim2004 163 G276
Sikkim/India Singalila 4100m May
Nepal 99 138 ergebnis
West-Nepal South of Rara-Lake 3800m, June

Description

Androsace globifera is a high-alpine cushion-forming perennial distributed along the central and eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF (103 occurrences) from Nepal, India, Bhutan and adjacent Tibetan China. It occupies open, often wind-exposed alpine turf, gravel slopes, moraine margins and the rocky surrounds of glacial tarns, typically between 3800 and 4500 m. The documented gatherings illustrate this range well: dense colonies were found beside Thitha-Tso on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at 4300 m in July, on the Singalila ridge of Sikkim at 4100 m in May, and south of Rara Lake in West Nepal at 3800 m in June, flowering as the snow recedes.

The plant forms compact, hemispherical cushions or low mats built from numerous crowded, columnar shoots clothed in persistent, imbricate, withered leaf-remains. The leaves are small, sessile, oblong to spathulate, and gathered into dense terminal rosettes, their margins ciliate with simple and branched hairs. Solitary, sessile or shortly pedicellate flowers nestle among the leaves; the calyx is campanulate and lobed to about the middle, and the rotate corolla is white to pink with a yellow throat, the five obovate lobes spreading from a short tube. The fruit is a small globose capsule that splits by five valves to release angular seeds.

A member of the cushion-forming androsaces, the species is diagnosed by its globular, tightly packed habit and short-tubed flowers. Ecologically it is a pioneer of frost-disturbed, well-drained substrates, the cushion architecture buffering temperature extremes and trapping wind-blown detritus. Though locally frequent and not currently threatened, such narrowly stenothermic alpines are sensitive to warming and shifting snow regimes.

Author: Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 15, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Smith & Lowe Androsace monograph (Genus Androsace)

Primulaceae

Androsace hookeriana

by GP Jürgens

Klatt

Sikkim2011 54
Sikkim Vista-valley 3800m, June
BhutanPG2011 784 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3800m June
Bh09 175 G200
Bhutan Labana, 4000m June

Description

Androsace hookeriana is an eastern Himalayan rock-jasmine recorded in GBIF from Nepal, China, Bhutan and India across 120 occurrences. It grows in moist alpine meadows, grassy slopes, seepage flushes and among rocks, generally between 3500 and 4300 m. The cited collections span Sikkim's Vista valley at about 3800 m, Chele-La in Bhutan at 3800 m, and Labana in Bhutan at 4000 m, all flowering in June, indicating an early-summer alpine species that exploits damp, freshly snow-freed turf. Named for the botanist J. D. Hooker, it is a characteristic component of high eastern Himalayan herbfields.

It is a small rosette-forming perennial, the basal leaves spathulate to oblanceolate, narrowed to the base, with a sparse to dense covering of fine hairs. From the rosette rises a slender, hairy scape a few centimetres to about 15 cm tall, bearing a terminal umbel of several flowers subtended by an involucre of narrow bracts; the pedicels are hairy. Each flower has a campanulate, hairy calyx divided to about the middle and a salverform white to pale pink corolla with a yellow or pinkish eye and five rounded lobes. The fruit is a small, valvate capsule containing a few angular seeds.

As a member of Androsace (Primulaceae), the species belongs to a genus of predominantly arctic-alpine herbs richly diversified across the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau. Its scapose, umbellate habit aligns it with the meadow-dwelling rosette species rather than the tight cushion-formers of higher scree. Pollination is by small dipterans and other insects drawn to the eye-ring, and seeds are dispersed by gravity and wind. It is locally frequent and of no recognised conservation concern.

Author: Klatt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith and Lowe Monograph of Androsace

Primulaceae

Androsace jacquemontii var. robusta 

by G & P Jürgens

(R.Knuth) Govaerts

Nepal 99 674 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Kagmara-La 4800m, July
Nepal 99 673 2 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Kagmara-La 4800m, July

Description

Androsace jacquemontii var. robusta is a high-alpine cushion plant of the western and central Himalaya and the Tibetan borderlands, recorded from China, India, Nepal and Pakistan among its roughly 212 documented occurrences. It is a denizen of the upper alpine zone, growing on stony slopes, fine moraine, gravelly flats and rock crevices where drainage is sharp and exposure severe. The photographed population at the Kagmara-La in West Nepal, at about 4800 m and flowering in July, is characteristic of its elevational ceiling, where the brief snow-free season concentrates flowering into the early summer weeks following snowmelt.

The plant forms dense, compact cushions or low mats built from numerous crowded rosettes of small, imbricate, linear to oblanceolate leaves, often somewhat fleshy and ciliate at the margins, an adaptation conserving heat and moisture in the windswept environment. From the rosettes arise short scapes bearing solitary flowers or small few-flowered umbels; each flower has a five-lobed campanulate calyx and a salverform corolla with a constricted throat marked by a yellow or pinkish eye, the spreading lobes usually pink to lilac or white. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves at the apex, the var. robusta distinguished by its more vigorous, larger habit relative to typical A. jacquemontii.

Androsace is the classic genus of Himalayan rock-jasmines within Primulaceae, and the cushion-forming alpines exemplify convergent adaptation to cold, high-radiation environments shared with Saxifraga and Arenaria. The recombination of this taxon, originally a Knuth name, by Govaerts reflects ongoing nomenclatural refinement of the infraspecific entities. Cushion plants of this kind are long-lived, slow-growing and act as nurse plants facilitating other seedlings; while not individually threatened given their remote habitat, they are recognised as sensitive sentinels of warming-driven change in high-mountain vegetation.

Author: (R.Knuth) Govaerts · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith and Lowe's monograph of Androsace (Primulaceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace lanuginosa

by G & P Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 99 60 ergebnis
West-Nepal Nyor Gaad 2800m, June
Garh 07 69 ergebnis scaled
Garh 07 68 ergebnis scaled
India Garhwal Nanu Mandakini 2360m, June

Description

Androsace lanuginosa is a Western and Central Himalayan endemic distributed from Pakistan and the Indian states of the Garhwal and Kumaon Himalaya eastward through Nepal, with collections also referred to adjoining Chinese territory. The species occupies open, rocky slopes, grassy banks and the margins of moist forest at montane to lower-subalpine elevations, generally between roughly 2300 and 3600 m. The photographed populations were recorded in West Nepal at Nyor Gaad around 2800 m and in Indian Garhwal at Nanu Mandakini near 2360 m, both flowering in June; the GBIF dataset records 277 occurrences across IN, NP, CN, PK and several countries (US, CA, DE) reflecting its cultivation as a rock-garden ornamental.

The plant is a mat-forming or trailing perennial with slender, prostrate to ascending stems radiating from a central rosette and rooting at the nodes. The leaves are crowded, oblong-lanceolate to obovate, entire, and densely clothed on both surfaces with long, soft, silky-villous hairs that give the foliage a silvery-grey, lanuginose aspect. Inflorescences are few-flowered umbels borne on softly hairy peduncles, subtended by an involucre of small bracts. Each flower has a hairy, lobed calyx and a salverform corolla, pink to rose-lilac with a yellow to greenish eye, the five obcordate lobes spreading from a short tube. The fruit is a small, few-seeded globose capsule.

Within the large genus Androsace, the species belongs to the perennial, stoloniferous rock-jasmines allied to A. sarmentosa, distinguished by its conspicuously woolly indumentum and trailing habit. It is an indicator of well-drained, sunny Himalayan slopes and is widely grown in temperate rock gardens, where several cultivars exist. Though locally common and not assessed as threatened, populations are sensitive to overgrazing and trampling at accessible elevations.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith & Lowe monograph of Androsace (Primulaceae)

Primulaceae

Androsace lehmannii

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Duby

Nepal 99 304 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 4200m, June
Nepal 99 802 ergebnis
West-Nepal Baga-La-Phedi 4500m, July
Sikkim2003 304 G425
Sikkim Saniti-Lake 4200m, August
BhutanPG2011 451 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrthang-Tso, 4400m July

Description

Androsace lehmannii Wall. ex Duby is a cushion-forming alpine of the high Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, India, China and Bhutan, with outlying records reported from further across temperate Asia. It is documented from West-Nepal at Kalmura (4200 m) and Baga-La-Phedi (4500 m), from Sikkim at Saniti Lake (4200 m) and from Bhutan along the Ludlow-Sherriff trail near Warrthang-Tso (4400 m), flowering from June to August. The species inhabits open alpine turf, rocky slopes, moraine and gravelly flats, typically between 4000 and 5000 m, where it forms low cushions adapted to wind exposure, intense radiation and a short, cool growing season. Its roughly 158 GBIF records mark it as a genuine high-alpine specialist.

The plant builds a dense, hemispherical cushion of crowded rosettes borne on branched, columnar shoots packed with the marcescent remains of old leaves. The living leaves are small, oblong to spathulate, entire, often ciliate-margined and frequently bearing whitish hairs that reduce water loss and radiation damage. Solitary, almost sessile flowers nestle among the leaves, each with a campanulate calyx and a salver-shaped, five-lobed corolla in white to pale pink, the throat marked by a contrasting yellow or pinkish eye. The fruit is a small, few-seeded capsule dehiscing by valves.

Androsace lehmannii belongs to the section of cushion androsaces (allied to sect. Aretia), a growth form that has evolved repeatedly in cold, high-mountain floras as a thermal and mechanical adaptation, the compact canopy trapping warmth and moisture within the cushion. Such plants are slow-growing, long-lived and pioneer-like on unstable substrates. Though not currently threatened, cushion androsaces are recognised as climate-sensitive sentinels, vulnerable to warming, altered snow cover and trampling along increasingly frequented high-altitude routes.

Author: Wall. ex Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Androsace monograph (Smith & Lowe)

Primulaceae

Androsace mucronifolia

by GP Jürgens

Watt

Nepal 99 779 ergebnis 1
Nepal 99 780 ergebnis
Nepal Paga La Phidi 3400m, July
Nepal 99 781 ergebnis
Nepal Paga La Phidi 3400m, July
see also: Rhodiola upleuroides

Description

Androsace mucronifolia Watt is a cushion-forming alpine of the western and central Himalaya, distributed across Pakistan, India, China, Afghanistan and Nepal (gbif_countries: PK, IN, CN, AF, NP) with 153 occurrences in GBIF. It is a plant of dry, open, stony alpine slopes, rock crevices, gravelly ridges and exposed turf, generally in the drier inner ranges, occurring up to around 4500 m. The image data from Paga La Phidi in Nepal at 3400 m, flowering in July (noted alongside Rhodiola upleuroides), place it in the high-summer alpine zone where compact perennials exploit brief favourable conditions.

It is a low, mat- or cushion-forming perennial composed of dense leaf rosettes. The leaves are small, imbricate and characteristically mucronate, the firm cuspidate tips giving rise to the epithet mucronifolia, with margins often ciliate. From the rosettes arise short scapes bearing solitary flowers or small few-flowered umbels subtended by an involucre of bracts. The flowers have a campanulate five-lobed calyx and a salverform corolla with a short tube and five spreading lobes, white to pale pink with a contrasting yellow to reddish throat (the annulus). The fruit is a small globose capsule dehiscing by valves to release few seeds.

Androsace (Primulaceae, closely allied to Primula) comprises many high-altitude cushion species whose tight growth form is an adaptation to cold, wind and desiccation, trapping warmth and moisture at the rosette surface. The species belongs to the perennial cushion group centred on the western Himalaya and Central Asian mountains. Widespread across several countries and tolerant of harsh exposed sites, it is not considered threatened.

Author: Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan (Primulaceae), Annotated checklist of the flowering plants of Nepal, Smith & Lowe monograph The Genus Androsace