Knowing Orchids Seriatim

# g. Satyrium nepalenseD. Don

Habit: Herbaceous (terrestrial)

Family: Orchidaceae

Distribution: Pakistan to South West China, Nepal Himalayas

Altitude range: 1500 – 4000 m average sea level

Habitat: Subtropical to Alpine Meadows; growing open grassy slopes

Flowering: June - September

Reference(s): (Polunin & Stainton 1984)

Photo: Nagarkot, Central Nepal

*Polunin, O. & Stainton, A. (1984) Flowers of the Himalaya. U.K.: Oxford University Press.

Knowing Orchids Seriatim

# f. Pleione humilis (Smith) D. Don

Habit: Herbaceous

Family: Orchidaceae

Distribution: Central Nepal Himalayas to South East China, Burma

Altitude range: 2000 – 3000 m average sea level

Habitat: Temperate zones; growing on rocks and steep banks

Flowering: October - November

Reference(s): (Polunin & Stainton 1984)*

Photo: Olangchunggola, Kanchanjunga Conservation Area, Eastern Nepal. 

*Polunin, O. & Stainton, A. (1984) Flowers of the Himalaya. U.K.: Oxford University Press.

Knowing Orchids Seriatim

# e. Spiranthus sinensis(Pers.) Ames

Habit: Herbaceous (terrestrial)

Family: Orchidaceae

Distribution: Afganistan to South East China through Nepal Himalayas, Australia

Altitude range: 1000 – 4500 m average sea level

Habitat: Subtropical to Alpine Meadows; growing open slopes and cultivated areas

Flowering: April - August

Reference(s): (Polunin & Stainton 1984)*

Photo: Nagarkot, Central Nepal

* Polunin, O. & Stainton, A. (1984) Flowers of the Himalaya. U.K.: Oxford University Press.

Knowing Orchids Seriatim

# d. Pleione praecox (Smith) D. Don

Habit: Herbaceous (forest epiphyte)

Family: Orchidaceae

Distribution: Uttar Pradesh to South West China through Nepal Himalayas

Altitudinal range: 1800 – 2500 m average sea level

Habitat: Subtropical to temperate zones; growing on rocks and steep mossy banks

Flowering: October - November

Reference(s): (Polunin & Stainton 1984)*

Photo: on the way to Curriee – Kalinchowk, Gaurishankar Conservation Area, Central Nepal; taken while growing on Quercus semicarpifolia (Oak) tree trunk.

*Polunin, O. & Stainton, A. (1984) Flowers of the Himalaya. U.K.: Oxford University Press.

Knowing Orchids Seriatim

# c. Coelogyne punctulataLindley

Habit: Herbaceous (epiphytic)

Family: Orchidaceae

Distribution: Eastern Nepal to South West China

Altitudinal range: 900 – 2100 m average sea level

Habitat: Subtropical to temperate zones

Flowering: May

Reference(s): (Stainton 1988)*

Photo: on the way to Olangchunggola, Kanchanjunga Conservation Area, Eastern Nepal.

*Stainton, A. (1988) Flowers of the Himalaya (A supplement). U.K.: Oxford University Press.

Knowing Orchids Seriatim

# b. Coelogyne cristataLindley

Habit: Herbaceous (epiphytic)

Family: Orchidaceae

Distribution: Himalayas

Altitudinal range: 1000 – 2500 m average sea level

Habitat: Subtropical to temperate zones; growing on rocks

Flowering: February – April

Reference(s): (Polunin & Stainton 1984)*

Photo: on the way from Birethanti to Ulleri, Annapurna Conservation Area, Central Nepal.

*Polunin, O. & Stainton, A. (1984) Flowers of the Himalaya. U.K.: Oxford University Press.

Knowing Orchids Seriatim

# a. Calanthe plantagineaLindley

Habit: Herbaceous (terrestrial)

Family: Orchidaceae

Distribution: west Himalayas, Nepal and Bhutan

Altitudinal range: 1500 – 2100 m average sea level

Habitat: Subtropical to temperate zone; edge of forests; steeply rocky landscapes

Flowering: January – April

Reference(s): (Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001)*

Photo taken: on the way to Thulo Syafru Village, Langtnag National Park, Rasuwa Nepal 

*Rajbhandari, K. R. & Bhattarai, S. (2001) Beautiful Orchids of Nepal. Kathmandu: Authors.

Never Let Me Go - speakers confirmed.

We have five speakers confirmed for the next Cardiff sciSCREEN event to be held on Wednesday March 23rd after a screening of Never Let Me Go directed by Mark Romanek. This month's event is being sponsored by Globalising European Bioethics Education (GLEUBE) who study the ethical controversies brought about by advances in biology and medicine and is part of Cardiff University's Big Ideas in Science month.

Speakers include Dr. Mark Cutter who is based at the School of Public Health and Clinical Studies at the University of Central Lancashire; Dr. Joan Haran who is based at the ESRC centre for the Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (Cesagen); Dr. Ilyas Khan who is based in the School of Biosciences, Cardiff University; Dr. David Mellor who is based at the Graduate School of Education, Bristol University and Dr. Andrew Edgar from the Cardiff School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University.

The discussion will cover a number of themes brought up by the film including the realities of tissue engineering, cloning and the media, the ethics of organ donation, the philosophy of art and domination and political consciousness.

Eigenvectors galore.

Calling all stats and R aficionados. Legendre & Legendre's classic book Numerical Ecology, the bible for so many biodiversity scientists, is now available in the Use R! series from Springer. The book contains lots of R code to show you how to do multivariate and spatial analyses. It is a veritable treasure trove of statistical tools and wisdom.

Langtang National Park

Langtang National Park (LNP) established in 1976 to conserve unique flora and fauna of the region is situated in north of Central Nepal covering Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Sindhupalchowk districts. The first Himalayan National Park of Nepal is located between the latitudes 28º - 28 º20' N and longitudes 85º15' - 86º E, covering an area of 1,710sq.km. The altitude variation of the park ranges from 790m – on the Bhotekoshi river basin, to the peak of Langtang Lirung (7,225m). 

Location of LNP in Nepal's map (left) and LNP boundary covering parts of three different districts  (right); Photo: Madan K. Suwal

The park is rich in biodiversity with extreme variation in climatic conditions from Tropical to Alpine. According to Malla et.al. 1976 the park harbors 17 different vegetation types. Though this data seems quite outdated because every year several species gets explored and added to national list by various scientific researches, Malla et.al 1976 pointed out 911 species of vascular plants which seems quite a high figure in a small area of 1710 square kilometer. Similarly a research done by the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) showed that there are 345 species of birds,, 46 species of mammals, 30 species of fish and some 11 species of herpeto-fauna living inside the park territory. Some notable fauna includes mammals like Snow leopard, Musk deer, Clouded leopard etc. along with National bird – the Impeyan pheasant.

Langtang-Kyangjing Valley: A landscape of LNP at an altitude of 3700m with a view of  Himalayas on North-East aspect: Photo by Bishnu Timilsina using awesome H50 Sony camera on 20th October, 2009.

The park is also characterized by the wetlands of international importance – the Ramsar Site.  The Gosaikund lake series comprising 13 major lakes and some 108 smaller ones were included in ramsar site list in September, 2007. 

Please have a look on photo posted right below: this is Gosaikund Lake situated at an altitude of 4380m from mean sea level. The trail seen on left side of lake is route to a pass – the Lauribina La (also called Gosikunda pass) with altitude around 4640m. Settlements on one corner are hotels and lodges. There are no any permanent human settlements around Gosaikunda but we can see many herders’s shed if we visit the site on season.

The Holy Gosaikund Lake, 4380 m; Photo was taken from Deurali ~ 4600m on 12th July, 2008.

Beside scientific importance, the lake series are equally significant in terms of cultural and religious perspective. Every year during the full moon of July (in August some year) Buddhist and Hindu people from around the world visits the lake, take religious bath and worships in a common temple. 

KhadaNanda Acharya, a Masters' (Botany) student from Tribhuvan University taking a holy bath in Gosaikund Lake; 24th August, 2010.

The principal lake of the series i.e. Gosaikund is considered to be the lake of Lord Shiva (the destroyer according to the Hindu Myth; whereas Bishnu is Protector and Bramha is Creator). Photo given below is a snap of pilgrimage visiting Gosaikund Lake:

A glimpse of Pilgrimage to Holy Gosaikunda Lake; 24th August, 2010.

Dedication

Though I have started my high altitude journey with Annapurna Sanctuary route to Annapurna Base Camp in 2007 I consider trip to Langtang National Park (LNP) Rasuwa as my first research visit. I’ve visited “The Land of Tamang - Rasuwa” in 2008 for the first time as a researcher in Expedition Langtang’08. Obviously as a field researcher and linguistic facilitator I had many responsibilities in one hand and a golden opportunity to understand mountain diversity in another. I got to experience many aspects of Mountains (Himalayas) and its inhabitants during that expedition. In this sense I was in a win-n-win condition getting chance to sharpen my research skills and understanding in one of the calmest places of world – The Himalayas. So I would like to dedicate my first post ever to Expedition Langtang’08 – a pioneer research project to pave my way towards research field.

This was a collaborative team of students with two Nepali from Tribhuvan University Nepal and six British studying at University of Edinburgh Scotland, U.K.  This was the TEAM:

From left Russell Galt, Stephen Woroniecki, Corrinne Boddy, Me, Ritesh Thapa (back), Elaine Anderson and Alice Thomson

 Research was conducted on eight different villages from LNP and its adjoining areas to understand the indigenous communities’ attitudes and perception about LNP and its conservation strategies. To compare people’s perceptions and expectations with park authorities understanding and management strategies was one of the major objectives. Please visit www.expeditionlangtang.com for more details regarding the project and the team.

The Dark side of diversity

Recently Pärtel et al. (2010) introduced a simple but intriguing idea that the fraction of 'missing' species from a site provides insights that can be used to understand biodiversity loss.

In cosmology dark matter is thought to make up the dominant fraction of the matter in the known universe. Ordinary matter, the stuff we see, makes up a small fraction of total matter. Can the same be said of species diversity at a given site? The authors of this paper define dark diversity as the fraction of species we do not see at a site but are potentially capable of inhabiting it within the regional pool. Ecologists have long known that local diversity is typically a small fraction of the total diversity in the regional pool, but few have focused on quantifying the variation in dark diversity from site to site. A global analysis presented for plant diversity reveals interesting spatial patterns in dark diversity. In particular, dark diversity is relatively lower in temperate regions where 'ordinary' diversity represents a greater ratio of the total potential pool than in many parts of the tropics. 

The value of the concept can be seen when we ask whether dark diversity in a locality is increasing rapidly over time, in particular, because of local extinction due to human disturbance. As long as dark diversity is high the potential for ecosystem restoration remains. However, extensive and persistent extinction would also erode dark diversity, and eventually reduce the options for restoration; a worrying possibility for many areas of the world. 

The authors offer some advice about how to decide whether a species can potentially inhabit a site but this is a nontrivial decision. For example, many species may persist as sink populations. By definition these species could not exist in a community in the absence of immigration. The only way to measure this component of local diversity is to isolate a community. Should sink species ('shadow' diversity?) be excluded from consideration? These and other questions arise when thinking about dark diversity, but this does not detract from the value of the concept. This notion is ripe for theoretical analysis.

Reference:

Pärtel, M., Szava-Kovats R., Zobel M. (2010) Dark diversity: shedding light on absent species. TREE online early.

Next sciSCREEN - Never Let Me Go - March 23rd

The next Cardiff sciSCREEN will be on Wednesday March 23rd at Chapter Arts Centre in Cinema One from 6pm when we will discuss a screening of Never Let Me Go as part of Cardiff University's Big Ideas: science show month. Directed by Mark Romanek, the film is based on the book of the same name written by Kazuo Ishiguro, and stars Keira Knightly, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield. Topics, times, sponsor and speakers to be confirmed soon - so watch this space.

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Free conservation biology textbook: Conservation Biology for All

Free conservation biology textbook: Conservation Biology for All

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In honor of the international year of biodiversity, Oxford University Press has made this book available as a free download. Get your copy today! We think you'll enjoy it.