Tag:

Summer

Araliaceae

Merrilliopanax alpinus

by G & P Jürgens

(C.B.Clarke) C.B.Shang

Sikkim2011 387
Sikkim Lachung 3200m, June
Sikkim2011 389
Sikkim Lachung 3200m, June
Sikkim 2006 327 ergebnis
India West-Bengal, Tolung 2400m, May

Description

Merrilliopanax alpinus is a small tree or shrub of the eastern Himalaya and south-western China, recorded from Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and Yunnan, a comparatively narrow range reflected in only some 59 occurrence records. It inhabits moist, evergreen broad-leaved and mixed montane forest and forest margins, generally between about 2000 and 3500 m, often in shaded, humid ravines. The images here derive from Sikkim at Lachung (3200 m, June) and from the Tolung area of West Bengal (2400 m, May), localities typical of the rich, mist-bathed mid-montane forests where the genus reaches its diversity.

The plant is an evergreen with stout, sparingly branched stems bearing simple, leathery leaves clustered toward the branch tips. The leaves are large, ovate to elliptic, entire or shallowly toothed, glabrous and shining above and frequently rusty-tomentose beneath, on long petioles. The inflorescence is a terminal panicle of small umbels; the flowers are small, polygamous and greenish, with a reduced calyx, several petals and stamens, and an inferior ovary. The fruit is a small, globose to ellipsoid drupe crowned by the persistent styles.

Merrilliopanax is a small genus of the Araliaceae segregated from the broadly defined Schefflera/Aralia complex and is restricted to the Sino-Himalayan region; M. alpinus was described by C.B.Clarke and transferred to the genus by C.B.Shang. Its simple (rather than compound) leaves distinguish it from many relatives. The drupes are bird-dispersed, and the species is a localised but characteristic element of eastern Himalayan cloud forest. Its restricted range makes it of biogeographic interest and potentially sensitive to forest loss, though no formal threat assessment is widely established.

Author: (C.B.Clarke) C.B.Shang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Shang revision of Merrilliopanax, Frodin & Govaerts World Checklist of Araliaceae

Saxifragaceae

Micranthes melanocentra

by GP Jürgens

Losinsk.

BhutanPG2011 567 1
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4300m June

Description

Micranthes melanocentra (long known as Saxifraga melanocentra) ranges through the high mountains of China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Pakistan, with about 784 records tracing the Himalaya and the Hengduan and Tibetan ranges. It is a true alpine, the image documenting it at Jule-Tso in Bhutan at about 4300 m in June, at the onset of the brief alpine summer. It occupies open alpine meadow, stony slopes, moraine, streamsides and damp turf above the treeline on moist, well-drained gravelly and rocky substrates, where snowmelt provides early-season moisture and the growing season is compressed into a few weeks.

It is a small rosette-forming perennial herb arising from a short rootstock. The leaves are basal, obovate to spathulate, with crenate to dentate margins, narrowing to a broad petiole and often somewhat fleshy. From the rosette rises a leafless, glandular-hairy scape bearing a corymbose to subcapitate cyme of several flowers. The flowers have five white (sometimes pink-tinged) petals, and the species takes its epithet from the dark, almost blackish, contrasting centre formed by the deep-coloured ovary and the conspicuous reddish to purple-black anthers. The fruit is a two-beaked capsule releasing numerous small seeds.

The species was described by Losinskaja and is now placed in the segregate genus Micranthes, separated from Saxifraga sensu stricto on molecular and morphological grounds, comprising the rosette-leaved, scapose saxifrages. Its dark-centred white flowers are visually distinctive among Himalayan alpines and provide a contrasting nectar guide for insect pollinators. Adapted to cold, high-radiation alpine conditions, it is widespread and locally common across its montane range and is not considered threatened.

Author: Losinsk. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Saxifragaceae monograph and Micranthes phylogenetic studies

Saxifragaceae

Micranthes pallida

by GP Jürgens

Losinsk.

BhutanPG2011 366
Bhutan Tsochenchen, 3550m June

Description

Micranthes pallida (formerly placed in Saxifraga, as reflected in the source link) is a Himalayan rosette herb distributed across the high mountains from Pakistan and northern India through Nepal and Bhutan into south-western China and northern Myanmar; with over 650 georeferenced occurrences (CN, NP, IN, BT, PK, MM) it is one of the more frequent members of its group. It inhabits damp alpine meadows, mossy rock ledges, stream margins and shaded slopes, typically between about 3000 and 4500 m. The plant recorded at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at 3550 m in June, flowering in the brief alpine summer, is characteristic of its cool, moist montane-to-alpine habitat.

It is a perennial herb forming a basal rosette of leaves on a short rhizome. The leaves are spathulate to obovate or broadly ovate, with a cuneate base tapering into a broad petiole, the margins coarsely toothed or crenate, and the blade thin-textured and often somewhat pale or glaucous. From the rosette rises a slender, glandular-pubescent flowering stem bearing a lax, often paniculate or corymbose cyme of small flowers. Each flower has five spreading whitish to pale greenish petals, ten stamens and a half-inferior, bicarpellate ovary that ripens into a many-seeded, two-beaked capsule.

Micranthes is now widely recognised as a genus distinct from Saxifraga sensu stricto, corresponding to the former Saxifraga sect. Micranthes, supported by molecular and morphological evidence; M. pallida belongs to this assemblage of broad-leaved, rosette-forming species. Adapted to the harsh alpine regime through its perennating rhizome and ground-hugging habit, it is widespread and not regarded as threatened across its extensive range.

Author: Losinsk. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Pakistan, Gornall's revision of Saxifragaceae

Nyctaginaceae

Mirabilis jalapa

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Bhutan2012 425
Bhutan Wangdi 2300m, June

Description

Mirabilis jalapa, the four-o'clock flower or marvel-of-Peru, is native to tropical America but is now cultivated and naturalised across virtually the entire warm and temperate world; GBIF's very large total of around 48896 records spans France, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Italy, Germany, Brazil, China, Japan, South Africa, India and many other countries, reflecting its ubiquity as an ornamental and garden escape. It thrives in disturbed, sunny habitats, including gardens, roadsides, walls, waste ground and village margins, and readily persists around human settlements. The plant photographed at Wangdi (Wangdue) in Bhutan at about 2300 m in June represents one such cultivated and locally escaping occurrence in the Himalayan mid-hills, where it flowers freely through the warm months.

It is a bushy perennial herb arising from a thick, tuberous root, with erect, swollen-noded, dichotomously branched stems. The leaves are opposite, ovate, acuminate and entire, with a deep green blade. The flowers, which characteristically open in the late afternoon and remain open overnight (hence the vernacular name), are borne in terminal clusters; each consists of a brightly coloured, funnel-shaped, petaloid perianth (lacking true petals) subtended by a calyx-like involucre of bracts. The perianth ranges through magenta, red, yellow, white and variegated forms, often on the same plant. The fruit is a hard, ribbed, blackish achene (anthocarp) enclosed in the persistent perianth base.

As a member of the Nyctaginaceae, M. jalapa exhibits classic vespertine, often fragrant flowers adapted to pollination by long-tongued moths and hawkmoths, while it is also self-compatible. The genus is celebrated in genetics as the organism in which Carl Correns demonstrated cytoplasmic (extranuclear) inheritance through variegated leaf colour. Robust, self-seeding and tuberous, the species is highly persistent in cultivation and is not of conservation concern; rather, it is a minor weed of warm regions.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, Flora of Nepal, Bittrich & Kühn Nyctaginaceae (Families and Genera of Vascular Plants)

Malvaceae

Modiola caroliniana

by G & P Jürgens

(L.) G.Don

Nepal 99 876 ergebnis
Nepal Murwa 3400m, July

Description

Modiola caroliniana is a pantropical and warm-temperate weed of American origin, now naturalized on every continent. GBIF documents over 23,700 occurrences, with the densest concentrations in the southeastern United States, southern South America, Australia, and New Zealand. While the species typically colonises disturbed lawns, roadsides, and cultivated land at low to moderate elevations, the present collection from Murwa in Nepal at 3,400 m represents a remarkably high-altitude record. In the Himalayan region it is known primarily as a casual introduction, exploiting anthropogenic disturbance along trade routes and settlement margins.
Modiola caroliniana is a prostrate to decumbent perennial herb with slender, creeping stems that root at the nodes, forming dense mats. Stems are sparsely to moderately stellate-pubescent. Leaves are alternate, palmately 5–7-lobed, 2–5 cm in diameter, with crenate margins; stipules are ovate, scarious. Flowers are solitary and axillary, small (8–12 mm across), with five salmon-pink to orange-red petals, each narrowly obovate and slightly emarginate. The staminal column is characteristic of Malvaceae. The fruit is a schizocarp, 6–8 mm in diameter, composed of 15–22 mericarps arranged in a disc; each mericarp bears two divergent, spine-like awns at the apex and contains a single reniform seed. The barbed mericarps facilitate epizoochorous dispersal.
Modiola is a monotypic genus, distinguished from related genera such as Malva and Sida by its spiny mericarps and prostrate, stoloniferous habit. Its occurrence at 3,400 m in western Nepal is biogeographically noteworthy, well above its typical altitudinal range of sea level to 1,500 m. This high-elevation record likely reflects transport along the heavily trafficked trails connecting lowland Nepal with trans-Himalayan passes. The species' ability to establish at such altitudes hints at a broader climatic tolerance than generally assumed and warrants monitoring as a potential indicator of upward weed migration under changing climate conditions.

Author: (L.) G.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 12, Fryxell: The Natural History of the Cotton Tribe (1979), Press et al.: Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal (2000)

Ericaceae

Monotropa hypopitys

by GP Jürgens

L.

Bh09 307 G504
Bhutan Yetong-La, 3050m June
Nepal 99 882 ergebnis
West-Nepal Suli-Khola 3000m, July

Description

Monotropa hypopitys, the yellow bird's-nest, is a circumboreal mycoheterotroph of remarkably broad distribution, with GBIF amassing over 56,000 occurrences spanning North America, Europe and temperate Asia, including the United States, France, Canada, Russia, Germany, Scandinavia and Japan. It grows in the deep shade and leaf litter of coniferous and broadleaved forests, lacking chlorophyll and obtaining its carbon indirectly from surrounding trees via shared ectomycorrhizal fungi. The Himalayan records from Yetong-La in Bhutan at about 3050 m in June and Suli-Khola in western Nepal near 3000 m in July document its occurrence in shaded temperate fir, oak and rhododendron forest along the southern margin of its vast range. Here gbif_status is SYNONYM, with Monotropa hypopitys taken as the accepted name (often referred to Hypopitys monotropa).

The entire plant is a waxy, fleshy herb of pale yellow, ivory or pinkish-brown colour, wholly devoid of green pigment. The simple, unbranched stem is clothed in scale-like, alternate, bract-form leaves in place of true foliage. At anthesis the stem nods at the apex, bearing a short, secund, few-flowered raceme of pendent, urn-shaped to campanulate flowers; the lateral flowers are usually 4-merous and the terminal 5-merous, with free or loosely cohering petals and eight to ten stamens. After pollination the inflorescence becomes erect, the ovary maturing into an ovoid capsule releasing enormous numbers of minute, dust-like seeds.

Long placed in its own family Monotropaceae, M. hypopitys is now firmly embedded within Ericaceae subfamily Monotropoideae, a lineage of obligate mycoheterotrophs whose nutrition depends entirely on a tripartite plant-fungus-tree relationship. Its dust seeds require fungal infection to germinate, tying its distribution closely to suitable mycorrhizal hosts. Despite its enormous global range it is inconspicuous and of least concern overall, though sensitive to forest clearance that severs its underground fungal connections.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora Europaea, Flora of Bhutan, Wallace monograph of Monotropoideae

Caprifoliaceae

Morina longifolia

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex DC.

Sikkim2003 372 G521
Sikkim Tista valley 3500m August
Nepal 99 84 ergebnis
West-Nepal Bhulbhule 3200m, June
Garw 2005 36 ergebnis ergebnis
India Garhwal Valley of flowers 3100m, September

Description

Morina longifolia, the Himalayan whorlflower, is native to the Himalaya across Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan, with naturalised and cultivated records in Europe and North America (Norway, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the United States) reflected among its roughly 125 GBIF occurrences. It grows on open alpine and subalpine slopes, in stony meadows, grassy clearings and among low scrub on well-drained soils above the forest. The cited localities, the Tista valley in Sikkim at 3500 m in August, Bhulbhule in western Nepal at 3200 m in June, and the Valley of Flowers in Garhwal at 3100 m in September, span its range of roughly 3000-4000 m, where it flowers through the summer monsoon.

It is a robust, erect perennial herb forming a basal rosette of long, narrow, linear-lanceolate leaves whose margins are conspicuously spiny-toothed, giving a thistle-like appearance, the whole plant aromatic when crushed. The flowering stem rises stoutly and bears the flowers in well-separated, spiny-bracted whorls (verticillasters) up the upper axis. Each flower has a tubular, curved, two-lipped corolla that opens white and ages through pink to deep crimson, so flowers of several colours appear together in one whorl. Two stamens are fertile, the slender style is exserted, and the inferior ovary develops into a small one-seeded achene enclosed within the persistent involucel.

The genus Morina, with its spiny leaves and whorled bicoloured flowers, has been placed variously in its own family Morinaceae or within Dipsacaceae, and is treated by current systems within an enlarged Caprifoliaceae; molecular work confirms its position near the teasels and valerians in the Dipsacales. The long-tubed flowers are pollinated by long-tongued insects, and the species is widely grown as an ornamental, accounting for its scattered occurrences far beyond its native range.

Author: Wall. ex DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan, Cannon revision of Morina, Bell Dipsacales phylogeny

Caprifoliaceae

Morina nepalensis

by G & P Jürgens

D. Don

Nepal 99 277 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalomura 3900m, June
Nepal 99 276 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalomura 3900m, June
BhutanPG2011 472
BhutanPG2011 168 scaled
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Warrtlang-La, 4450m June

Description

Morina nepalensis is a high-mountain perennial of the Sino-Himalayan region, ranging through China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Pakistan, with GBIF recording 239 occurrences across this arc. It inhabits open alpine pastures, grassy slopes, rocky meadows and shrubby hollows above the treeline, typically between about 3000 and 4500 m. The illustrated plants were photographed in West Nepal at Kalomura at 3900 m and in Bhutan on the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail near Warrtlang-La at 4450 m, both in June, exemplifying the subalpine to alpine turf where the species is most frequent during the early summer flush.

The plant forms a stout rosette from a thick taproot, the basal leaves narrowly oblong to lanceolate, sessile or amplexicaul and conspicuously armed along the margins with stiff spinose teeth. The flowering stem is erect, terminating in interrupted whorls of flowers subtended by spiny pinnatifid bracts. Each flower sits within a tubular involucel and a two-lipped calyx; the corolla is gamopetalous, curved and white to pink, often deepening to rose with age, with a slender tube and five spreading lobes. There are two fertile stamens and a single inferior ovary maturing into an achene enclosed by the persistent involucel.

Long placed in the segregate family Morinaceae, the genus Morina is now subsumed within an expanded Caprifoliaceae, consistent with the input family. POWO and GBIF treat M. nepalensis as the accepted name. The colour change of the corolla after pollination is a notable floral signal, and the species contributes to the showy alpine herbfields grazed by Himalayan livestock.

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

Caprifoliaceae

Morina polyphylla

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex DC.

Nepal 99 354 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 3800m, June
Nepal 99 355 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kalmura 3800m, June
Sikkim2003 371 P520
Sikkim Lachen Tista valley 3600m August

Description

Morina polyphylla is a Himalayan high-altitude herb recorded from Nepal, northern India and Bhutan, with roughly 54 documented occurrences. It inhabits open subalpine to alpine meadows, rocky slopes and grazed pasture, generally between about 3300 and 4200 m. The collections illustrated here, from Kalmura in West Nepal at 3800 m in June and from the Tista valley above Lachen in Sikkim at 3600 m in August, span the early and late monsoon flowering periods and typify its preference for moist, well-drained turf and stony ground in full sun above the treeline.

It is a stout perennial forming a basal rosette of numerous narrowly oblong to lanceolate leaves whose margins are pinnately lobed and armed with stiff spinescent teeth, the texture rigid and the surfaces often shining. The erect flowering stem bears whorls of flowers subtended by spiny floral bracts arranged in interrupted verticillasters. Each flower has a tubular, oblique calyx and a slender-tubed, curved corolla that is two-lipped, typically pale to deep pink or whitish, the long tube adapted to long-tongued pollinators. There are usually two fertile stamens; the inferior ovary ripens into a single-seeded achene enclosed by the persistent involucel.

GBIF treats the name as a synonym, with Morina polyphylla retained as the accepted name; the species belongs to the Morinoideae, now placed within an expanded Caprifoliaceae. Its spiny, thistle-like architecture deters grazing in heavily pastured alpine zones, and the protandrous, long-tubed flowers favour cross-pollination by bumblebees and lepidopterans. The species remains widespread across its montane range with no recognised conservation threat.

Author: Wall. ex DC. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China Vol. 19, A Taxonomic Revision of the Morinaceae

Rubiaceae

Mussaenda glabra

by GP Jürgens

Vahl

Bh09 388 P615
Bhutan Punaka-Chju 1600m, June
Nepal 2001 469 ergebnis ergebnis scaled
Nepal (Gorkha) Gunda 1700m, May
Nepal 2001 468 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Gunda 1700m, May

Description

Mussaenda glabra is a widely distributed tropical to subtropical shrub or scrambling liana of Southeast Asia and the eastern Himalaya, documented from numerous countries including India, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Nepal across some 355 GBIF occurrences. The illustrated material was gathered at Punaka-Chu in Bhutan at 1600 m in June and at Gunda in Gorkha, Nepal at 1700 m in May. It grows in moist broad-leaved forest, along streamsides, thickets and forest margins from the lowlands up to about 1800 m, thriving in warm, humid, partly shaded situations.

It is an evergreen shrub or woody climber with terete, often pubescent young branches. The leaves are opposite, ovate to elliptic, entire, acuminate at the apex, with interpetiolar stipules characteristic of the Rubiaceae. The inflorescence is a terminal cyme bearing tubular flowers with a five-lobed orange-yellow corolla; the diagnostic feature is the enlargement of a single calyx lobe in some flowers into a large, conspicuous, white, leaf-like petaloid bract (semaphyll) that advertises the inflorescence to pollinators. The fruit is a fleshy berry containing numerous minute seeds.

The genus Mussaenda is renowned for these showy expanded calyx lobes, an adaptation enhancing pollinator attraction in the shaded understory and a feature widely exploited in horticulture. The fleshy berries are dispersed by birds. With its broad range spanning continental and insular Asia, the species is of least concern, being common across much of its distribution, though dependent on the persistence of intact lowland and submontane forest.

Author: Vahl · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Jayaweera – The Genus Mussaenda (Rubiaceae) revision