A relook at our specimens of Urtica parviflora

[Gurcharan Singh]

Dear friends 

Visiting different areas in Western Himalayas I have often been confused with specimens with connate stipules mostly reported as U. parviflora Roxb (leaving aside U. hyperborea depicted on Flowers of India courtesy Prashant ji, a species growing in Ladakh and other places above altitudes of 3000 m), with some specimens very sparsely hairy with slender stinging hairs and other very densely hairy with robust stinging hairs. The confusion was confounded by treatment in eFlora of Pakistan and Enumeration of Flowering Plants of Nepal which consider U. parviflora as simple synonym of U. ardens Link. 

    Perhaps this confusion of mine was solved by treatment in eFlora of China which considers U. parviflora Roxb. and U. ardens link as distinct species and not synonyms, and both occurring in N W. India, Nepal and Sikkim. The two species are easily differentiated as under:

U. ardens: Stipules rounded at tip; leaf blade ovate to lanceolate, surface wrinkled especially when dry; margin sharply doubly serrulate; stem with numerous stinging hairs.

U. parviflora: Stipules slightly cleft or retuse at tip; leaf blade lanceolate or narrowly ovate; nearly smooth especially when dry, margin crenate or inconspicuously double-denticulate or serrulate; stem with few stinging hairs.

With this background my specimen at Flowers of India as U. ardens seems to be perfectly cited along with synonyms

http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Himalayan%20Nettle.html

as also following on our website (although synonym U. parviflora Roxb. in wrongly placed).

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/indiantreepix/evkPChbsAQ8

My mail discussing U. parviflora from Manali obviously is U. ardens

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/indiantreepix/XAWrIeSq1K0

Same is true of following uploaded by Balkar ji from Chakrata which is U. ardens

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/indiantreepix/Urtica$20parviflora/indiantreepix/zBG8pY7gf1o/Vf9PkoUqomUJ

Same is case with U. parviflora uploaded by Prashant ji from Joshimath. It is also U. ardens.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!topic/indiantreepix/RI3gIPTLJ3A

The question is what about real U. parviflora Roxb., it seems not presently represented in our database but after scrutiny of my photographs I could dig out the following as representing U. parviflora. Slightly parted stipules, sparsely hairy softer hairs and narrow leaves are easily seen.

Your valued comments please

Dr. Gurcharan Singh

Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089

http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/ 
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/

[J.M. Garg]

Forwarding again for any assistance in the matter please.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to indiantreepi...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to indian...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

--

With regards,
J.M.Garg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1

'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg. You can also use them for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.

For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group (largest in the world): http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix (around 2250 members & 1,80,700 messages on 31/1/14) or Efloraofindia website: https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/ (with a species database of more than 9000 species & 1,80, 000 images).

Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of India'. 

[J.M. Garg]

Forwarding again for any assistance in the matter please.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gurcharan Singh <sing...@gmail.com>
Date: 9 February 2014 14:14
Subject: [efloraofindia:181333] A relook at our specimens of Urtica parviflora
To: efloraofindia <indian...@googlegroups.com>

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to indiantreepi...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to indian...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Tabish]

See the attached 2017 paper. I think the two distinct species are Urtica parviflora (Syn: Urtica ardens) and Urtica himalayensis. The plant by Gurcharan ji in this post fits Urtica parviflora , and the one with more rounded leaves and prominently double-toothed margins should be Urtica himalayensis. Compare with the images in the paper. POWO still treats U. ardens as an accepted name and U. parviflora as synonym based on the Flora of Pakistan, which is quite outdated. I think one should follow the names in this 2017 paper.

   Regards

   Tabish

[J.M. Garg]

Thanks, Tabish ji

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "eFloraofIndia" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to indiantreepi...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/indiantreepix/e1186ba2-19d6-4b36-bfd8-27c1938e09e3n%40googlegroups.com.

--

With regards,
J.M.Garg

[Gurcharan Singh]

Thanks Tabish ji, this paper solves our problems especially this statement  "The taxon considered as U. ardens in Chen et al. (2003) therefore has to be correctly called U. himalayensis", especially when U. himalayensis is placed as synonym of U. ardens in Flora of china. We also know now U. ardens Link is synonym of U. parviflora, but not our specimens and those understood by Flora of China, which should go to U. himalayensis, double serrations, longer teeth and mostly cordate leaf base is diagnostic.    

http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Himalayan%20Nettle.html

https://groups.google.com/g/indiantreepix/c/evkPChbsAQ8

https://groups.google.com/g/indiantreepix/c/XAWrIeSq1K0

https://groups.google.com/g/indiantreepix/c/zBG8pY7gf1o/m/Vf9PkoUqomUJ

https://groups.google.com/g/indiantreepix/c/RI3gIPTLJ3A

[Tabish]

Dear Gurcharan ji,

   Thank you for scrutinizing all the plants posted in our databases in the light of this paper.

   Tabish

-------------------------------------------
www.flowersofindia.net
The waterhole of flower lovers

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "eFloraofIndia" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/indiantreepix/gotKtuH0Zd0/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to indiantreepi...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/indiantreepix/bae57d6d-738c-44c6-bb2a-8cbea664a32an%40googlegroups.com.