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Summer

Lamiaceae

Phlomoides breviflora

by GP Jürgens

(Benth.) Kamelin & Makhm.

BhutanPG2011 781 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3800m July

Description

Phlomoides breviflora is a perennial herb of the Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded from Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, India and China. Its roughly 24 georeferenced collections indicate a fairly restricted, infrequently gathered species. It grows in subalpine and alpine meadows, open slopes, dwarf-shrub margins and grazed pasture, typically at about 3000-4200 m. The Bhutanese material from Chele-La at 3800 m in July is characteristic, the plant flowering through the high-summer monsoon on cool, open mountain turf at the upper limit of meadow vegetation.

It is an erect, more or less hairy perennial arising from a woody rootstock, the stems quadrangular as is typical of the mint family. The leaves are opposite, ovate to oblong with a cordate base and crenate margins, rugose above and paler and pubescent beneath, the upper leaves grading into floral bracts. The flowers are crowded in dense axillary verticillasters subtended by stiff bristly bracteoles; the tubular calyx is ribbed and the two-lipped corolla is comparatively short, hence breviflora, with a hooded, bearded upper lip and a spreading three-lobed lower lip, pink to purplish in colour. The four didynamous stamens lie beneath the upper lip, and the fruit comprises four smooth nutlets.

The species, based on the basionym described by Bentham and transferred by Kamelin and Makhmedov, belongs to Phlomoides, a genus segregated from the broadly defined Phlomis and characterised by its herbaceous habit and root structure; the original web placement under the Phlomis name reflects that earlier treatment. The dense bracteate verticillasters channel pollination by long-tongued bumblebees of the high Himalaya. No formal conservation assessment exists, but its relatively narrow range and dependence on intact alpine meadow leave it potentially sensitive to overgrazing and climate-driven habitat shifts.

Author: (Benth.) Kamelin & Makhm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Revision of Phlomoides (Lamiaceae) monograph

Lamiaceae

Phlomoides macrophylla

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) Kamelin & Makhm.

Nepal 99 380 ergebnis
West-Nepal Linji-Khola 3250m, June

Description

Phlomoides macrophylla is a Himalayan and Central Asian perennial mint distributed across Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, China and Afghanistan, with GBIF documenting roughly 120 occurrences along the main Himalayan arc and its western extensions. It occupies cool temperate to subalpine habitats, growing on open grassy slopes, in forest clearings, among shrubberies and on rocky banks, generally on well-drained soils in sunny to lightly shaded situations. The collection from Linji-Khola in western Nepal at about 3250 m in June is characteristic of its preferred subalpine elevation and its early monsoon flowering, when the herb-rich meadows of the inner valleys come into bloom.

The plant is an erect, robust perennial herb arising from a thick rootstock, the quadrangular stems clothed in stellate and simple hairs. As the epithet indicates, the leaves are conspicuously large, ovate to broadly cordate, with a crenate to serrate margin, a rugose upper surface and a densely tomentose, paler lower surface, the basal leaves long-petiolate and the upper ones reduced. The inflorescence comprises several dense, many-flowered verticillasters in the upper leaf axils, subtended by linear-subulate, often spinescent bracts. Each flower has a tubular, ribbed and toothed calyx and a strongly two-lipped corolla, typically purple, pink or pale violet, the hooded upper lip bearded and arching over the spreading three-lobed lower lip. Four didynamous stamens lie beneath the galea, and the gynobasic style yields four nutlets.

Described by Wallich and transferred to Phlomoides by Kamelin and Makhmedov, the species reflects the modern segregation of the herbaceous, rhizomatous Asiatic phlomises from the shrubby Mediterranean genus Phlomis s.str., a division supported by molecular phylogenetic study within tribe Phlomideae. Several Phlomoides species are used in regional folk medicine and as forage. Widespread and locally common in suitable montane grassland, P. macrophylla is not currently considered threatened, though it depends on the persistence of undisturbed subalpine meadow vegetation.

Author: (Wall.) Kamelin & Makhm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan, Mathiesen et al. phylogeny of Phlomoides

Lamiaceae

Phlomoides rotata

by GP Jürgens

(Benth. ex Hook.f.) Mathiesen

BhutanPG2011 369
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4000m June

Description

Phlomoides rotata (formerly Phlomis rotata) is a distinctive stemless mint of the high Himalaya and Tibetan plateau. GBIF records it from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Pakistan, with around 700 occurrences spanning the alpine zone of the Sino-Himalayan region. It grows on open stony slopes, gravelly alpine turf, screes and pasture between roughly 3700 and 5200 m. The plant illustrated was photographed at Jule-Tso in Bhutan at 4000 m in June, forming a flattened rosette pressed against the ground, the characteristic habit by which the species hugs the substrate in the windswept high-alpine environment.

It is an acaulescent (stemless) perennial arising from a thick rootstock, the leaves forming a low basal rosette appressed to the soil. The leaves are ovate to orbicular, crenate, rugose with impressed venation and clothed in greyish indumentum. As the epithet rotata (wheel-like) implies, the verticillasters are condensed into a dense, radiating, disc-like terminal head sessile in the centre of the rosette. The bilabiate corollas are purple to violet, the hooded upper lip protecting the four didynamous stamens; the fruit comprises four smooth nutlets enclosed in the persistent tubular calyx.

The genus Phlomoides was reinstated and broadened to absorb much of Phlomis following molecular phylogenetic studies in subfamily Lamioideae, hence the binomial transfer. The ground-hugging rosette habit is a classic adaptation to alpine cold, wind and grazing, minimising exposure while exploiting the warmer boundary layer at soil level. Widely used in Tibetan medicine, the species is collected from the wild; it remains common across its broad high-altitude range and is not considered threatened.

Author: (Benth. ex Hook.f.) Mathiesen · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Phylogeny and classification of subfamily Lamioideae (Lamiaceae)

Solanaceae

Physochlaina praealta 

by G & P Jürgens

(Decne.) Miers

Nepal 99 777 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Baga-La-Phedi 3800m, July

Description

Physochlaina praealta (Decne.) Miers is a robust perennial herb of the high alpine and subalpine zones of the western and central Himalaya and the Tibetan borderlands. GBIF records it from India, China, Nepal and Pakistan (about 360 occurrences), a distribution centred on the cold, arid inner-Himalayan and trans-Himalayan ranges. It grows on open stony slopes, screes, grazed alpine pastures and around herders' camps where the soil is nitrogen-enriched, typically between roughly 3,000 and 4,500 m; the photographed plant is from West Nepal, Baga-La-Phedi, at 3,800 m in July, at the height of the brief alpine growing season.

The plant arises from a stout, perennial rootstock and forms an erect, branched, somewhat viscid-pubescent stem. The leaves are alternate, ovate to elliptic, entire to sinuate, narrowed to a winged petiole and soft in texture. The flowers are borne in terminal, somewhat scorpioid cymes; the corolla is campanulate to tubular, dull yellowish or greenish often tinged purple, with a five-lobed limb, and the calyx is accrescent. In fruit the calyx enlarges into an inflated, bladder-like, membranous structure (Physochlaina meaning swollen cloak) that encloses the circumscissile capsule (pyxidium), an adaptation aiding wind dispersal across open terrain.

Like many Hyoscyameae, the genus is rich in tropane alkaloids (hyoscyamine, scopolamine) and is poisonous yet medicinally used in Himalayan and Tibetan traditional systems. Physochlaina is a small Central Asian–Himalayan genus exemplifying the cold-desert Solanaceae element. The species is naturally localised but not currently regarded as threatened.

Author: (Decne.) Miers · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Hunziker: The Genera of Solanaceae

Pinaceae

Picea smithiana

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall.) Boiss.

Nepal 99 189 ergebnis
West-Nepal Lara-Lake 3000m, June

Description

Picea smithiana, the West Himalayan or morinda spruce, is a large coniferous tree native to the western and central Himalaya, with a natural range from Afghanistan through northern Pakistan and India to western Nepal and adjacent Tibet (China). The numerous GBIF records outside this core area (United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium and others) reflect its long history in arboreta and forestry cultivation rather than natural occurrence. In the wild it forms montane and subalpine coniferous forest, often mixed with Cedrus deodara, Abies pindrow and Pinus wallichiana, typically between about 2,000 and 3,600 m. The plant photographed at Lara Lake in West Nepal at 3,000 m in June lies near the south-eastern limit of its distribution.

The tree is evergreen, reaching 40 m or more, with a straight trunk and conspicuously pendulous branchlets that give it a weeping habit. The leaves are needle-like, quadrangular in cross-section, dark green, among the longest of any spruce at up to 4 cm, borne radially on raised peg-like pulvini. It is monoecious; the pollen cones are small and reddish, while the seed cones are pendulous, cylindrical, 12-18 cm long, green ripening to glossy brown, with smooth-margined, rounded scales. The winged seeds are shed in autumn.

Picea smithiana is the only spruce native to the western Himalaya and is valued for its soft, light timber and as an ornamental. It is assessed as Least Concern globally, though local populations are reduced by logging and grazing pressure. Its weeping, long-needled morphology distinguishes it readily from the eastern Himalayan Picea spinulosa, with which it forms a vicariant pair across the genus's Himalayan distribution.

Author: (Wall.) Boiss. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Pakistan, GBIF, Farjon: A Handbook of the World's Conifers

Plantaginaceae

Picrorhiza kurroa

by G & P Jürgens

Royle ex Benth.

Garh 07 159 ergebnis
Garh 07 382 ergebnis
India Garhwal Kinkhola 3550m, June

Description

Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth. is a high-alpine perennial herb of the western and central Himalaya. GBIF records (238 occurrences) place it in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and adjacent China, with its core range along the alpine zone of the Himalayan arc. It was photographed in Garhwal at Kinkhola at 3,550 m in June, a characteristic station on open, rocky alpine slopes, moist screes, and herb-rich meadows between about 3,000 and 4,500 m. The species favours cool, well-drained, often north-facing situations where snow lies late.

The plant develops a creeping, woody, bitter-tasting rhizome from which arise rosettes of leaves. The foliage is mostly basal, the leaves spatulate to obovate, sharply serrate, and tapering into a winged petiole. Erect, leafless scapes bear a dense, cylindrical, spike-like raceme of small flowers; the corolla is bluish-purple to pale, five-lobed, with conspicuously exserted stamens, giving the inflorescence a bristly appearance. The fruit is a small, ovoid capsule containing numerous seeds. The genus is now placed in Plantaginaceae following the dismantling of the traditional Scrophulariaceae.

Picrorhiza kurroa is one of the most heavily exploited Himalayan medicinal plants, the rhizome ("kutki") being a long-established source of the hepatoprotective iridoid glycosides picroside I and II. Sustained wild harvesting for the herbal trade, combined with its narrow alpine niche, has driven steep population declines; it is listed on CITES Appendix II and is regarded as threatened across much of its range, prompting cultivation and conservation initiatives.

Author: Royle ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, GBIF, Hooker: Flora of British India Vol. 4

Lentibulariaceae

Pinguicula alpina

by G & P Jürgens

L.

Sikkim2011 109
Sikkim, Chopta-valley 4300m, June

Description

Pinguicula alpina is a circumboreal-alpine carnivorous herb with a vast range across the mountains and high latitudes of Eurasia, from the Alps, Pyrenees and Scandinavia through Russia to China, with disjunct outliers in the Himalaya including Nepal and Sikkim. Its tens of thousands of catalogued occurrences reflect this broad distribution. It grows in wet, base-rich, often calcareous habitats — flushes, dripping rocks, fens, streamsides and damp turf — from the montane belt to high alpine elevations, reaching about 4,300 m in the Himalaya, as in the plant photographed in the Chopta valley of Sikkim at 4,300 m in June, where it flowers at the height of the alpine spring.

It is a small, perennial, insectivorous herb forming a flat basal rosette of yellow-green, oblong to elliptic leaves whose upper surfaces are sticky with glandular hairs that trap and digest minute insects, the margins slightly involute. From the rosette arise one to few erect, leafless scapes bearing a single nodding flower; the corolla is white with one or two yellow spots on the palate, two-lipped and spurred at the base, the spur short and conical. The fruit is a small ovoid capsule releasing numerous minute seeds. The plant overwinters as a resting bud (hibernaculum).

Within Lentibulariaceae, Pinguicula employs flypaper-type passive carnivory, supplementing nutrient uptake in the poor, wet soils it favours. P. alpina is distinguished from the violet-flowered P. vulgaris by its white, yellow-spotted corolla and shorter spur, and the two occasionally co-occur. Though globally secure, its Himalayan populations are localised and dependent on undisturbed calcareous wetlands sensitive to drainage and warming.

Author: L. · Sources: POWO (Kew), Flora of China Vol. 19, Flora of Nepal, GBIF, Casper: Monographie der Gattung Pinguicula (1966)

Orchideaceae

Platanthera concinna

by G & P Jürgens

(Hook.f.) Kraenzl.

Nepal 99 395 ergebnis
Nepal, Dzongri 3800m, June

Description

Platanthera concinna (Hook.f.) Kraenzl. is a terrestrial orchid of the high eastern Himalaya. GBIF records, though few (around two dozen occurrences), place it in India and Bhutan, with an anomalous South African record almost certainly representing misidentification or a database error; in practice it is a narrowly Himalayan species. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes and open scrub near and above the treeline, at elevations of roughly 3,000 to 4,200 m. The plant recorded at Dzongri at 3,800 m, flowering in June, is characteristic of its high-elevation summer anthesis on humid alpine turf.

The species is a slender, erect terrestrial herb arising from ellipsoid to fusiform root-tubers. The stem bears a few narrow, lanceolate to oblong cauline leaves that sheath at the base. The inflorescence is a lax to moderately dense terminal raceme of small flowers, typically greenish to greenish-white; the dorsal sepal and petals form a hood, the lateral sepals spread, and the lip is narrow and entire to obscurely lobed with a slender, descending spur containing nectar, adapted to pollination by long-tongued insects.

Platanthera is a large, mainly north-temperate genus of butterfly-orchids, and the Himalayan species form a taxonomically difficult complex once dispersed among Habenaria and allied genera. The limited number of records reflects both its restricted high-altitude habitat and undercollection. As an alpine orchid with a small documented range, it warrants conservation attention, and like all Orchidaceae it is protected under CITES Appendix II.

Author: (Hook.f.) Kraenzl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3 Part 3 (Orchids), Flora of China Vol. 25, Pearce & Cribb: The Orchids of Bhutan (2002)

Orchideaceae

Platanthera stenantha

by GP Jürgens

(Hook.f.) Soó

BhutanPG2011 818 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La 3500m, July

Description

Platanthera stenantha (Hook.f.) Soó is a terrestrial orchid of the Himalaya and western China, recorded by GBIF from China, Nepal, India, Myanmar and Bhutan across some 138 occurrences. It inhabits open subalpine and alpine slopes, grassy meadows, and the edges of Rhododendron and birch scrub, typically between about 3000 and 4000 m. The plant photographed on the Chele-La pass in Bhutan at around 3500 m in July, at the height of the monsoon flowering season, exemplifies its association with cool, moist, well-lit high-montane grassland.

The species grows from elongate, fleshy root-tubers and produces an erect leafy stem bearing several oblong to lanceolate cauline leaves that grade upwards into bracts. The inflorescence is a slender, fairly dense terminal raceme of small greenish to yellowish-green flowers, the specific epithet stenantha referring to their narrow form. The dorsal sepal and petals form a loose hood over the column, the lateral sepals spread, and the narrow, tongue-shaped labellum hangs downward and is prolonged at its base into a slender spur, usually about equalling or exceeding the ovary, that holds nectar for moth or butterfly pollinators.

Platanthera is a large genus of tribe Orchideae characterised by its spurred labellum and widely separated, often divergent pollinia-bearing anther cells. Platanthera stenantha belongs among the green-flowered Sino-Himalayan species and is distinguished from its relatives by floral proportions and spur length. With a moderately wide distribution it is not regarded as globally threatened, but its high-grassland habitat is subject to grazing and climatic pressures, and like all orchids it falls under CITES Appendix II.

Author: (Hook.f.) Soó · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Pearce and Cribb Orchids of Bhutan, World Checklist of Orchidaceae

Orchideaceae

Pleione hookeriana

by G & P Jürgens

(Lindl.) Rollisson

Sikkim2011 381
Sikkim Lachen 2600m, June
Nepal 2001 262 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Jaurey Kharka 2700m, May
Nepal 2001 263 ergebnis ergebnis
Nepal (Gorkha) Jaurey Kharka 2700m, May

Description

Pleione hookeriana is a small epiphytic and lithophytic orchid of the eastern Himalaya and Indochina, distributed across Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Laos, with about 204 GBIF occurrences. It inhabits cool, humid montane forest, growing on mossy tree trunks, branches and shaded rocks in the temperate zone, favouring situations with abundant atmospheric moisture. The images document it in Sikkim near Lachen at about 2600 m in June and in the Gorkha district of Nepal at Jaurey Kharka around 2700 m in May, where it flowers on moss-clad substrates as the monsoon approaches.

It is a dwarf, deciduous orchid growing from a small annual pseudobulb that bears a single plicate leaf. The flower is solitary and produced with or just before the leaf on a short scape arising from the base of the pseudobulb. The sepals and petals are narrow, spreading and pale pink to rose-lilac; the labellum is comparatively large, obovate, fringed at the margin, and marked within by a yellow to brown-spotted, lamellate throat that contrasts with the paler perianth. The column is slender and winged. The fruit is a dry dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds.

Pleione hookeriana is the smallest-flowered species of its genus and is distinguished by its diminutive habit and patterned lip. Like all Pleione it has an annual pseudobulb cycle and depends on mycorrhizal fungi for seed germination. The showy lip and contrasting throat markings attract bee pollinators in spring. As an attractive orchid it is subject to horticultural collection, and the entire genus is listed on CITES Appendix II, regulating international trade.

Author: (Lindl.) Rollisson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Pleione (Cribb & Butterfield), CITES Appendices