Tag:

Summer

Rosaceae

Rubus fragarioides

by GP Jürgens

Bertol.

Sikkim2011 234
Sikkim Yumthang 3700m, June
Bh09 281 P463
Bhutan Pele-La 2900m, June

Description

Rubus fragarioides is a dwarf, strawberry-like bramble of the Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 166 occurrence records mapping a range centred on the eastern Himalaya and adjacent western China. It grows in open coniferous and rhododendron forest, forest clearings, alpine meadow margins and mossy banks at upper-temperate to subalpine elevations. The photographed populations—at Yumthang in Sikkim at 3700 m and at Pele-La in Bhutan at 2900 m, both flowering in June—reflect its typical occurrence in cool, humid montane habitats.

Unlike the familiar cane-forming raspberries, this is a diminutive, almost herbaceous perennial spreading by slender creeping rhizomes and bearing only a low, scarcely woody aerial system. The leaves are usually simple to shallowly three-lobed or ternate, with a cordate base, doubly serrate margins and a wrinkled, sparsely hairy surface, recalling those of a strawberry, whence the epithet fragarioides. The flowers are solitary or few, with five spreading white petals, a leafy calyx and numerous stamens and carpels on a domed receptacle. The aggregate fruit is a small red drupelet-cluster, edible and dispersed by birds and small mammals.

Rubus is an enormous and taxonomically difficult genus complicated by hybridisation, polyploidy and apomixis; R. fragarioides, described by Bertoloni, belongs among the low-growing creeping species sometimes segregated in subgenus Chamaebatus. Its mat-forming habit aids soil stabilisation in fragile alpine clearings. Widespread within its montane belt, it is not considered threatened, though it depends on the persistence of intact subalpine forest.

Author: Bertol. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China (Rosaceae), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Grierson & Long Flora of Bhutan, Focke's monograph Species Ruborum

Polygonaceae

Rumex hastatus

by G & P Jürgens

D.Don

Garh 07 77 ergebnis
India Garhwal Sana at Mandakini 1750m, June

Description

Rumex hastatus is a widespread sub-shrubby dock distributed across the Himalaya and adjacent uplands, with GBIF documenting some 756 occurrences spanning China, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Myanmar, alongside scattered introduced records in New Zealand and North America that mark it as a casual alien beyond its native range. It is a colonist of dry, sunny, often disturbed ground: rocky banks, terraced field margins, road cuttings, riverine gravels and open hillsides, ranging from around 700 m to over 3000 m. The plant photographed at Sana on the Mandakini in Garhwal, India, at about 1750 m in June, represents a typical warm-temperate montane locality where the species forms conspicuous reddish-tinged stands on stony slopes.

Morphologically it is a much-branched, woody-based perennial or subshrub reaching 30 to 100 cm, the slender intricate branches glabrous and often reddish. The leaves are characteristically hastate, the small narrow blade bearing a pair of spreading basal lobes, hence the epithet; lower leaves may be obovate, and the foliage is somewhat fleshy and grey-green. As in all Rumex the stem is sheathed at the nodes by membranous ochreae. The inflorescence is a large, lax, much-branched terminal panicle of small dioecious or polygamous flowers. The fruiting perianth develops three enlarged, rounded, membranous and often rose-tinted inner valves (wings) without conspicuous tubercles, enclosing a small trigonous brown nutlet and aiding wind dispersal.

The species sits within Rumex subgenus Acetosa, the sorrels, distinguished by their hastate or sagittate leaves, sour oxalate-rich sap and unisexual flowers. R. hastatus is valued locally as a pot-herb and in traditional medicine, the acidic foliage used as a refreshing condiment and astringent. Ecologically it is a hardy pioneer of degraded and eroding substrates, tolerant of drought and grazing, which underlies both its abundance throughout the Himalayan foothills and its capacity to naturalise elsewhere. It is of no conservation concern, being common and adaptable across a broad altitudinal and geographic span.

Author: D.Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 5, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of Nepal, Rechinger Monograph of Rumex

Salicaceae

Salix daltoniana

by GP Jürgens

Andersson

BhutanPG2011 377
Bhutan Dur Tsa-Cho 3100m, June

Description

Salix daltoniana Andersson is a Himalayan willow ranging through China, Nepal, India and Bhutan, with about 399 GBIF occurrences. It is a riparian and montane species growing along streams, riverbanks, moist gullies and forest margins in the temperate and subalpine belts, generally between 2500 and 3800 m. It was recorded in central Bhutan at Dur Tsa-Cho near 3100 m in June, a typical streamside setting where willows form thickets along glacier-fed watercourses and contribute to bank stabilisation in the high valleys.

It is a shrub or small tree with slender, glabrous, often reddish-brown twigs. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrulate at the margin, green and glabrescent above and paler, somewhat glaucous beneath, with stipules variably developed on vigorous shoots. As in all willows the species is dioecious, the flowers arranged in erect catkins appearing with or slightly before the leaves; each tiny flower is subtended by a hairy bract and reduced to stamens or a single ovary with a nectary gland. The fruit is a small conical capsule splitting to release numerous minute seeds bearing long silky hairs for wind dispersal.

Salix is a vast, taxonomically difficult genus prone to hybridisation, and the Himalayan species including S. daltoniana have been the subject of repeated revision. Wind- and insect-pollinated and pioneering on unstable alluvium, the species plays an ecological role in colonising disturbed riverine ground and providing browse. It is not regarded as threatened, being widespread along Himalayan watercourses, though it is sensitive to changes in river hydrology and montane land use.

Author: Andersson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, Salicaceae monograph (Skvortsov, Willows of the USSR and adjacent regions)

Salicaceae

Salix lindleyana

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Andersson

Garh 07 395 2 ergebnis
India Garhwal Khiar Kutti 3950m, June

Description

Salix lindleyana is a high-altitude dwarf willow distributed across the Himalayas from Pakistan through northern India, Nepal, and Bhutan to southwest China (Xizang, Yunnan) and northern Myanmar. GBIF records approximately 773 occurrences, concentrated in the alpine zones of the western and central Himalayas. The species is a characteristic element of subnival and alpine habitats at 3,500–5,200 m elevation, growing on moraines, scree slopes, stream margins, and moist alpine meadows. At Khiar Kutti in Garhwal at 3,950 m, it forms prostrate mats on gravelly substrates near glacial meltwater channels, flowering in June as the snowpack recedes and summer warmth permits a brief growing season.
Salix lindleyana is a prostrate, creeping deciduous shrub rarely exceeding 5–15 cm in height. Stems are slender, woody, rooting at the nodes, spreading laterally to form dense mats up to 1 m or more across. Leaves are small, elliptic to obovate, 5–15 mm long, entire or obscurely crenulate, glabrous at maturity, bright green above and slightly glaucous beneath. Catkins are terminal, erect, 1–3 cm long, appearing with or just after the leaves; male catkins bear stamens with purple-tipped filaments and yellow anthers, while female catkins develop into capsules 3–5 mm long containing minute, comose seeds that are dispersed by wind. The entire growth form is adapted to minimise exposure to desiccating alpine winds and to capture warmth from the ground surface.
Salix lindleyana is one of the highest-growing woody plants in the Himalayas and an important pioneer species in alpine and subnival ecosystems. Its prostrate, mat-forming habit stabilises loose substrates on moraines and scree slopes, facilitating soil development and subsequent colonisation by other alpine plants. The species is named after the English botanist John Lindley and was formally described by Andersson based on Wallich's Himalayan collections. It belongs to the section Chamaetia, a group of arctic-alpine dwarf willows, and is closely related to S. serpyllifolia of the European Alps — a biogeographical parallel reflecting Tertiary migration routes between the Alpine and Himalayan orogens.

Author: Wall. ex Andersson · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 4, Flora of Pakistan Vol. 203, Polunin & Stainton: Flowers of the Himalaya (1984)

Lamiaceae

Salvia campanulata

by GP Jürgens

Wall. ex Benth.

BhutanPG2011 767 01 01
Bhutan Dur-Tso, 3600m June
also included: Anemone rivularis DC.
BhutanPG2011 374
Bhutan Dur-Tso, 3600m June

Description

Salvia campanulata is a robust perennial sage of the Himalaya and adjacent China, with verified occurrences in Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar. It grows on open grassy slopes, in forest clearings, scrub and along streamsides through the upper-temperate and subalpine zones, broadly between about 2500 and 3800 m. The plant illustrated from near Dur-Tso in Bhutan at around 3600 m in June, where it grows in company with Anemone rivularis, exemplifies its preference for moist, open subalpine grassland flowering early in the monsoon season.

The species arises from a stout rootstock and produces erect, quadrangular stems clothed, like the foliage, in soft hairs. The leaves are mostly basal and on the lower stem, large, broadly ovate to triangular-hastate with cordate bases and crenate-serrate margins, and long-petiolate. The inflorescence is an elongate terminal raceme of remote whorls (verticillasters), each of a few flowers. The calyx is bell-shaped, the feature noted in the epithet campanulata, and the corolla is comparatively large, yellow to greenish-yellow often marked with brown or purple, strongly two-lipped with a hooded upper lip enclosing the two functional stamens characteristic of the genus. The fruit comprises four smooth nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Salvia, the largest genus of Lamiaceae, is distinguished by its specialised lever-arm stamen mechanism that promotes precise pollen placement on visiting bees and other long-tongued insects. S. campanulata, described by Bentham from a Wallich collection, belongs to the Himalayan assemblage of large-leaved montane sages. It is widespread and locally common across its range and is not regarded as being of conservation concern.

Author: Wall. ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Lamiaceae

Salvia castanea

by GP Jürgens

Diels

BhutanPG2011 828 01 01
Bhutan Chele-La, 3400m July

Description

Salvia castanea is a montane perennial distributed across the eastern Himalaya and adjoining south-western China, with georeferenced collections recorded from China, Bhutan, Nepal and India; some 202 occurrences are documented in GBIF. It favours open forest margins, scrub, alpine meadows and grassy slopes between roughly 2700 and 4000 m, the photographed plant having been gathered at Chele-La in Bhutan at about 3400 m in July, at the height of the monsoon flowering season. It thrives on humus-rich, well-drained soils in cool, moist subalpine conditions.

The plant forms an erect, woody-based perennial herb 30-60 cm tall from a stout rootstock, with quadrangular, sparsely pubescent stems. The basal and lower cauline leaves are long-petiolate, the lamina ovate to oblong-lanceolate, cordate or subcordate at the base, crenate-serrate, and rugose with impressed venation. The inflorescence is a lax raceme of distant 2-6-flowered verticillasters; flowers bear a campanulate calyx and a chestnut-brown to dull purplish-red corolla 2.5-3.5 cm long, with an arched, galeate upper lip and the characteristic Salvia lever mechanism of two stamens. The fruit comprises four smooth nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

The distinctive chestnut corolla colour, reflected in the epithet castanea, separates this species from most Himalayan sages, which tend toward blue or violet flowers. As a member of the large genus Salvia (Lamiaceae, subfamily Nepetoideae), it relies on long-tongued bees and occasionally birds for pollination via the staminal lever. Though not formally assessed as threatened, it is locally frequent within its restricted Sino-Himalayan range, where habitat continuity in subalpine meadows underpins its persistence.

Author: Diels · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, A Revision of Salvia (Lamiaceae) in Asia

Lamiaceae

Salvia hians 

by G & P Jürgens

Royle ex Benth.

Nepal 99 867 ergebnis
West-Nepal Sanu Bheri 3500m, July

Description

Salvia hians is a Himalayan herbaceous perennial of the temperate to subalpine belt of the western and central Himalaya, with occurrences in India, Nepal, Pakistan and adjacent China; its c. 217 georeferenced records (further reports from Europe and North America reflect cultivated material). It favours open grassy slopes, forest margins, alpine meadows and moist rocky banks, typically between 2400 and 4000 m. The photographed plant from the Sanu Bheri valley in West Nepal at 3500 m, flowering in July, is characteristic of its summer-flowering subalpine habitat among tall herbs in the monsoon-watered turf.

It forms an erect, somewhat sticky-pubescent herb 30-90 cm tall arising from a stout rootstock, with mostly basal, long-petioled, ovate-cordate leaves bearing crenate to doubly serrate margins and a rugose surface. The inflorescence is a lax terminal raceme of distant verticillasters. The corolla is showy, c. 3-5 cm long and deep violet-blue to purple, conspicuously bilabiate with a strongly hooded, gaping (hence "hians") upper lip and a broad lower lip. The calyx is bell-shaped and two-lipped, and the two fertile stamens bear the characteristic lever mechanism of Salvia. The fruit comprises four smooth ovoid nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Described by Royle ex Bentham, S. hians belongs to the large, near-cosmopolitan genus Salvia, the most species-rich genus of Lamiaceae, and represents the showy Himalayan element of the subgenus Sclarea-group. The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bees and bumblebees exploiting the staminal lever. Locally the species enters folk medicine and is occasionally grown ornamentally. It remains widespread and is not currently regarded as threatened, though habitat degradation through grazing and tourism affects some populations.

Author: Royle ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of China, Hedge's revision of Himalayan Salvia (Lamiaceae)

Lamiaceae

Salvia moorcroftiana 

by G & P Jürgens

Wall. ex Benth.

Nepal 99 913 ergebnis
West-Nepal Roha 2800m, July

Description

Salvia moorcroftiana is a stout perennial sage of the western and central Himalaya, ranging from Afghanistan and Pakistan through northern India into Nepal, with cultivated and adventive records noted from Iran, Britain, Brazil and the United States. GBIF holds some 403 occurrences, concentrated in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Nepal. It is a plant of dry, open hillsides, overgrazed pastures, road banks, fallow fields and stony waste ground, generally between about 1500 and 3000 m, often forming conspicuous stands on degraded land. The specimen illustrated was recorded in West Nepal at Roha at 2800 m in July, flowering during the monsoon on open montane slopes.

The plant forms a large basal rosette of broadly ovate to oblong, rugose, wavy-margined leaves that are densely white-woolly beneath and borne on long petioles. From this rises a tall, branched, glandular inflorescence axis bearing well-separated verticillasters of large flowers subtended by coloured bracts. The two-lipped corolla is white to pale lilac, often flushed or veined with purple, the hooded upper lip enclosing two stamens with the characteristic lever-like connective of Salvia. The calyx is bell-shaped and persistent, and the fruit comprises four smooth nutlets retained within the dry calyx until dispersed.

Salvia, the largest genus of the Lamiaceae, is defined by its specialised staminal lever mechanism promoting precise pollen placement on visiting bees. S. moorcroftiana, named for the explorer William Moorcroft, is a long-established medicinal plant of the Himalayan foothills, its mucilaginous seeds and leaves used in traditional remedies for skin and digestive ailments. Tolerant of grazing and disturbance, it is widespread and of no conservation concern; indeed it often increases on degraded rangeland.

Author: Wall. ex Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of British India, An Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Salvia: The Genus Salvia

Lamiaceae

Salvia mukerjeei 

by G & P Jürgens

Bennet & Raizada

Garh 07 18 ergebnis
India Garhwal Uniana at Mandakini 1350m, June

Description

Salvia mukerjeei is a Himalayan endemic distributed along the southern flank of the western and central ranges, with georeferenced records spanning Pakistan, northern India and Nepal (GBIF documents 91 occurrences across these three countries). It favours shaded banks, forest margins and disturbed slopes in the warm-temperate to lower montane belt; the illustrated material was gathered in India, Garhwal, at Uniana near the Mandakini valley at about 1350 m in June, a setting typical of the moist mid-elevation gorges where the species recurs. Within this zone it grows on humus-rich soils beneath broad-leaved canopy and along streamsides flushed by the early monsoon.

The plant is an erect herb arising from a fibrous-rooted base, the quadrangular stems clothed in spreading eglandular and shorter glandular hairs. Leaves are opposite, petiolate and ovate to broadly cordate, with a crenate-serrate margin, an acuminate apex and a rugose, prominently veined lamina pubescent on both faces. The inflorescence is a lax terminal raceme of distant verticillasters, each subtended by deciduous bracts. Flowers show the characteristic bilabiate calyx and a two-lipped corolla with a hooded upper lip and spreading lower lip; the two fertile stamens bear the elongated connective lever diagnostic of the genus. The fruit comprises four smooth nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Described from Garhwal collections, the species honours the botanist Mukerjee and belongs to a complex of Asian Salvia centred on the Himalaya. POWO and GBIF treat the name as the accepted taxon. Its restricted range and dependence on undisturbed shaded habitats make it sensitive to forest clearance, though no formal IUCN assessment has been published.

Author: Bennet & Raizada · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Pakistan, Flora of British India, A Revision of Salvia in Asia (Lamiaceae monograph), Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal

Lamiaceae

Salvia roborowskii

by G & P Jürgens

Maxim.

Sikkim2003 359 P502 ergebnis
India Sikkim Lachen 2840m, August

Description

Salvia roborowskii is a perennial herb distributed from the Himalayas across the Sino-Himalayan region to western China. Its range encompasses Nepal, northeast India (Sikkim), Bhutan, and China (Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu). The species inhabits montane forest clearings, grassy slopes, thicket margins, and alpine meadows at elevations of 2,400–4,200 m. It has been recorded from the Lachen Valley in Sikkim at 2,840 m, flowering profusely in August during the monsoon season, where it grows in open, herbaceous vegetation along stream margins and disturbed ground.
The plant produces erect, square stems 30–80 cm tall from a perennial rootstock, often branched in the upper portion. The stems are pubescent with short, retrorse hairs. The basal and lower cauline leaves are pinnately compound to pinnatisect, with 1–3 pairs of lateral lobes and a larger terminal lobe, the lobes ovate to oblong, irregularly crenate-serrate, sparsely pilose on both surfaces. The upper leaves are progressively reduced. The inflorescence is a series of verticillasters arranged in elongate, terminal, spike-like racemes. The calyx is bilabiate, glandular-pubescent. The corolla is blue to violet-purple, 8–12 mm long, bilabiate with an arched upper lip and a spreading, trilobed lower lip. The nutlets are ovoid, smooth, dark brown.
Salvia roborowskii was described by Maximowicz from material collected during Przewalski's expeditions in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. With over 400 occurrence records in GBIF, it is one of the more frequently collected high-altitude salvias in the region. The species is ecologically significant as a nectar source for montane bumblebees and other long-tongued pollinators. Its broad elevational range and tolerance of disturbed habitats suggest a degree of ecological resilience, though it remains dependent on the persistence of open montane grasslands and forest margins. Taxonomically, it is placed within Salvia subgenus Salvia and is allied to other pinnate-leaved species of the Sino-Himalayan region.

Author: Maxim. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 17, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Hedge: Salvia in Flora Iranica (1982)