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Summer

Orobanchaceae

Sopubia trifida

by GP Jürgens

Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don

Bh09 353 P569
Bhutan Wangdi, 2400m June
Bh09 354 G570
Bhutan Wangdi, 2600m June

Description

Sopubia trifida Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don is a slender hemiparasitic herb of broad palaeotropical distribution, recorded across South and Southeast Asia and tropical Africa, including China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and several African nations; GBIF lists around 840 occurrences. It favours open grassy slopes, savanna, terraced field margins, scrub and disturbed sunny ground, mostly from the lowlands up to about 2700 m. The photographed plants were collected near Wangdi in Bhutan at 2400 and 2600 m in June, in the open warm-temperate grassland where this erect parasite grows attached to the roots of grasses.

The plant is an erect annual or perennial herb with stiff, wiry, often branched and minutely scabrous stems. The leaves are opposite below and alternate above, narrowly linear, sessile and frequently divided into a few filiform segments, the epithet trifida referring to this three-parted condition. The flowers are borne in lax terminal spike-like racemes; the corolla is rotate, typically pink to rose-purple, with a short tube and five subequal spreading lobes, while the calyx is campanulate and ribbed. The fruit is a small ovoid, loculicidal capsule containing numerous minute, angular seeds.

Now placed in the broadly recircumscribed Orobanchaceae following the transfer of hemiparasitic genera from the former Scrophulariaceae, Sopubia is a facultative root parasite drawing water and nutrients from neighbouring grasses through haustoria while retaining photosynthetic capacity. Its wide tropical range and tolerance of disturbed grassland account for its abundance. The species is common and not of conservation concern, and is sometimes regarded as a weedy associate of pastures and fallow land.

Author: Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Ceylon, Fischer revision of Sopubia and allied Orobanchaceae

Rosaceae

Sorbaria tomentosa

by G & P Jürgens

(Lindl.) Rehder

Garh 07 304 ergebnis
India Garhwal Bebra 1400m, June

Description

Sorbaria tomentosa is a deciduous shrub distributed along the temperate Himalaya from Afghanistan and Pakistan eastward through northern India and Nepal into south-western China, with the GBIF record (730 occurrences) further documenting naturalised and cultivated populations across Europe and North America. It favours moist, well-drained slopes, stream banks, forest margins and open thickets, generally between about 1200 and 3000 m. The plant photographed at Bebra in the Garhwal Himalaya at 1400 m in June represents the lower montane part of its native range, where it flowers in early summer in disturbed, sunny situations.

The species forms an erect, multi-stemmed shrub 1-3 m tall, with arching branches and stems that are tomentose when young, becoming glabrescent. The leaves are imparipinnate, comprising numerous lanceolate, doubly serrate leaflets that are densely greyish- to whitish-tomentose beneath, giving the foliage a soft, felted texture. The flowers are small and white, borne in large, dense, terminal pyramidal panicles; each has five sepals and five petals, with numerous exserted stamens conspicuously longer than the petals and a gynoecium of five carpels. The fruit is a small follicle, the carpels dehiscing to release minute seeds.

The genus Sorbaria (Spiraeoideae) is distinguished within Rosaceae by its compound leaves and apocarpous follicular fruits, features uniting it with Spiraea relatives. Sorbaria tomentosa is widely grown as an ornamental for its feathery foliage and showy inflorescences, which accounts for its broad extralimital occurrence. Within its native montane habitat it is a pioneer of forest edges and landslip scars, contributing to early successional vegetation and soil stabilisation.

Author: (Lindl.) Rehder · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 9, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Pakistan, Robertson's monograph of Rosaceae genera

Rosaceae

Sorbus tomentosa

by G & P Jürgens

Hedl.

Nepal 99 397 ergebnis
West-Nepal Talphi 2830m, June

Description

Sorbus tomentosa is a Sino-Himalayan tree of the temperate forest belt, distributed along the central and western Himalaya. Although GBIF records remain sparse, with the photographed material gathered at Talphi in West Nepal at about 2830 m in June, the species is characteristic of the upper temperate zone between roughly 2500 and 3500 m. It occupies the canopy gaps and margins of mixed broad-leaved and conifer forest, frequently associating with Quercus, Acer, Betula and Abies, and favouring cool, humid, well-drained slopes where it acts as a light-demanding component of montane woodland.

It is a small deciduous tree or large shrub with pinnate leaves bearing numerous oblong-lanceolate, serrate leaflets that are densely white- or grey-tomentose beneath, giving the foliage a markedly hoary aspect that lends the species its epithet. The young shoots, petioles and rachis are likewise woolly-pubescent. Flowers are small, white, five-petalled and borne in flattened terminal corymbs in early summer; the gynoecium develops into small subglobose pome fruits that ripen red to orange-red in autumn, each crowned by the persistent calyx and containing few seeds.

The species belongs to Sorbus subgenus Sorbus (the pinnate-leaved "true" rowans), a taxonomically intricate group in which apomixis and hybridisation have generated numerous microspecies and rendered circumscriptions difficult. Ecologically its fruits are an important autumn food for thrushes and other frugivorous birds, which act as the principal dispersal agents. Though not presently regarded as threatened, populations are localised and vulnerable to forest clearance and grazing pressure across the Himalayan range.

Author: Hedl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, McAllister – The Genus Sorbus: Mountain Ash and Other Rowans

Rosaceae

Sorbus ursina

by G & P Jürgens

(Wall. ex G.Don) S.Schauer

Garh 07 557 ergebnis
India Garhwal Seema 3450m, June

Description

Sorbus ursina is a Himalayan rowan distributed along the southern margins of the high mountains, with documented occurrences in Nepal, India, China, Myanmar and Bhutan, and a comparatively modest record base of around 126 georeferenced collections. It is a tree of the upper temperate to subalpine forest belt, typically occupying the transition between mixed broadleaved-coniferous woodland and the open shrub zone, where it grows on cool, humid, often steep slopes and along forest margins. The plant photographed at Seema in Garhwal (India) at about 3450 m in June reflects this characteristic elevational preference, where the species ascends to the upper limit of arborescent vegetation amid Abies, Quercus and ericaceous undergrowth.

It forms a small deciduous tree or large shrub with a spreading crown, the young twigs initially tomentose and becoming glabrescent and dark with age. The leaves are imparipinnate (pinnately compound), comprising numerous oblong to lanceolate leaflets that are sharply serrate along the margins, glabrous and green above and conspicuously paler, frequently whitish-tomentose, beneath. The flowers are borne in many-flowered terminal corymbs and are small, pentamerous and white, with five free petals, numerous stamens and a partly inferior ovary. The fruit is a small subglobose pome, ripening through pink to deep red and often persisting on the branches after leaf-fall.

Within the large and taxonomically intricate genus Sorbus, S. ursina belongs to the pinnate-leaved (subgenus Sorbus) assemblage, a group complicated across the Himalaya by hybridisation and apomixis. The conspicuous autumn fruiting renders it ecologically important as a food source for thrushes, accentors and other montane frugivorous birds, which act as the principal seed dispersers. Although not presently regarded as threatened given its broad range, populations are tied to intact subalpine forest and are therefore sensitive to grazing pressure, fuelwood collection and the upward shift of timberlines.

Author: (Wall. ex G.Don) S.Schauer · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China Vol. 9, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 2, Flora of Nepal, McAllister The Genus Sorbus: Mountain Ash and Other Rowans

Asteraceae

Soroseris pumila

by GP Jürgens

Stebbins

Sikkim2003 292 P406 2
Sikkim Dzongri 4300m August

Description

Soroseris pumila is a high-alpine cushion composite restricted to the eastern Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, northern India (Sikkim) and Bhutan, with only about 97 GBIF records reflecting both its narrow range and the inaccessibility of its habitat. It is a plant of the upper alpine and subnival zones, growing on open screes, gravelly flats, moraine and stony turf well above the treeline, typically between about 4000 and 5000 m. The Sikkim population imaged at Dzongri at 4300 m in August captures the species in its characteristic late-summer flowering, when the brief post-snowmelt growing season allows these dwarf perennials to bloom and set seed.

The plant is a diminutive, often almost stemless perennial with a stout, deep taproot and a congested rosette or low tuft of leaves pressed close to the substrate, an adaptation to wind, cold and intense irradiation. The leaves are narrowly oblanceolate to spathulate, entire to pinnately lobed, and the foliage exudes milky latex when broken. The capitula are crowded into a dense terminal cluster nestled among the leaves; each head is ligulate with yellow ray florets, the corollas five-toothed. The fruit is a cypsela bearing a pappus of soft white bristles that facilitates wind dispersal across the open high-mountain terrain.

Soroseris is a small genus of cushion-forming lactucoid composites endemic to the high mountains of the Sino-Himalaya, and S. pumila is among the most reduced, dwarfed members, its compact habit typical of the subnival flora. Its restricted distribution and specialised habitat at the upper limit of plant life make it a notable element of eastern Himalayan alpine biogeography; while not formally assessed, such narrow-range high-elevation endemics are intrinsically vulnerable to climatic warming and habitat shift.

Author: Stebbins · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Stebbins' revision of Soroseris and Crepidinae (monograph)

Rosaceae

Spiraea arcuata

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

Bhut09 528G 14.06.
Bhutan Jakar 2600m, June
Nepal 99 585 ergebnis
West-Nepal Garpung-Khola 3500m, July

Description

Spiraea arcuata is a Himalayan and Sino-Himalayan shrub native to Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar, with about 376 GBIF records, supplemented by cultivated occurrences in Europe and North America. It grows in the temperate and subalpine zone on open hillsides, forest margins, scrub and rocky slopes. The cited records span its altitudinal range, from Jakar in central Bhutan at around 2600 m flowering in June to the Garpung-Khola in western Nepal at about 3500 m in July, where it forms part of the deciduous shrub component of montane vegetation on well-drained slopes.

The plant is a deciduous shrub with slender, arching to recurved branches, the epithet alluding to their curving habit. The leaves are small, alternate, simple, obovate to oblong-elliptic, entire or with a few apical teeth, glabrous to thinly hairy and often paler beneath. The white flowers are numerous and crowded in dense, rounded, corymb-like clusters borne along the branches; each small flower has five petals, a shallow hypanthium, numerous stamens, and several free carpels. The fruit is a cluster of small, dehiscent follicles each containing several narrow seeds.

Described by Hooker f., S. arcuata belongs to the section of pink- to white-flowered Himalayan spiraeas. The genus is taxonomically intricate, with much intergradation among the alpine and subalpine species of the region. Several Himalayan Spiraea, including this one, are valued horticulturally for their profuse spring and early-summer flowering. With its broad distribution and tolerance of open and disturbed montane habitats, the species is not regarded as threatened.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Rehder's account of Spiraea

Rosaceae

Spiraea bella

by GP Jürgens

Sims

Sikkim2011 38
Sikkim Lachung 2850m, June
Sikkim2011 194
Sikkim Lachung 2850m, June
Sikkim2011 196
Sikkim Lachung 2850m, June

Description

Spiraea bella is a deciduous shrub distributed along the Himalaya and into adjacent China, with verified occurrences spanning China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar; further GBIF records from Japan, Korea and numerous European and North American countries reflect its long cultivation as an ornamental. It is a plant of temperate forest margins, open slopes, ravines and shrubberies, typically between about 2000 and 3500 m. The photographed material from Lachung in northern Sikkim at around 2850 m in June, in full bloom, exemplifies its montane habitat in moist, cool valleys.

The species forms an erect to spreading shrub usually 1-2 m tall with slender, angled, reddish-brown branchlets. The alternate, shortly petiolate leaves are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, sharply and often doubly serrate, green above and paler, sometimes thinly pubescent on the veins beneath. Flowers are crowded into terminal corymbs borne on short lateral shoots; each small flower has five rounded pink to rose petals and numerous stamens that exceed the petals, giving the inflorescence a feathery aspect. The fruit is an aggregate of small glabrous to sparsely hairy follicles that split along the inner suture to release minute seeds.

Spiraea bella belongs to a complex of pink-flowered Himalayan spiraeas allied to S. canescens and S. japonica, within which leaf shape and indumentum provide the principal diagnostic characters. Long valued in gardens for its early-summer flowering, it functions ecologically as a nectar source for insects and a component of regenerating forest-edge scrub. It is widespread and locally common, and faces no recognised conservation threat across its broad native range.

Author: Sims · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flowers of the Himalaya

Rosaceae

Spiraea micrantha

by G & P Jürgens

Hook.f.

BhutanPG2011 83 ergebnis scaled
Bhutan Chogcham, 3000m June

Description

Spiraea micrantha is a deciduous shrub of the temperate forests and forest margins of the eastern Himalaya, native to Nepal, Bhutan, India and adjacent China, with around 208 documented occurrences (records from Britain and North America representing cultivated material). It grows in open mixed and conifer forest, woodland edges, scrub and along streambanks, typically between about 2500 and 3300 m. The photographed plant was recorded at Chogcham in Bhutan at 3000 m, flowering in June, when these mid-montane shrubs come into bloom at the start of the summer growing season.

The species is a much-branched shrub with slender, arching, glabrous to thinly pubescent reddish-brown branches. The leaves are alternate, simple and ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex and serrate to doubly serrate along the margin, glabrous or sparsely hairy and somewhat glaucous beneath, on short petioles. The inflorescences are lax, terminal, leafy-based corymbose panicles of numerous small flowers (the epithet micrantha denoting the small blooms); each flower has five rounded white to pinkish petals, a shallow campanulate hypanthium, and numerous exserted stamens longer than the petals. The fruit is a cluster of small, glabrous, dehiscent follicles.

Spiraea, of the family Rosaceae and subfamily Amygdaloideae (tribe Spiraeeae), is a north-temperate genus of ornamental shrubs; S. micrantha belongs to the group of Himalayan species with terminal panicle-like inflorescences, distinguished by its small flowers and acuminate, sharply serrate leaves. As a forest-margin shrub it is insect-pollinated and contributes to montane understorey structure. Widespread across the eastern Himalaya and locally common, it is not considered to be of conservation concern.

Author: Hook.f. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, A Monograph of the Genus Spiraea

Lamiaceae

Stachys melissifolia

by GP Jürgens

Benth.

BhutanPG2011 841
Bhutan Paro-Chu, 2400m July
Nepal 99 587 ergebnis
West-Nepal Garpung-Khola 3300m, July

Description

Stachys melissifolia is a perennial mint-family herb of the Himalaya and adjacent mountains, recorded from Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Pakistan, with around 146 occurrences in GBIF; under its current treatment the name is accepted for the Himalayan plant. It occupies forest margins, moist shaded banks, shrubberies and grassy slopes of the temperate and lower subalpine belt, broadly between 2000 and 3500 m. The photographs from the Paro Chu in Bhutan at about 2400 m and from the Garpung Khola in West Nepal at about 3300 m, both in July, show the species in flower during the summer monsoon in its typical mid-montane woodland-edge habitat.

The plant is an erect to ascending perennial with the quadrangular stems characteristic of the Lamiaceae, usually softly hairy. The leaves are opposite, ovate to oblong with a cordate to rounded base, crenate-serrate margins and a rugose, wrinkled surface, somewhat resembling those of balm (Melissa), as the epithet melissifolia denotes. The flowers are borne in distinct whorls (verticillasters) forming an interrupted terminal spike; the calyx is tubular-campanulate with five subequal teeth, and the bilabiate corolla is pinkish to purple with a short, erect upper lip and a spreading three-lobed lower lip. The fruit comprises four small ovoid nutlets enclosed in the persistent calyx.

Stachys is a large, cosmopolitan genus of the Lamiaceae subfamily Lamioideae, and its Himalayan members have been subject to repeated nomenclatural revision, several names having passed in and out of synonymy. The verticillate inflorescence and bilabiate corolla are adapted to pollination by bees and other long-tongued insects. Widely distributed through the temperate Himalaya, S. melissifolia is common and of no conservation concern.

Author: Benth. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Harley et al. Labiatae in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants

Caryophyllaceae

Stellaria congestiflora

by G & P Jürgens

H. Hara

Nepal 99 554 ergebnis
West-Nepal Churta-Khola 4230m, June

Description

Stellaria congestiflora is a high-alpine chickweed of the Himalaya, recorded from Nepal, China, Bhutan and India, a restricted and infrequently collected distribution reflected in its small number of georeferenced records. It grows in alpine meadows, on stony slopes, screes and the gravelly margins of streams and snowbeds at high elevations, generally well above 4000 m. The plant photographed at Churta-Khola in West Nepal at 4230 m in June is a characteristic occurrence in the cold, open alpine zone, flowering soon after snowmelt at the upper limit of vascular plant growth.

It is a small, tufted or mat-forming perennial herb arising from a slender, branched rootstock. The stems are short, slender and often densely clothed, bearing opposite, sessile, narrowly lanceolate to linear leaves. As the epithet indicates, the small white flowers are aggregated into congested, head-like terminal clusters subtended by leafy bracts, rather than borne in the open, spreading cymes typical of many relatives. Each flower has five sepals and five deeply bifid white petals, ten stamens and a superior ovary bearing three styles; the fruit is a capsule dehiscing by valves to release several small seeds.

Stellaria is a large, cosmopolitan genus of the Caryophyllaceae distinguished by the deeply two-cleft petals, and the dense, congested inflorescence of S. congestiflora, described by H.Hara, separates it from the looser-flowered Himalayan species. Its narrow, high-elevation range makes it potentially sensitive to alpine climate change and habitat shifts, though its remote habitat limits direct human pressure. As a cushion-like alpine herb it contributes to the sparse but specialised flora of the upper screes and snowbed margins.

Author: H. Hara · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Hara's Flora of Eastern Himalaya, monographic studies of Himalayan Stellaria (Caryophyllaceae)