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Summer

Celastraceae

Parnassia longipetala

by GP Jürgens

Hand.-Mazz.

BhutanPG2011 706 01 01
Bhutan Pele-La, 3000m July

Description

Parnassia longipetala is a perennial herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent China; GBIF data, comprising around 85 occurrences, attribute the species principally to China (notably south-western provinces and Xizang), with field records extending into Bhutan. It is a plant of moist alpine and subalpine habitats, growing in wet meadows, grassy seepages, streamsides and among rocks where the substrate remains damp through the growing season. The population photographed at Pele-La in central Bhutan (3000 m, July) is characteristic of its occurrence in the cool, humid pastures and flushes of the eastern Himalaya, flowering during the monsoon-fed summer.

The plant forms a small rosette from a short rootstock, the basal leaves long-petiolate with ovate to cordate, entire blades. The flowering stem is erect, usually bearing a single sessile or shortly clasping cauline leaf below the solitary terminal flower. The flower has five green sepals and five free, white petals; in this species the petals are conspicuously long, narrowed and often fringed or attenuate, giving the epithet. Alternating with the fertile stamens are the characteristic Parnassia staminodes, divided into gland-tipped filaments. The superior to half-inferior ovary develops into a capsule splitting into valves and releasing numerous small seeds.

The family placement given here (Celastraceae) follows the broad APG circumscription, under which Parnassia and its allies (formerly Parnassiaceae) are treated within an enlarged Celastraceae; older floras place the genus in its own family. P. longipetala, described by Handel-Mazzetti, is distinguished within the Himalayan Parnassia complex by its elongate petals and staminode form. Given its restricted documented range and specialised wetland-meadow habitat, the species warrants attention, as such high-elevation flush communities are vulnerable to grazing, drainage and climatic change.

Author: Hand.-Mazz. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, monograph of the genus Parnassia (Wu & Gu)

Celastraceae

Parnassia nubicola

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Royle

Sikkim2003 258 P353
Sikkim Dzongri 4200m August
Sikkim2003 261 P360
Sikkim Dzongri 4200m August
Bhutan2012 233
Bhutan2012 234
Bhutan Shele-La, 4000m September

Description

Parnassia nubicola Wall. ex Royle is a perennial herb of moist alpine habitats distributed along the Himalaya and into adjoining Central Asia, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan, with around 182 georeferenced occurrences clustered in the high Sino-Himalayan ranges. It favours wet alpine meadows, marshy turf, seepage slopes, streamsides and the moist margins of snowmelt flushes, where soils remain saturated through the growing season. The photographed plants from Dzongri in Sikkim at about 4,200 m in August and from the Shele-La in Bhutan at about 4,000 m in September show its preference for the upper subalpine to alpine zone, where it flowers in late summer.

It grows from a short rhizome as a rosette of long-petioled basal leaves with ovate to cordate, entire blades. The flowering stems are erect and bear usually a single clasping, sessile cauline leaf below the solitary terminal flower. Each flower has five green sepals and five white petals conspicuously veined with green or yellowish lines. Between the fertile stamens lie five fringed staminodes divided into numerous gland-tipped filaments, a hallmark of the genus; the superior ovary ripens into a capsule splitting into four valves to release many small seeds.

The family attribution to Celastraceae follows recent molecular classifications, in which Parnassia (formerly placed in Saxifragaceae or its own Parnassiaceae) is treated within an expanded Celastraceae. The conspicuous nectar-secreting staminodes are associated with generalist insect pollination. Widespread and locally common across its broad range, P. nubicola is not considered threatened, though wetland alpine populations are sensitive to drainage, trampling and grazing.

Author: Wall. ex Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 8, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 1, GBIF, Simmons: Celastraceae (in Kubitzki, 2004)

Ranunculaceae

Paroxygraphis sikkimensis

by GP Jürgens

W.W.Sm.

Bh09 155 G277
Bhutan Jimilangtso, 4100m June

Description

Paroxygraphis sikkimensis is a rare alpine member of the buttercup family endemic to the Eastern Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, Sikkim and adjacent India, Bhutan and southern Tibet (China), with GBIF documenting only 24 occurrences across NP, IN, BT and CN. It inhabits open alpine turf, moist meadows and damp gravelly slopes near the upper limit of vegetation, generally between about 3800 and 4500 m. The photographed plant was found in Bhutan near Jimilangtso (Jimilang Tsho) at around 4100 m, flowering in June at the start of the brief alpine growing season.

The plant is a small, low perennial herb forming a basal rosette of leaves from a slender rootstock, with short, few-flowered stems. The leaves are simple, spathulate to obovate, entire or shallowly toothed toward the apex, and somewhat fleshy. The flowers are solitary or few, with a calyx of sepals and a corolla of small white to yellowish petals each bearing a basal nectary, surrounding numerous free stamens and an apocarpous gynoecium of many separate carpels. The fruit is a head of achenes, each tipped with a short style, in the manner of the closely allied genus Ranunculus.

Paroxygraphis is a small, segregate genus erected by W.W. Smith and traditionally placed near Oxygraphis and Ranunculus within the Ranunculeae; molecular studies have prompted discussion of its relationships and possible inclusion in a broadly circumscribed Ranunculus. Its very restricted range, low number of recorded occurrences and specialised high-alpine habitat make P. sikkimensis a taxon of biogeographic interest and potential conservation concern, though it has not been formally assessed.

Author: W.W.Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of China (Ranunculaceae)

Orobanchaceae

Pedicularis bifida

by GP Jürgens

(Buch.-Ham.) Pennell

Nepal 99 901 ergebnis
West-Nepal Sepka 2700m, July

Description

Pedicularis bifida is a hemiparasitic perennial herb of the temperate and subalpine Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Myanmar across some 250 documented records. It grows in moist meadows, forest clearings, shrubberies and along streamsides, generally between 2400 and 3800 m, flowering with the summer monsoon. The illustrated plant was collected at Sepka in West Nepal at 2700 m in July, within the typical mid-montane band where the species is most frequently encountered among tall-herb vegetation.

Like all lousewort, the plant is a root-parasite drawing water and nutrients from neighbouring hosts via haustoria. It forms erect, sometimes branched stems clothed with alternate to subopposite, pinnately lobed leaves bearing toothed segments. The flowers are aggregated into terminal leafy-bracted spikes or racemes; the calyx is tubular and toothed, and the strongly zygomorphic corolla is pink to rose-purple with a tube and a galeate upper lip whose apex is conspicuously bifid or beaked, the feature giving the epithet, and a spreading three-lobed lower lip. The four didynamous stamens lie within the galea and the fruit is an oblique, beaked loculicidal capsule.

The genus Pedicularis, transferred from Scrophulariaceae to Orobanchaceae on molecular grounds, reaches extraordinary diversity in the Sino-Himalaya, where elaborate corolla architecture promotes specialised pollination by long-tongued bumblebees. The bifid galea of this species reflects such floral specialisation. As a widespread, locally common meadow component, P. bifida is not considered threatened, though it depends on intact host-rich grassland communities.

Author: (Buch.-Ham.) Pennell · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flowers of the Himalaya, Prain & Pennell revisions of Pedicularis

Orobanchaceae

Pedicularis confertiflora

by G & P Jürgens

Prain

Nepal 99 510 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3800m, June

Description

Pedicularis confertiflora is a hemiparasitic herb of the high Himalaya and Tibetan borderlands, documented by GBIF from China, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Mongolia and Korea, with around 378 occurrences concentrated in the central and eastern alpine zone. It grows in open alpine meadows, moist turf, rocky slopes and the margins of grazed pastures, where it taps the roots of surrounding herbs and grasses. The illustrated population grows in West Nepal at Churta-Khola at about 3800 m, flowering in June; the species generally occupies the 3500-4500 m belt where short-statured alpine vegetation prevails.

The plant forms low, often clustered stems from a slender rootstock, bearing pinnatisect leaves whose narrow segments are deeply incised and toothed, sometimes tinged purple. As the epithet confertiflora implies, the flowers are crowded into a dense, capitate to short-spicate inflorescence near the stem apex, each subtended by a pinnatifid bract. The calyx is tubular and lobed, while the bilabiate corolla, in shades of pink to purplish-red, bears a galeate, often beaked upper lip and a spreading three-lobed lower lip. The capsule is oblique and laterally compressed, releasing few flattened seeds.

The Himalayan species of Pedicularis exhibit remarkable corolla diversity, with beak length and curvature finely adapted to bumblebee pollinators that partition resources among co-flowering taxa; the dense, beaked flowers of P. confertiflora fit this syndrome. As an alpine hemiparasite it can suppress competitive grasses and so shape meadow diversity. No formal threat assessment exists, but its specialised high-elevation habitat is sensitive to climate warming and heavy grazing.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Pedicularis monograph (Tsoong)

Orobanchaceae

Pedicularis diffusa

by G & P Jürgens

Prain

Sikkim2011 197
Sikkim Lachung 3000m, June
Sikkim2011 230
Sikkim Lachung 3000m, June
Sikkim2003 261 P360
Sikkim Dzongri 4200m August
Sikkim2003 273 P376
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m, August

Description

Pedicularis diffusa is a hemiparasitic alpine herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan region, recorded from China, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar and Mongolia, with about 92 occurrences in GBIF. It inhabits subalpine and alpine meadows, open grassy slopes, scrub and the margins of forest, typically between about 3000 and 4500 m. The photographed populations come from Sikkim, at Lachung (3000 m, June) and at the high alpine site of Dzongri (4100-4200 m, August), spanning the species' altitudinal range and flowering from early summer into the late monsoon at the higher stations.

The plant forms loose clumps from a fibrous or somewhat thickened rootstock, with ascending to diffusely spreading stems, the habit reflected in the epithet diffusa. The leaves are pinnately divided into oblong, toothed segments and are arranged along the stems as well as basally. The flowers are borne in lax, leafy, often elongate and interrupted racemes; the corolla is pink to purplish-red, two-lipped, with a galea (hooded upper lip) and a broad three-lobed lower lip, the galea typically beaked or toothed at its apex. The fruit is an oblique, laterally compressed capsule containing few seeds.

Like all Pedicularis, the species is a root hemiparasite, photosynthetic but tapping neighbouring plants via haustoria for water and minerals, an adaptation well suited to nutrient-poor alpine turf. The genus is extraordinarily diverse in the Sino-Himalayan mountains, and corolla architecture, particularly the form of the galea and beak, underpins species delimitation. Its tubular two-lipped flowers are adapted to bumblebee pollination. Restricted alpine specialists of this kind are potentially sensitive to climate warming and grazing pressure on high pastures.

Author: Prain · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Pedicularis monograph (Tsoong)

Orobanchaceae

Pedicularis elwesii

by GP Jürgens

Hook. f.

Sikkim2003 276 G379
Sikkim Dzongri 4300m, August

Description

Pedicularis elwesii is a hemiparasitic herb of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent high mountains of southwestern China, with a distribution spanning China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar and some 532 georeferenced records compiled by GBIF. It is a plant of the alpine zone, characteristically inhabiting moist meadows, open turf, streamsides and stony slopes above the treeline, generally between about 3500 and 4500 m. The photographed material from Sikkim, on the Dzongri ridge at 4300 m in August, typifies its preferred habitat among short alpine grassland during the summer flowering peak that follows snowmelt and coincides with the monsoon.

It is a perennial forming a tuft of erect to ascending stems from a stout rootstock, with chiefly basal and cauline pinnatisect to pinnatipartite leaves whose oblong segments are toothed and crenate. The showy inflorescence is a dense terminal spike subtended by leaf-like bracts. As in many Himalayan louseworts the corolla is strongly two-lipped: a hooded galea formed by the upper lip, here often produced into a slender beak, encloses the anthers, while the broad three-lobed lower lip serves as a landing platform. Flowers are typically rose-pink to purplish; the fruit is an oblique, beaked loculicidal capsule.

The species belongs to the large, taxonomically intricate genus Pedicularis, exceptionally diversified in the Sino-Himalayan region where floral specialisation reflects coevolution with long-tongued bumblebee pollinators. Like its congeners it is a root hemiparasite, drawing water and nutrients through haustorial connections to neighbouring alpine plants while retaining functional chlorophyll. No major conservation concern is recognised given its wide range, though its meadows are sensitive to grazing and climatic shifts.

Author: Hook. f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Pedicularis monograph (Tsoong / Prain)

Orobanchaceae

Pedicularis excelsa

by GP Jürgens

Hook. f.

Sikkim2003 486 P678
Sikkim Lachung Valley 3600m August

Description

Pedicularis excelsa is a tall hemiparasitic herb of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from Bhutan, India, Nepal, China and Mongolia; with only about 42 georeferenced records it is a regionally restricted subalpine to alpine species. It grows in open subalpine meadows, moist grassy slopes, forest clearings and streamsides, typically between 3000 and 4200 m. The plant photographed in the Lachung Valley of Sikkim at 3600 m in August occupies the monsoon-flushed alpine meadow zone, flowering at the height of the short Himalayan summer alongside other tall meadow herbs.

As the epithet "excelsa" suggests, it is among the taller lousteworts, an erect herb 40-100 cm tall with a stout taproot that forms haustorial connections to neighbouring plant roots. The stem bears pinnatisect leaves with toothed segments, partly basal and partly cauline. The flowers are crowded into a dense, elongate terminal spike; each corolla is strongly bilabiate, pink to purplish-red, with the upper lip (galea) compressed and beaked, enclosing the four didynamous stamens, and a broad spreading three-lobed lower lip. The calyx is tubular and toothed. The fruit is an oblique, beaked capsule containing several seeds.

Described by Hooker f. (Hook. f.), P. excelsa belongs to the large genus Pedicularis, now placed in the Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae), which reaches extraordinary diversity in the Sino-Himalaya. As a root hemiparasite it supplements its own photosynthesis by tapping host roots. The beaked galea is adapted to pollination by long-tongued bumblebees, which the Himalayan Pedicularis radiation has exploited through diverse corolla forms. Its restricted range and meadow habitat make it sensitive to overgrazing, though no formal threat status is assigned.

Author: Hook. f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Flora of Sikkim Himalaya, Prain's revision of Indian Pedicularis (Orobanchaceae)

Orobanchaceae

Pedicularis flexuosa

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 88
Bhutan Chogcham, 3100m June
Sikkim2003 434 P603
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m, August
Sikkim2003 248 P341
Sikkim Dzongri 4100m, August

Description

Pedicularis flexuosa is an Eastern Himalayan louseword recorded from Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, southwestern China and Mongolia, with around 202 occurrences distributed along the high Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan plateau margins. It spans the upper montane to alpine zone, the images documenting it at Chogcham in Bhutan at about 3100 m in June and at Dzongri in Sikkim at about 4100 m in August during the monsoon. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadow, open grassy slopes, scrub margins and damp turf on moist, well-drained ground, behaving as a hemiparasite drawing water and nutrients from the roots of surrounding grasses and herbs through haustorial connections.

It is an erect perennial herb arising from a short rootstock, with simple or sparingly branched stems that are often somewhat flexuous, as the epithet implies. The leaves are alternate to subopposite and pinnatisect, the segments toothed, giving the characteristic fern-like foliage of the genus. The flowers are borne in a terminal spike or interrupted raceme; the corolla is strongly two-lipped and pinkish-purple to rose, the galea (upper lip) hooded and often beaked, enclosing the four didynamous stamens, while the lower lip is three-lobed and spreading. The fruit is an oblique, laterally compressed capsule containing several seeds.

The species, described by J.D. Hooker, belongs to the large and taxonomically complex genus Pedicularis within the Orobanchaceae, a clade of green root-hemiparasites. The elaborate galeate corolla is adapted to pollination by long-tongued bumblebees, and the diverse corolla architecture across the genus underpins striking floral radiation in the Sino-Himalayan region. Locally frequent in suitable alpine grassland, P. flexuosa has not been formally assessed but is not regarded as threatened across its montane range.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Pedicularis revision (Sino-Himalayan species, after Tsoong)

Orobanchaceae

Pedicularis furfuracea

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Benth.

Pedicularis furfuraceae ergebnis
Bhutan Pele-La, 2800m June
BhutanPG2011 688 01 01 scaled
Bhutan Pele-La, 2800m June

Description

Pedicularis furfuracea is a Himalayan louseword distributed across Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and southwestern China, with around 223 records following the southern slopes of the central and eastern Himalaya. It occupies the temperate to subalpine zone, the image documenting it on the Pele-La in Bhutan at about 2800 m in June. It grows in open forest, forest margins, subalpine scrub, grassy slopes and meadow on moist, humus-rich soils, where, like its congeners, it lives as a facultative root-hemiparasite tapping neighbouring plants for water and minerals while retaining green, photosynthetic foliage.

It is an erect perennial herb with simple or branched stems bearing alternate, pinnately divided leaves whose lobes are toothed, the whole plant often appearing scurfy or mealy, a feature reflected in the epithet furfuracea ("bran-like"). The flowers are crowded in a terminal spike or raceme; the corolla is conspicuously two-lipped and yellow to pale yellow, the galea forming an arched, beaked hood that shelters the four didynamous stamens, with a spreading three-lobed lower lip serving as a landing platform. The calyx is tubular and toothed, and the fruit is an oblique, compressed capsule containing several seeds.

Described by Wallich and Bentham, the species belongs to the immense genus Pedicularis (Orobanchaceae), a hemiparasitic lineage that has radiated spectacularly in the Sino-Himalayan mountains, producing great diversity in corolla form and beak length tied to bumblebee pollination. The yellow galeate flowers of P. furfuracea are visited by long-tongued bees, and its hemiparasitism allows it to thrive in nutrient-limited montane soils. Locally common within its elevational band, it is not considered threatened.

Author: Wall. ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Pedicularis revision (Sino-Himalayan species, after Tsoong)