Tag:

Summer

Primulaceae

Primula macrophylla var. moorcroftiana 

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex Klatt) W.W. Sm. & H.R. Fletcher

Nepal 99 616 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4300m, July
Nepal 99 617 ergebnis
West-Nepal Kagmara-La 4300m, July

Description

Primula macrophylla var. moorcroftiana is a high-alpine perennial distributed across the western and central Himalaya and adjoining Central Asian ranges, with GBIF documenting some 172 occurrences from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China (Tibet). It inhabits open alpine meadows, moist screes, grazed turf and the margins of snowmelt flushes, typically between 3500 and 5000 m. The photographed plant was recorded at the Kagmara-La in West Nepal at 4300 m in July, a phenology typical of the taxon, which flowers as the snow recedes on cool, humus-rich substrates kept moist through the early monsoon.

The plant forms a stout rosette arising from a short rhizome clothed in persistent leaf-bases and farinose remains. The leaves are large for the genus, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, entire to obscurely toothed, tapering gradually to a winged petiole and frequently coated beneath with white or yellowish farina. The scape is erect and conspicuously mealy, bearing a dense terminal umbel of several heterostylous flowers. The corolla is funnelform with a slender tube exceeding the campanulate calyx, the limb violet to purple with a paler or yellow eye and notched lobes. The fruit is a cylindrical capsule dehiscing by apical valves to release numerous small angular seeds.

Placed in Primula sect. Crystallophlomis (the nivalis alliance), the variety moorcroftiana is distinguished from typical P. macrophylla by its larger, more farinose foliage and robust habit. GBIF retains the name as accepted. As a snowbed and meadow specialist, it is sensitive to altered snow-lie and intensified summer grazing, though its broad transmontane range buffers it against immediate threat.

Author: (Wall. ex Klatt) W.W. Sm. & H.R. Fletcher · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Smith & Fletcher monograph of Primula

Primulaceae

Primula megalocarpa

by GP Jürgens

H.Hara

BhutanPG2011 637 01
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Laden-Tso, 4300m July

Description

Primula megalocarpa H.Hara is a high-alpine primula of the eastern and central Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, Bhutan, northern India and south-western China, with around 109 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It inhabits open alpine turf, moist rocky slopes, moraine and the margins of late-lying snowbeds, generally between about 3800 and 4800 m. The collection cited from the Ludlow-Sherriff trail at Laden-Tso at 4300 m in July is typical of its ecology, flowering as the snow retreats in habitats kept cool and damp by glacial meltwater and frequent cloud.

It is a small farinose perennial forming a compact rosette from a slender rootstock. The leaves are obovate to oblanceolate, narrowed to a winged base, with a finely toothed margin and a white- or yellow-farinose lower surface. Short scapes carry one to few violet to purple, flat-faced flowers; the corolla lobes are obcordate and notched, surrounding a farinose eye, and the calyx is farinose and lobed to about the middle. As the epithet megalocarpa implies, the species is notable for its conspicuously enlarged capsule, which is ovoid and considerably exceeds the calyx at maturity, a feature that readily separates it from related dwarf alpine species.

The enlarged fruit places it among the small-flowered cushion-forming primulas of section Minutissimae and allied groups, where it is distinguished chiefly by capsule size and farina distribution. Like many nival primulas it is tied to a narrow alpine belt and dependent on reliable snow cover, making such species sensitive indicators of shifting snowlines. No conservation status has been published, but its high-altitude niche warrants monitoring.

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

Primulaceae

Primula mollis

by GP Jürgens

Nutt. ex Hook.

Bh09 360 G577
Bhutan Wangdi, 2300m June

Description

Primula mollis is a softly hairy perennial of the Eastern Himalaya and adjacent Indo-Burmese ranges, with verified occurrences in China, Myanmar, Bhutan and India (additional GBIF records from Belgium, Britain and the Czech Republic reflect its cultivation by alpine enthusiasts). It grows in damp, shaded situations along forest margins, stream banks and moist rocky banks at moderate elevations, typically between about 2000 and 3000 m. The illustrated plant from near Wangdi in central Bhutan at around 2300 m in June shows the species flowering in the early monsoon, when the humid conditions it favours prevail.

The whole plant is conspicuously clothed in soft spreading hairs, the feature memorialised in the epithet mollis. The leaves form a basal rosette and are ovate to oblong, shallowly lobed and toothed, cordate at the base and borne on hairy petioles. From the rosette rises a stout, hairy scape carrying several superposed whorls (a candelabra arrangement) of flowers. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a salver-shaped corolla that is rose-pink to crimson with a darker or yellowish eye, the limb shallowly notched. The fruit is a small capsule enclosed within the persistent calyx and dehiscing to release numerous angular seeds.

Primula mollis is placed in section Cortusoides (Petiolares group of broader treatments), characterised by soft-textured, lobed, hairy leaves and whorled inflorescences. It is a long-cultivated woodland primula, and ecologically contributes to the herb layer of humid montane forest, where it is pollinated by insects attracted to its bright corollas. Across its range it remains locally frequent and is not considered threatened, though it depends on the persistence of moist, lightly shaded montane habitats.

Author: Nutt. ex Hook. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Richards' monograph Primula

Primulaceae

Primula nutans

by G & P Jürgens

Georgi

Nepal 99 434 ergebnis
West-Nepal Chautabise-Khola 2800m, June

Description

Primula nutans Georgi is a circumboreal to continental Asian perennial with one of the broadest ranges in the genus, the GBIF dataset listing more than 11,700 occurrences across Fennoscandia (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark), Russia, Greenland, North America (Canada, United States), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia) and into China, with disjunct southern records reaching India and Nepal. It is a plant of moist, often saline or calcareous habitats: coastal meadows, lake and river shores, damp turf, marshy flushes and seepage slopes. The illustrated material from the Chautabise-Khola in west Nepal at 2800 m in June represents the species near the southern, montane edge of its enormous Holarctic distribution, where it persists in damp grassy ground.

It is a small, glabrous perennial herb arising from a slender rootstock, lacking the farinose (mealy) covering of many congeners. The leaves form a basal rosette and are oblong to spatulate or elliptic, entire to faintly toothed, narrowing into a winged petiole. From the rosette rises a slender, leafless scape bearing a terminal umbel of a few nodding flowers, the nodding habit giving the epithet nutans. Each flower has a tubular, five-lobed calyx and a salverform corolla of pink to lilac-purple with a yellow eye, the lobes shallowly notched. The species is typically homostylous in many populations. The fruit is a cylindrical to ovoid capsule that opens by apical valves to shed numerous small seeds.

Primula nutans belongs to section Armerina, a group of small, often coastal or wetland primulas with farina-free foliage and nodding flowers, and has at times been treated under the names P. sibirica or P. finmarchica, reflecting taxonomic revision of this widespread aggregate. Its tolerance of saline and seasonally flooded ground is ecologically distinctive within the genus. Although globally secure given its vast range, peripheral and lowland populations, particularly along Baltic and Arctic coasts, are vulnerable to habitat loss, drainage and shoreline development, and are locally protected.

Author: Georgi · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora Nordica, John Richards – Primula (monograph)

Primulaceae

Primula obliqua

by GP Jürgens

W. W. Sm.

BhutanPG2011 409
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4300m June

Description

Primula obliqua W. W. Sm. is a robust alpine primrose of the eastern Himalaya, recorded by GBIF from Nepal, India, Bhutan and China across some 183 occurrences. It is a plant of the upper alpine zone, growing on cool, humid open slopes, rocky meadows, moraine and the margins of melting snow patches, generally between 3800 and 4800 m. The plant photographed at Jule-Tso in Bhutan at about 4300 m in June, when the snow has just retreated, illustrates its preference for high, well-watered sites where it flowers early in the short alpine summer.

The species forms a stout perennial rosette of large, oblong to oblanceolate leaves that are somewhat fleshy and conspicuously dusted, especially when young, with pale yellowish or whitish farina on the undersurface and stem. The leaves taper to a broadly winged petiole and have finely toothed margins. From the centre rises a stout scape bearing an umbel of several nodding flowers; the corolla is broadly campanulate, pale yellow to cream or greenish-yellow, with a short tube and spreading lobes, and the calyx and pedicels are mealy. The flowers are heterostylous, and the fruit is a capsule shorter than to about equalling the calyx.

Primula obliqua is classified in section Crystallophlomis (Nivales), a group of large-flowered, often farinose high-alpine primulas centred on the Sino-Himalayan mountains. It is distinguished within the section by its drooping, pale yellowish, mealy flowers. With a restricted but apparently stable range in remote high terrain, it is not currently regarded as threatened, though as a snow-bed and high-alpine specialist it is potentially vulnerable to climate-driven changes in snow cover. It exemplifies the rich endemic radiation of Primula along the eastern Himalayan arc.

Author: W. W. Sm. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Richards monograph Primula

Primulaceae

Primula petiolaris

by GP Jürgens

Wall.

Nepal 95 108 P193 ergebnis
Nepal below Rupien La 3050m October
Garh 07 103 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3100m, June
Garh 07 102 ergebnis
India Garhwal Meggu Kichatti 3100m, June

Description

Primula petiolaris Wall. is a small, cushion- or mat-forming primrose of the Himalaya, distributed through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and south-west China. It is a plant of cool, moist, shaded sites in the upper-temperate to alpine zone, growing on humus-rich banks, in rock crevices, beside streams and on mossy ledges, typically around 3000 to 4000 m. The recorded gatherings from below the Rupien La in Nepal at 3050 m and from Meggu Kichatti in Garhwal at 3100 m, the latter flowering in June soon after snowmelt, illustrate its early-season flowering in damp, semi-shaded high-mountain habitats where it forms low rosettes among rocks and moss.

The plant is a low, tufted perennial forming dense rosettes of obovate to spathulate leaves that taper gradually into a winged petiole (the basis of the epithet petiolaris), with finely toothed margins and a somewhat fleshy texture. The flowers are borne singly or in small clusters nestled within or just above the foliage on very short scapes, so that the plant appears almost stemless at flowering. Each flower has a tubular calyx and a salver-shaped corolla, rose-pink to purple with a contrasting white or yellowish eye ringing the throat. As in many primulas the species is heterostylous, with pin and thrum flower forms, and sets a small capsule releasing numerous fine seeds.

Primula petiolaris belongs to the large Himalayan radiation of section Petiolares, an intricate group of early-flowering, rosette-forming primroses whose species delimitation has long challenged taxonomists. Its precocious flowering, often as snow recedes, points to early-emerging insects as pollinators. Choice plants of this section are prized by alpine-garden growers, but P. petiolaris remains widespread and is not regarded as threatened, though its specialised montane microhabitats are sensitive to disturbance and climatic change.

Author: Wall. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Primulaceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, The Genus Primula (Richards)

Primulaceae

Primula primulina

by GP Jürgens

(Spreng.) Hara

BhutanPG2011 625 01
Bhutan Ludlow-Sherriff-Trail Shashuna-Dem-Tso, 3900m June
Sikkim2003 327 P464
Sikkim Saniti-Lake 4200m August

Description

Primula primulina is a dwarf alpine primrose of the Himalayan high country, distributed through Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and southern China, with several hundred georeferenced occurrences recorded in GBIF. It is a cushion- or mat-forming species of the upper alpine and nival zones, growing on open stony slopes, moist alpine turf, rock ledges and the margins of high-elevation tarns kept moist by late snowmelt. The material from the Ludlow-Sherriff Trail at Shashuna-Dem-Tso in Bhutan (about 3900 m, June) and from Saniti Lake in Sikkim (4200 m, August) reflects its association with glacial lake basins and its summer flowering across the monsoon months.

P. primulina is a diminutive, densely tufted perennial forming low rosettes or compact cushions from a slender branching rootstock. The leaves are small, oblanceolate to spathulate, often densely crowded, with an entire or finely toothed margin and frequently bearing farina, the rosettes sometimes marcescent at the base. The flowers are borne singly or few together on very short scapes scarcely exceeding the foliage, giving an almost sessile appearance. The corolla is salverform with a slender tube and spreading, notched lobes, typically rose-purple to pink with a paler or yellowish eye; the calyx is tubular and lobed. The fruit is a small capsule enclosed by or barely exceeding the persistent calyx.

The species is placed in Primula section Minutissimae, the group of minute, cushion-forming Sino-Himalayan primroses to which P. primulina lends its name as a characteristic member. Long-established synonymy reflects its complex nomenclatural history under several earlier basionyms. As a specialist of high-altitude snowbed and lakeshore microhabitats, it is closely tied to persistent snow cover and is therefore among the alpine taxa most likely to be affected by warming-driven contraction of suitable habitat, though it currently carries no formal conservation assessment.

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

Primulaceae

Primula reidii

by G & P Jürgens

Duthie

Nepal 99 515 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 3800m, June
Nepal 99 804 ergebnis
West-Nepal Baga-La-Phedi 4350m, July
Nepal 99 461 ergebnis
West-Nepal Naphukana 2830m, June

Description

Primula reidii is a celebrated alpine primrose of the western and central Himalaya, with about 80 GBIF occurrences recorded from Nepal, India and Pakistan. It is a plant of cool, humid high-elevation habitats, growing among moist rocks, on shaded ledges, in crevices and on steep banks where seepage and snowmelt maintain constant moisture. The documented localities span a wide altitudinal range, from Naphukana in West Nepal at about 2830 m and Churta-Khola at 3800 m in June to Baga-La-Phedi at around 4350 m in July, confirming its occurrence from the upper temperate well into the alpine zone during the early monsoon flowering season.

It is a perennial rosette herb, the leaves clustered at the base into a rosette, oblong to oblanceolate, soft-textured, crenate to toothed, and frequently bearing a white or yellowish farinose (mealy) coating on the scape, calyx and leaf undersides. The flowers are borne in a terminal umbel or short head on a leafless scape, subtended by an involucre; each has a tubular, farinose, five-lobed calyx and a bell-shaped (campanulate), nodding corolla. The famously fragrant flowers are white to pale blue with five rounded, often notched lobes. The species is typically homostylous, and the fruit is a small capsule releasing numerous fine seeds.

The genus Primula reaches its greatest diversity in the Sino-Himalayan mountains, and P. reidii, described by Duthie, belongs to the bell-flowered alpine assemblage traditionally placed in section Soldanelloides, esteemed by horticulturists for its scented, nodding bells. It is a much-admired but somewhat localised alpine restricted to specific moist rock habitats; while not formally assessed as threatened, such niche-restricted alpines are sensitive to collection pressure, grazing and the warming-driven desiccation of high-altitude seeps.

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

Primulaceae

Primula rosea

by G & P Jürgens

Royle

Garh 07 407 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 4000m, June

Description

Primula rosea is a western Himalayan alpine endemic distributed through northern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and adjacent China, with GBIF recording around 255 occurrences, supplemented by numerous cultivated records in Europe and North America where it is grown as an ornamental. It is a true marsh-dweller of the high alpine zone, generally between roughly 3000 and 4300 m, the photographed plant coming from Khiar Kutti in Indian Garhwal at 4000 m, flowering in June at snowmelt. It grows in boggy alpine meadows, beside streams and springs, in seepage flushes and on wet turf, often forming spectacular rose-pink colonies as the snow recedes.

The species is a small, tufted, rosette-forming perennial herb with short rhizomes, the basal leaves developing fully only after flowering. These are oblong-obovate to oblanceolate, narrowed to a winged petiole, finely toothed and bright green, more or less glabrous and lacking the mealy farina of some congeners. The leafless scape bears an umbel of a few to several flowers; each flower is rich rose-pink to carmine with a contrasting yellow eye, the corolla salverform with a slender tube and spreading, notched lobes, and the species is heterostylous (pin and thrum). The fruit is a small capsule shedding numerous seeds.

Primula rosea belongs to section Aleuritia (the farinose primroses) within the large Holarctic genus Primula, though it is itself essentially efarinose. Its heterostyly enforces outcrossing by insect pollinators active in the brief alpine season. Locally abundant in suitable wet habitats and not globally threatened, it is nonetheless a habitat specialist whose marshy alpine flushes are sensitive to grazing, trampling and hydrological change.

Author: Royle · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora Simlensis, Flora of British India (Hooker), Richards Primula (monograph), Smith & Fletcher The Genus Primula

Primulaceae

Primula sapphirina

by GP Jürgens

Hook.f. & Thomson ex. G.Watt

BhutanPG2011 299
Bhutan Jule-Tso, 4000m June
Nepal 99 688 1 ergebnis
West-Nepal, Pungmo-Khola, July

Description

Primula sapphirina is a diminutive alpine primrose of the high Eastern Himalaya, recorded from India, Bhutan, Nepal and south-western China, with GBIF documenting around 80 occurrences from this restricted high-altitude range. It is confined to the alpine zone, growing on moist turf, mossy banks, seepage slopes and the edges of melting snow patches where the ground stays cool and damp through the brief growing season. The cited localities underline its elevation: Jule-Tso in Bhutan at about 4000 m flowering in June and the Pungmo-Khola in West Nepal in July, both well above treeline, where it flowers as the snow recedes and the short subnival summer begins.

It is a small, delicate perennial herb forming a slender, few-leaved tuft from a short rootstock, often farinose. The leaves are basal, small, spathulate to oblong, narrowed into a winged petiole, with finely toothed or crenate margins. The slender scape bears few small flowers, sometimes solitary, nodding on capillary pedicels; the calyx is tubular-campanulate and the corolla is a clear sapphire-blue to violet, the limb shallowly lobed with a narrow tube, giving the plant its epithet. The species is typically heterostylous with pin and thrum forms. The fruit is a small membranous capsule containing numerous minute seeds.

Primula sapphirina, attributed to Hooker f. & Thomson ex G. Watt, belongs to section Minutissimae (the so-called "bird's-eye" alpine primulas), a group of tiny high-elevation species characterised by farinose, cushion-like habit and small blue flowers. As an obligate alpine, it depends on snowmelt moisture and stable turf, and its pollination by small flies and bees occurs within a narrow window. Its restricted distribution and specialised habitat make it sensitive to climate-driven upslope shifts, though no formal conservation assessment has yet been published.

Author: Hook.f. & Thomson ex. G.Watt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Richards' monograph Primula