VALLEY OF FLOWERS, HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA

 

ROYLE'S WILLOW-HERB/ EPILOBIUM:

Royle's Willow-Herb is a perennial, erect or ascending herb. Stem-leaves are narrowly ovate to lanceolate, sometimes elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, hairless with faintly hairy margin and midvein, base narrow to rounded, margin densely toothed. Petals are pink to rose-purple. Stigma is round to broadly club-shaped, entire. Capsules are strigillose, glandular. Flower-stalks are long. Seeds are light brown, papillose, with short chalazal collar; coma white, detaching easily. Royle's Willow-Herb is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to Bhutan, at altitudes of 1400-3300 m.

SHOWY INULA/ INULA ORIENTALIS:

This flower was taken at the altitude of 11000ft a part of Distt. Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India. The Showy Inula, a member of the Sunflower family, is found at altitudes of 1,800 to 3,600 meters. A postal stamp was issued by the Indian Postal Department to commemorate this flower.

HIMALAYAN WHORLFLOWER/ MORINA LONGIFOLIA:

Himalayan Whorlflower is a beautiful evergreen perennial herb from the Himalayas. It adds charm to theValley of Flowers of Himachal Pradesh, where it grows in abundance. Himalayan Whorlflower is found in the Himalayas, from Kashmir to Bhutan, at altitudes of 3000-4000 m.

ROYLE'S LARKSPUR/ DELPHINIUM ROYLEI:

Royle's Larkspur is a herb with simple stem or with a few branches, densely bristly. Sepals are deep blue. Royle's Larkspur is found in Himalayan region.

HIMALAYAN FLEABANE/ ERIGERON MULTIRADIATUS:

Himalayan fleabane is a beautiful perennial with erect hairy stem. Petals or ray florets are dark purple, long thread like, spreading. The central disk is yellow. 

HIMALAYAN ASTER/ ASTER HIMALAICUS:

Himalayan Aster is a low-growing spreading leafy perennial herb with numerous very narrow lilac ray-florets, and a yellow or purple-brown center. Aster is found on open slopes in Eastern Himalayas, from C. Nepal to Sikkim and SW China, at altitudes of 3600-4500 m. 

CREEPING ASTER/ ASTER DIPLOSTEPHIOIDES:

Creeping aster is a neat clump forming plant producing large lilac mauve flowers. This is a low growing aster, and almost creeps. It has lance like leaves. Ray florets are lilac, very long and narrow, somewhat bending backwards. The central disk is first blackish, then orange.

FADING HIMALAYAN ASTER/ ASTER ALBESCENS:

Fading Himalayan Aster is a rambling shrub with rather large lanceshaped pointed leaves, and with numerous small flower-heads with prominent lilac ray-florets,borne in flat-topped clusters. Fading Himalayan Aster is found in the Himalayas, from Kashmir to SW China and Myanmar, at altitudes of 2100-3600 m.

HIMALAYAN BOG STAR/ PARNASSIA NUBICOLA:

Himalayan Bog Star is a perennial herb easily distinguished by its solitary white flower borne on a slender stem, with a single stalkless, stem-clasping ovate leaf arising from below the middle of the stem, and many many stalked leaves at the base.Himalayan Bog Star is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to SE Tibet, at altitudes of 2900-4300 m.

PURPLE JERUSALEM SAGE/ PHLOMIS BRACTEOSA: 

Purple Jerusalem Sage is an erect hairy perennial. Leaves are heart-shaped, toothed and have stalks. Each leaf pair occurs at right angles to the next. Pink-purple flowers appear in few large whorls in an interrupted spike. All parts are covered with hairs.

ALPINE FORGET ME NOT/ MYOSOTIS ALPESTRIS: 

This small blue flower, with a yellow eye, is the charming forget me not flower, and is quite a common wildflower in the Himalayas.The name "Forget-me-not" was borrowed from Old French "ne m'oubliez pas" and first used in English in 1532. In the 15th century Germany, it was supposed that the wearers of the flower will not be forgotten by their lovers. This is a flower connected with romance and tragic fate. It was often worn by ladies as a sign of faithfulness and enduring love.True Blue. Alpine Forget-Me-Not is found in the Himalayas, from Pakistan to Bhutan, at altitudes of 3000-4300 m.

TRAILING BELLFLOWER /CYANANTHUS LOBATUS: 

Trailing Bellflower is a perennial herb with bright blue-purple flowers with a prominent sepal tube covered with black hairs. Flowers are hairy in the throat. Trailing Bellflower is found in the Himalayas, from Himachal Pradesh to SW China, at altitudes of 3300-4500 m. 

DIVERSE LEAVED SENECIO /SENECIO RAPHANIFOLIUS:    

Diverse Leaved Senecio is a perennial. The lower leaves are divided pinnately, rounded terminally. Beautiful yellow flowers appear in compound-corymb shaped heads. Flowers are shaped like Cinerarias, which belong to Senecio genus too. However, the central dark-brown disk is larger than the "petals" or the ray florets. The ray florets themselves are yellow, elliptic, grooved and notched at the tip. Light and cool tendency, tolerant to wetness. Found on the grassy slopes of the Himalayas at altitudes of 2300-3900 m. The older name Senecio diversifolius has been changed to Secencio raphanifolius. The species name raphanifolia means fast appearing leaves. 

CLASPING-LEAF BALSAM/ IMPATIENS AMPLEXICAULIS:

Clasping-Leaf Balsam is an annual herb. Stem is square in cross-section, with glands at nodes, hairless, simple or few branched. Leaves are opposite in lower part of stem, alternate in upper part of stem, stalkless. Leaf blade is oblong or oblong-lanceshaped base rounded or cordate, stem-clasping, with globose glands, margin saw-toothed throughout, teeth mucronulate, tip long-pointed. Flowers are borne in umbel or raceme-like. Lower sepal is obliquely sack-like, abruptly narrowed into an incurved short spur. Upper petal is nearly circular, tip is rostellate. Capsule is subcylindric. Seeds black-brown, obovoid. Clasping-Leaf Balsam is found in the Himalaya at altitudes of 2700-3200 m.

JADWAR/JUDWAR/ NIRBISHI/ NIRBISI/ NIRVISI / DELPHINIUM DENUDATUM:   

Jadwar is critically endangered Himalayan herb, which was once commonest species. It is distinguished by its relatively small blue or violet flowers, borne in a widely branched inflorescence with a few spike-like clusters. Upper inner petals are white, the others blue. Jadwar is found in the Himalayas, from Pakistan to C. Nepal, at altitudes of 1500-2700 m. Medicinal uses:  It is one of the important drugs used as indigenous medicine in India, especially in Unani medicine. The roots of the plant are reported to be useful in a variety of ailments such as aconite poisoning, brain diseases, fungal infection, piles and toothache as analgesic and astringent.

PAIRED FLOWER LOUSEWORT /PEDICULARIS PORRECTA:    

Paired Flower Lousewort is a perennial characterized by lax flower spikes or heads, having 2 flowers each. Flowers are reddish purple, Bracts are leaf-like, broadly ovate, with short broad petioles, as long as the calyx. Paired Flower Lousewort is found on open grassy slopes, in close turfs, in grassy hollows on open hillsides in the Himalayas, from Chamba to C Nepal and S Tibet, at altitudes of 3600-4500 m.

VIOLET DANDELION/ CICERBITA MACRORHIZA:

Beautiful violet flowers look like dandelions. A perennial plant with thick woody root-stock, and tufted, branched, prostrate stems. Leaves are variable, pinnately lobed, again like dandelions. Lobes usually rounded. Flower heads mauve blue, often drooping, in branched terminal domed clusters. Violet Dandelion is found at the altitudes of 3300-4300 m.

HIMALAYAN DAISY / CREMANTHODIUM ARNICOIDE:

Himalayan Daisy is an eye-catching wild-flower with yellow daisy-like flower-with a dark central disk. The species name arnicoides means resembling Arnica flowers. Nodding flower-heads are borne several, in a spike-like cluster.  Bracts at the base of the flower-head are elliptic pointed, fused at their bases. Basal leaves are carried on long, winged stalks, and are up to a foot long, ovate-oblong, coarsely toothed. Stem leaves are progressively smaller, more pointed, and stem-clasping. Himalayan Daisy is found in the Himalayas, from Pakistan to SW China, at altitudes of 3300-4800 m. 

ERECT CATMINT / NEPETA ERECTA:

Erect Catmint is a wildflower found in the forests and open slopes of the Himalayas, at altitudes of 2100-3600 m. Flowers are large, blue to blue-purple, with a curved flower-tube much enlarged at the mouth and with a large lower lip, borne in separated whorls. The whorls are subtended by longer leaves. 

HORNED LOUSEWORT, LOUSEWORT/ PEDICULARIS: 

Horned Lousewort, the curious species, inhabits tough and sometimes inaccessible areas of the Himalayan cold deserts. The plants are tough and sturdy and the corolla of these flowers are closed in a ball-like fashion to cover the delicate vital parts such as stamens and stigma from the outside pressures. The flowers have interesting cultural use in certain Himalayan areas. The flowers are considered an integral offering to please Goddess Kali and get one's wishes fulfilled. Further, no religious ceremony is considered to be complete without the offering of these flowers in the first prayers. The women also make garlands from the flowers to greet each other on important religious occasions and to garland Goddess Kali during festivals. Flower tube is narrow and hairy. The upper lip of the flower is s-shaped or spirally curved with slender two-lobed beak.

If misidentified any, Pls write here.

Copy Right: Dr Lalit Mohan
Dr Lalit mohan acknowledge http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/himalayan.html

BIRDS OF HIMALAYA:

                                   STREAKED ROSE FINCH (M): 

I have taken this photograph at the altitude of 4000m/13120ft, Near Pindari Glacier, Uttrakhand, India.       

SNOW PARTRIDGE:           HIMALAYAN GRIFFIN:

SNOW PARTRIDGE: I have taken this Photograph at the altitude of 4600m/15100ft near Pindari Glacier, Uttrakhand, India.

HIMALAYAN GRIFFIN: I have taken this Photograph at the altitude of 2800m/ 9200ft near Narkanda Shimla,India.            
                                                       

 DARK BREASTED ROSE FINCH (M & F)

I have taken these Photographs at the altitude of 4000m/13200ft near Pindari Glacier, Uttrakahnd, India.                                                     

                                                                                                            

BLUE FRONTED REDSTART (M & F) 

I have taken these Photographs at the altitude of 3900m/12800ft near Pindari Glacier, Uttrakhand, India.                                                                         

           COMMON MOORHEN:

I have taken this photograph at the altitude of 5300m/ 17400ft East Kamet Glacier, Uttrakhand, India. This is probably the highest attitudinal record for this specie. Earlier it was recorded in Nepal at 4575m/15000ft.

GRANDALA (F & M)

I have taken these Photographs at the altitude of 4650m/15250ft near Pindari Glacier, Uttrakhand, India. 

BROWN ROCK CHAT:         WHITE WAGTAIL:

BROWN ROCK CHAT: I have taken this Photograph at the altitude of 3500m/ 11500ft at Milam Village, Uttrakhand, India.

WHITE WAGTAIL:I have taken this Photograph at the altitude of 5200m/17000ft East Kamet Glacier, Uttrakhand, India.                                                           

WHITE CAPED WATER RED START:                  WINTER WREN:

WHITE CAPED WATER REDSTART: I have taken this Photograph at the altitude of 3900m/12800ft near Pindari Glacier Uttrakahnd, India.  

WINTER WREN: I have taken this Photograph at the altitude of 4000m/13120ft near Pindari Glacier, Uttrakhand, India.                                                                                     

YELLOW BILLED CHOUGH: 

I have taken this photograph at the altitude of 4700m/ 15420ft, Vasudhara Tal, Garhwal Himalaya, Uttrakhand, India.

Copy Right: Dr Lalit Mohan