Bergenia stracheyi

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  • Bergenia
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B. stracheyi has oblong-obovate leaves with cuneate leaf base, whereas the low altitude species B. ciliata has orbicular to suborbicular leaves with cordate base.
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PLANT FOR ID 104 SMP JUN 09 Lahaul- Spiti:
Very few of these observed plants were flowering (in Last week of Jun 2009.)
This plant was just at the base of a huge rock few km further from Rohtang Pass.
I had to request the driver to stop the qualis suddenly when I spotted these flowers, which were higher up from the road.
Everybody
was eager to reach the first camp site in Chhatru in Lahaul after
tiring journey from Manali to Rohtang which took us 7 hours due to
traffic jams and bad condition of roads.

Looks like Bergenia to me! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergenia

I hope Bergenia stracheyi

Yes Bergenia stracheyi

Correctly identified. Flora of Lahaul-Spiti says common in glacial moraines and on moist rocks – I find the former habitat rather surprising, indeed likely to be an error.
Stewart recorded Bergenia stracheyi as very common at high altitudes growing on rocks in the open usually 3000-4200m (not typically the altitude of glacial moraines) in Kashmir. That fits with my experience. He recognised a variety which was smaller from Ladakh & Spiti – I have seen photos of it in Ladakh.
It is found commonly near passes in the Kulu Valley.
Flowers of the Himalaya say the common alpine species of the W. Himalaya from Afghanistan to Uttarakhand.
Flowers pink, white or greenish. Leaves often colour up reddish in autumn.

/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Red%20leaves-IMG_5468.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TbMmIttSSBg/T8B2aCpptQI/AAAAAAAAAKE/db5qLokXRhA/s1600/Bergenia+stracheyi.JPGhttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3IGUlAsGMs0/T8B48W_X9NI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/ZHo3JVJJ6AY/s1600/Bergenia+stracheyi+%282%29.JPG
Bergenia species from Paddar Valley J&K (2):
Request for ID confirmation

Bot. name: Bergenia stracheyi
Family: Saxifragaceae
Location: Paddar valley J&K.
Altitude: 3500 meters
Date: 15th June 2011

Yes … Very nice.
I had observed it on way to Spiti valley short distance after leaving Rohtang Pass.

Correctly identified. Flora of Lahaul-Spiti says common in glacial moraines and on moist rocks – I find the former habitat rather surprising, indeed likely to be an error.
Stewart recorded Bergenia stracheyi as very common at high altitudes growing on rocks in the open usually 3000-4200m (not typically the altitude of glacial moraines) in Kashmir. That fits with my experience. He recognised a variety which was smaller from Ladakh & Spiti – I have seen photos of it in Ladakh.
It is found commonly near passes in the Kulu Valley.
Flowers of the Himalaya say the common alpine species of the W. Himalaya from Afghanistan to Uttarakhand.
Flowers pink, white or greenish. Leaves often colour up reddish in autumn.

/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DSC_5902.JPG/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DSC_5903-0.JPG

Identification of the Bergenia Species : 3 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (2).
kindly help me the identification of the Bergenia Sp growing in high altitudes of Kashmir Himalaya

Very nice pictures! Isn’t it Bergenia stracheyi?

If from alpine region, it should be B. stracheyi only, it has oblong-obovate leaves with cuneate leaf base, whereas the low altitude species B. ciliata has orbicular to suborbicular leaves with cordate base.

Correctly identified. Flora of Lahaul-Spiti says common in glacial moraines and on moist rocks – I find the former habitat rather surprising, indeed likely to be an error.
Stewart recorded Bergenia stracheyi as very common at high altitudes growing on rocks in the open usually 3000-4200m (not typically the altitude of glacial moraines) in Kashmir. That fits with my experience. He recognised a variety which was smaller from Ladakh & Spiti – I have seen photos of it in Ladakh.
It is found commonly near passes in the Kulu Valley.
Flowers of the Himalaya say the common alpine species of the W. Himalaya from Afghanistan to Uttarakhand.
Flowers pink, white or greenish. Leaves often colour up reddish in autumn.
/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_0432.JPG
Fwd: Bergenia stracheyi growing at New York Botanical Garden : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (1)
Further to my recent posts about Bergenia. 
Came across Bergenia stracheyi growing in the rockery of the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx. 
I was on a lecture tour (mostly to North American Rock Garden Society chapters) which provided the opportunity for me to spend some time in the herbaria of the New York Botanical Garden (when speaking to the Manhattan Chapter) and Ann Arbor, Michigan (when speaking to the Great Lakes Chapter, NARGS and gave a seminar at the University about the ‘Himalayan Travels of Walter Koelz’  who with Thakur Rup Chand from Lahoul and their local collectors made extensive collections in the NW Himalaya including Kulu Valley, Lahoul & Ladakh in the 1930s; Koelz was a zoologist engaged by Russian NIcholas Roerich for the Urusvati Institute at Naggar, Kulu Valley and pressed a Kohli Memorial Gold Medal to the Herbarium, see: https://sites.google.com/a/shpa.org.uk/main/kohli-memorial-gold-medals (scroll down to 2011). 
Duplicate sets of pressed specimens collected for Roerich went to Ann Arbor and the New York Botanical Garden, where they were subsequently identified and labelled by Dr Ralph Stewart after he retired from being Principal of the Gordon College, Rawalpindi.  Stewart, whilst working in Pakistan regularly visited the New York Botanic Garden Herbarium.  
The best quality set of pressed specimens (with good field notes) I know of the flora of upper Kulu Valley and Lahoul anywhere in the world are at Ann Arbor, Michigan – far better than Kew or the Natural History Museum in London.  What a shame that the duplicate set of these lies, abandoned for 80 years “behind-the-scenes” at the Urusvati Institute – no doubt many of the thousands of specimens have rotted away or become infested by insects.
What a waste of such a hard-won resource.  I have tried, on 3 occasions, to gain access to what is left of the  specimens to undertake an initial assessment but have not been permitted entry……
This saddens me. Those is a senior position should have done something about it decades ago!

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Plant Id pahari Chai Uttarakhand : 1 high res. image.
This red leaf plant (initially green) collected from Bhojbasa Gomukh, is used to prepare tea. Can anyone id this

Appears Bergenia stracheyi

thank you sir will confirm

SK 3539 03 June 2022: 4 very high res. images.

Location: Kew, London, UK
Altitude: 19 m.
Date: 04 April 2022

Habit : Cultivated

Label not clearly visible.

Bergenia S******.

Zooming in first letter is S****** so consulted my RHS Plant Finder

There is one called Bergenia stracheyi.
However it has hair leaf margins so that can be ruled out.
It also rules out all the B. cordifolia cultivars.
Kew gardens …could be something new?
Sorry cannot help.

According to google search on ‘s’, stracheyi looks closest, but not sure.

Yes, possible as per images at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bergenia_stracheyi

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