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Primulaceae

Primula drummondiana

by G & P Jürgens

Craib

Nepal 99 472 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3250m, June

Description

Primula drummondiana is a narrowly distributed Himalayan primrose confined to the central and western Himalaya, with GBIF records from India, Nepal and Bhutan totalling only about 37 collections, reflecting both its restricted range and limited herbarium representation. It grows on damp alpine and subalpine slopes, moist rock ledges, snow-melt flushes and grassy stream margins, generally between 3000 and 4000 m. The plant photographed at Churta-Khola in west Nepal at 3250 m in June, flowering soon after snowmelt, illustrates its dependence on cool, moisture-retentive ground in the brief Himalayan growing season.

It is a small rosette-forming perennial herb. The leaves are obovate to oblong-spathulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, with a crenate-dentate margin and frequently a farinose (mealy white) coating on the undersurface, as is characteristic of many farinose-section primulas. The flowers are borne in a terminal umbel on a slender scape overtopping the foliage; the corolla is salver-shaped with a narrow tube and spreading, notched lobes, typically violet to pinkish-purple with a contrasting yellow or whitish eye. Plants are heterostylous, producing pin and thrum morphs, and the fruit is a small capsule dehiscing to release numerous minute seeds.

The genus Primula reaches its greatest diversity in the Sino-Himalayan mountains, and P. drummondiana belongs to the farinose-leaved alliance whose members are taxonomically intricate and often distinguished by subtle leaf, farina and corolla characters. Heterostyly enforces outcrossing in these alpine populations. Its small known range and few documented sites mean the species merits conservation attention, as such restricted-range alpine primulas are particularly sensitive to warming and grazing pressure on high pastures.

Author: Craib · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Smith & Fletcher revision of Primula, The Genus Primula (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula elongata

by GP Jürgens

G.Watt

Sikkim2011 254
Sikkim Lada-La 3800m, June
Bh2008 580 P870
Bhutan Chele-La 3900m April
Bh2008 581 G871
Bhutan Chele-La 3900m April

Description

Primula elongata is a high-alpine primrose of the eastern Himalaya, recorded from Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal and southern China, with GBIF holding around 107 occurrences across this range. It inhabits damp alpine turf, open hillsides, streamsides and the margins of rhododendron scrub in the subalpine to alpine zones, typically between about 3500 and 4300 m. The collections illustrated here, from Lada-La in Sikkim at 3800 m in June and from the Chele-La in western Bhutan at 3900 m in April, are characteristic of its preference for cool, moist, snow-fed slopes that flush green soon after snowmelt.

It is a small, herbaceous perennial forming basal rosettes of oblong to spathulate leaves that are gradually narrowed into a winged petiole, with the lamina often finely toothed and bearing a thin covering of farina (mealy powder) on the undersurface. From the rosette arises a slender, erect scape carrying a terminal umbel of several flowers. The corolla is funnel- to salver-shaped, in shades of violet, pink-purple or lilac with a contrasting yellow or whitish eye, and the species is heterostylous (pin and thrum forms). The fruit is a small capsule shorter than or equalling the persistent calyx, releasing numerous angular seeds.

Primula elongata belongs to a complex group of small farinose Himalayan primulas, and its segregation from allied taxa rests on leaf shape, farina distribution and capsule proportions. Restricted to high-elevation pastures, the species is potentially sensitive to changes in snow regime and to heavy grazing pressure, although across its broad eastern-Himalayan range it is not presently considered threatened.

Author: G.Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Primula (J. Richards monograph)

Primulaceae

Primula erosa

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex. Duby) Regel

Nepal 99 381 ergebnis
West-Nepal Linji-Khola 3200m, June
Nepal 99 394 ergebnis
West-Nepal Sallibagar-Khola 3100m, June

Description

Primula erosa (Wall. ex Duby) Regel is a Himalayan primrose with a comparatively narrow range, recorded only from India and Nepal, with about 30 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF, reflecting its restricted and localised distribution. It grows in moist, shaded situations such as forest floors, damp banks, mossy rocks and the margins of streams in the temperate to subalpine belt, broadly between about 2500 and 3500 m. The illustrated plants were gathered in West Nepal along the Linji-Khola at 3200 m and the Sallibagar-Khola at 3100 m, both in June, in the cool, humid gorge habitats favoured by this spring-flowering herb.

The plant is a low, rosette-forming perennial growing from a short rhizome with fibrous roots. The leaves form a basal rosette and are oblong to obovate, the margin characteristically erose to crenate-dentate (the epithet erosa) and the blade often farinose or mealy on the lower surface, tapering into a winged petiole. The flowers are borne in a terminal umbel atop a slender, erect scape; the corolla is typically pink to rose-purple with a yellowish eye, the limb of five notched lobes spreading from a slender tube above a campanulate calyx. Plants are heterostylous, with pin and thrum forms. The fruit is a small capsule releasing numerous seeds.

Within the vast genus Primula, this species belongs among the farinose Himalayan primroses and is allied to other small, mealy-leaved montane taxa. Its mealy farina and heterostylous breeding system are characteristic adaptations promoting outcrossing in cool, humid environments. Owing to its limited distribution and dependence on undisturbed moist forest habitat, the species merits monitoring, although no formal conservation assessment has been published.

Author: (Wall. ex. Duby) Regel · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of British India, Richards Primula monograph, Smith & Fletcher revision of Asiatic Primula

Primulaceae

Primula flagellaris

by GP Jürgens

W.W.Sm.

BhutanPG2011 607 01
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Kim-La, 4480m July

Description

Primula flagellaris is a diminutive alpine primrose endemic to the Eastern Himalaya, known from Bhutan and adjacent India (Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh), with only a small number of recorded occurrences reflecting its localised, high-altitude range. It inhabits the alpine zone, growing among damp turf, mossy rocks, seepage slopes and the margins of snow-melt flushes well above the treeline. The plant photographed on the historic Ludlow–Sherriff trail near Kim-La in Bhutan at 4480 m in July illustrates its characteristic occurrence in cool, moist alpine meadows during the brief summer flowering season following snow-melt.

The species is a small stoloniferous perennial whose specific epithet alludes to its slender, whip-like runners by which it spreads vegetatively to form loose mats or colonies. The leaves are gathered in small rosettes, obovate to spathulate, narrowed to a short petiole, with crenate to dentate margins and frequently a thin farinose coating. The flowering scapes are short, sometimes barely exceeding the leaves, bearing solitary flowers or few-flowered umbels. Each flower is heterostylous, with a tubular calyx and a salver-shaped corolla of rose-pink to lilac-purple lobes, notched at the apex, surrounding a contrasting eye. The fruit is a small capsule dehiscing to release numerous minute seeds.

Primula flagellaris belongs to the speciose Himalayan radiation of Primula, where it has at times been treated within the affinity of P. tenella, as reflected in the synonymy P. tenella var. flagellaris. Its stoloniferous habit is unusual within the genus and of considerable taxonomic interest. As a narrow Eastern Himalayan endemic confined to fragile alpine habitats potentially sensitive to climatic warming and grazing pressure, it warrants monitoring and is best considered of conservation interest pending formal assessment.

Author: W.W.Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Smith & Fletcher Genus Primula, Richards Primula (monograph), Flowers of the Himalaya

Primulaceae

Primula gambeliana

by GP Jürgens

G.Watt

BhutanPG2011 268
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4000m June

Description

Primula gambeliana G.Watt is an eastern Himalayan alpine primula recorded from India (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), Nepal, Bhutan and south-western China, with about 66 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows on cool, humus-rich and mossy ground, on shaded rock ledges, beneath dwarf rhododendron and along the upper forest edge into the lower alpine zone, generally between roughly 3000 and 4300 m. The collection from Jule-Tso at 4000 m in June reflects its preference for damp, sheltered high-altitude sites flushed by snowmelt early in the growing season.

It is a tufted perennial herb forming a rosette from a short rhizome. The leaves are obovate to spatulate, abruptly contracted into a broadly winged petiole, with an irregularly toothed margin and an efarinose, somewhat fleshy texture. The slender scape rises above the foliage bearing an umbel of several nodding, funnel-shaped flowers; the corolla is rose-purple to violet with a paler or yellowish throat, the lobes spreading and emarginate, and the calyx is campanulate and divided to about the middle. The flowers are heterostylous, and the fruit is a capsule about equalling the calyx that releases numerous small seeds.

P. gambeliana belongs to section Petiolares, a large and taxonomically complex eastern-Himalayan group of woodland and alpine primulas distinguished by their winged petioles and early flowering. Within this section it is recognised by its leaf form and flower colour. As a localised petiolarid of cool, moist high-elevation habitat it depends on intact moss and humus layers; it carries no formal threat status but is potentially sensitive to habitat disturbance.

Author: G.Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Smith & Fletcher monograph of Primula

Primulaceae

Primula glabra

by GP Jürgens

Klatt

Bhutan2014 920
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Bhutan2014 1014
Bhutan Chele-La 4000m, May
Bh2008 570 P857
Bhutan Chele-La, 3950m June

Description

Primula glabra is a dwarf alpine primrose of the eastern Himalaya, distributed through China (south-eastern Tibet), Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with GBIF logging 196 occurrences across this Sino-Himalayan zone. It is a plant of high alpine turf, moist meadows, rocky slopes, snowmelt flushes and damp gravelly ground above the treeline, broadly between 3800 and 4500 m. The photographed plants from the Chele-La pass in western Bhutan, at 3950-4000 m flowering in May and June, exemplify its preference for cold, open, snow-influenced alpine sites where it blooms among rocks and short turf as the snow melts in early summer.

The species is a small, glabrous (hence the epithet), tufted perennial herb, lacking the farinose (mealy) coating found in many alpine primulas. The leaves form a basal rosette and are oblanceolate to spathulate, entire to finely toothed, narrowing into an indistinct petiole. Flowers are borne in a compact terminal umbel atop a short scape, or sometimes nearly sessile among the leaves. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a salverform corolla, typically pink to purplish or violet with a contrasting paler or yellowish eye, the limb spreading into five notched lobes. The species is heterostylous, producing pin and thrum flowers. The fruit is a small capsule dehiscing to release numerous minute seeds.

Described by Klatt, the species belongs to the vast genus Primula, within the alpine sections (allied to section Minutissimae or related dwarf cushion groups) that radiated extensively across the high Sino-Himalaya. Its heterostylous breeding system promotes outcrossing by long-tongued alpine insects. As a specialist of high, snow-fed alpine habitats it is potentially vulnerable to climatic warming and upslope habitat compression, though its broad regional range currently buffers it; it remains formally unassessed.

Author: Klatt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Primula in Cultivation and the Wild (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula glandulifera 

by G & P Jürgens

Balf.f. & W.W.Sm.

Nepal 99 669 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Kagmara-La 4900m, July

Description

Primula glandulifera is a high-alpine primrose of the western Himalaya, known from Nepal and India, with GBIF recording 31 occurrences. It inhabits damp alpine turf, moist gravelly slopes, streamsides and the margins of late snowbeds well above the treeline. The photographed plant grows on the Kagmara La in West Nepal at about 4900 m, flowering in July, an exacting high-elevation setting where short summers, intense radiation and cold, wet substrates govern plant life.

The species is a small perennial herb forming a basal rosette of leaves, often glandular as the epithet glandulifera indicates, the lamina oblong to spathulate and frequently bearing farina or glandular hairs. The flowering scape is slender, bearing one to several flowers in a terminal umbel above a whorl of bracts. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a salverform corolla, typically violet to purple with a contrasting eye, the limb of five notched lobes; the species is heterostylous, and the fruit is a small capsule.

The taxon is accepted and was described by Balfour and W.W. Smith, prolific authors on Asiatic Primula. It belongs to one of the genus's many Himalayan sections, a group whose species boundaries rest on farina, indumentum and floral detail. As a narrow-range, very high-altitude orophyte it is biogeographically significant and potentially sensitive to climate-driven upward shifts of the alpine zone, meriting monitoring of its restricted populations.

Author: Balf.f. & W.W.Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Richards' monograph Primula, Smith & Fletcher's studies of Asiatic Primula

Primulaceae

Primula involucrata

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Duby

Nepal 99 492 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3850m, June
Garh 07 418 ergebnis
Garh 07 419 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3900m, June

Description

Primula involucrata Wall. ex Duby is a perennial of the high Himalaya and adjacent Tibetan plateau, ranging through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and western China, with disjunct populations extending into Central Asia. The species is documented from West-Nepal at Churta-Khola near 3850 m and from the Garhwal Himalaya at Khiar Kutti around 3900 m, both flowering in June. It is a plant of damp alpine and subalpine meadows, marshy stream margins, seepage slopes and the moist turf bordering glacial pools, typically between 3000 and 4500 m, where snowmelt sustains saturated soils through the brief growing season. The very high GBIF occurrence count chiefly reflects records aggregated under the broadly circumscribed genus Primula rather than this taxon alone.

The plant forms a small, glabrous rosette of long-petiolate, elliptic to ovate-oblong leaves with entire or finely crenulate margins, often faintly farinose beneath. A slender, leafless scape rises to 10–25 cm and bears a terminal umbel of few to several flowers subtended by a conspicuous involucre of lanceolate bracts, from which the epithet derives. The flowers are sweetly fragrant, with a tubular calyx and a white to pale lilac or pinkish corolla marked by a yellow eye, the limb divided into five emarginate, spreading lobes. The fruit is a small cylindrical capsule dehiscing by apical valves and releasing numerous minute seeds.

Primula involucrata belongs to section Aleuritia (the farinose primulas), a group centred on the Sino-Himalayan and arctic-alpine zones and characterised by farina, heterostyly and umbellate inflorescences. Its preference for wet, base-rich alpine flushes makes it a useful indicator of stable hydrological conditions. Though locally common across its wide montane range and not currently of conservation concern, populations are vulnerable to grazing pressure, trampling and the drying of high-altitude wetlands under a warming climate.

Author: Wall. ex Duby · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Primula (Richards, monograph of the genus)

Primulaceae

Primula kingii

by GP Jürgens

G.Watt 

BhutanPG2011 727 01 01
Bhutan Pele-La, 2750m July

Description

Primula kingii is an Eastern Himalayan endemic of restricted range, recorded from Bhutan, north-eastern India (Sikkim and adjacent Arunachal Pradesh) and southern Xizang (China), with some 57 georeferenced occurrences documented in GBIF. It is a plant of cool, perennially moist situations, favouring boggy alpine and subalpine meadows, seepage slopes, streamsides and damp turf saturated through the monsoon. The species ascends from the upper forest margin into the alpine zone; the photographed material from the Pele-La pass in central Bhutan at about 2750 m in July, flowering near the low end of its altitudinal span, illustrates its occupation of humid passes between drainage systems.

P. kingii is a small, tufted, glabrous perennial herb arising from a short rhizome with fibrous roots. The leaves form a basal rosette, oblanceolate to spathulate, narrowed to a winged petiole, the blade with a finely toothed or subentire margin and lacking the conspicuous farina seen in many congeners. The slender, erect scape bears a one-sided (secund), few-flowered terminal umbel of nodding flowers subtended by small bracts. The calyx is tubular-campanulate and dark, often blackish-purple; the corolla is deep blackish-crimson to maroon, with a narrow tube, a contracted throat and short, spreading or reflexed lobes. The fruit is a small capsule shorter than or about equalling the persistent calyx, releasing numerous minute seeds.

Within Primula the species is placed in the section Amethystina, a group of dark-flowered, nodding-blossomed Sino-Himalayan primroses centred on the eastern ranges. Its sombre maroon corolla and secund inflorescence distinguish it from associated species. As a narrowly distributed alpine bog specialist tied to high-elevation wetland microhabitats, it is potentially sensitive to hydrological change, grazing pressure and shifts in snowmelt timing, though no formal IUCN assessment defines its present status.

Author: G.Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, The Genus Primula (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula macrophylla

by GP Jürgens

D.Don

BhutanPG2011 572 1
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Miluthang, 4350m July
BhutanPG2011 660 01
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Thitha-Tso, 4350m July
Garh 07 389 ergebnis
Garh 07 506 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3950m, June

Description

Primula macrophylla is a widespread high-alpine primrose ranging across the Himalaya and adjacent mountain systems, with GBIF records spanning India, Nepal, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Bhutan among other territories and approaching a thousand documented occurrences. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, growing on open rocky slopes, screes, moist alpine turf, glacial moraines and damp gravelly flats near snowmelt. It typically occupies elevations of roughly 3500-5000 m; the populations from the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail in Bhutan at Miluthang and Thitha-Tso (about 4350 m, July) and from Garhwal at Khiar Kutti (3950 m, June) exemplify its preference for cool, well-drained sites flowering through the early monsoon.

P. macrophylla is a robust, farinose perennial herb forming a stout rosette from a short rhizome. The leaves are large and elongate, oblanceolate to lanceolate, narrowed to a broad petiolar base, the lower surface densely covered with yellowish or whitish farina (mealy powder) and the margin entire to finely denticulate. The stout scape, also mealy, bears a dense terminal umbel of numerous flowers subtended by linear bracts. The flowers are heterostylous with a tubular calyx and a salverform purple to violet-purple corolla marked by a contrasting yellowish or whitish eye, the lobes notched at the apex. The fruit is a cylindrical capsule about equalling or exceeding the calyx and containing many small seeds.

The species belongs to Primula section Crystallophlomis (formerly Nivales), the great assemblage of farinose, large-flowered alpine primroses of the high Asian mountains, and is morphologically variable across its vast range, with several infraspecific taxa recognised by various authors. Its broad distribution and abundance suggest it is not of conservation concern, although high-elevation populations are inherently exposed to climate-driven shifts in snow cover and to localised grazing.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Pakistan, The Genus Primula (Richards)