Sikkim 2010

[Johan Nilson]

I decided to finely post some pictures from the trip to Sikkim I did last year.
At the end of september/begining of october I had the opportunity to visit Sikkim for 3 weeks. This late in the season there are still a lot of interesting plants to be seen.    
I will start with some landscapes..

[ashley]

Very interesting Johan; I look forward to seeing more

Did you do this trip independently or go with an organised group?

[Johan Nilson]

Over all we had really nice weather. Maybe one or two days with rain but mostly sun..
Here are some plants from Yumthang valley

1- Primula denticulata
2- Roscoea auriculata
3- Pleurospermum aff. candollei
4- Crawfurdia sp
5- Arisaema in fruit
6- Corydalis juncea
7- Primula dickieana

[Johan Nilson]

Hi Ashley,

It was just me and two friends, plus guide and driver. We made out the plans for our rout more or less ourselves and our guide arranged with transport and accommodation etc. So besides the local guide which you must have with you at all times we felt absolutely independent:-)

[Johan Nilson]

Here are some more... A lot of nice berries in nice colors..

1- Cyrtomium macrophyllum (together with Swedish tobacco box for size comparson;D)
2- Gaultheria aff. hookeri
3- Ophiopogon sp
4- Thalictrum aff. reniforme
5- Spiranthes sinensis
6- Tsuga/Abies forest
7- Paris aff. polyphylla
8- Paris aff.violacea

[Johan Nilson]

...just some more berries before I move on to more flowering plants 

Berberis sp
Euonymus sp
Panax pseudo-ginseng X2
Podohyllum hexandrum
Rosa aff. macrophylla
Tripterospermum sp
Ephedra gerardiana
Zanthoxylum sp

The last picture has nothing to do with berries. It shows leach and finger, both filled with my blood..

[ian mcenery]

Great pictures Johan. Love the Paris in seed and the scenery. Great to see plants in the wild or is it still wilderness thanks

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks for posting this super series of pictures Johan.  What a wonderful time you must have had, great to see these plants in the wild.

[cohan]

Good to see these!

[Johan Nilson]

I made my first trip to Sikkim in October 2007 and I also visited the area in May/June 2009. So this trip that I am posting from now is the third in order. This means a lot of things. First it is amazing to return to a certain place that you have visited before. You have a lot of old memories that is coming back to you. Then there is always some peak that you wanted to look behind or some hillside that you just wanted to explore that you did not get around to on the first trip. On a second/third trip you get to know the habitats of things which means that you also see a lot more plants. Also seeing plants in their habitat at different time of the year of course gives you alot of understanding about them. So there is a lot of good things about returning....
there is of course some bad things as well. In October 2007, we were completely alone in north Sikkim and Yumthang valley. Last year it was crowded of mostly Indian tourist. Well, there are only a few of them who are actually tracking, most of them just go to certain scenery's, waterfalls, viewpoints and take pictures of them self's. Then they also dump a lot of garbadge/trash into the nature.   Sorry about the negativity here, I got all agitated thinking about how we saw tourists without any respect throwing rubbish into nature. In general the people we met were fantastic!
But the place did not feel as wild now as it did in 2007. But it was enough if you just went for 5 minutes away from the main road to get the feeling of some wilderness.
Sikkim is covered with protected and restricted areas where you are not allowed to go. You can sometimes get permits for the protected areas, but not for the restricted (or was it the other way around?). I guess that a lot of the wilderness is getting protected in this way too. As long as there is a threat from China (bordering Sikkim in the north), the protected/restricted areas will remain.   

[Johan Nilson]

here is some more...

Abies spectabilis- with its very atractive blue cones
Aconitum aff. volubile
Astragalus donianus
Asarum himalaicum var. tibeticum
Rhododendron cinnabarinum blandfordiforme
Rhododendron thomsonii
Saxifraga sp
Rhodiola chrysanthemifolia

[Johan Nilson]

Well, here are some more pictures from higher altitudes..
The roads were somtimes in terrible shape. Here we had to wait for a while for the road to be fixed.
2. Looking north from Tanguu, into tibet. No westerners are aloude to enter this valley..
3 Bergenia purpurascens
4 Lomanthogonium sp
5 Aconitum aff. hookerii
6 Aster aff. diplostephioides
7 Cassiope fastigiata
8-9 Cremanthodium aff oblongatum
10 Gentiana sp

[Johan Nilson]

this,, my last once for tonight,,

Pterosephalum hookerii
Adrosace sp
Cortiella aff. hookerii
Saussurea sp

[Hjalmar]

Great pictures Johan! I liked the leaves of Panax pseudo-ginseng and also that delicate Spiranthes. Hope I'll have a chance to hear you talk about your trip.

You forgot to mention exactly how enormously huge Swedish snuff boxes are, probably not everyone is aware of that!

[Johan Nilson]

Thanks guys for your encouraging words! It was indeed a wonderful trip and fantastic to see these plants in the wild.

Hjalmar,
I also think that the Panax is great. It varied a lot, from leaves like this, 'really deeply lobed' and to ones with no lobed leaved at all. All having this red-black berries.

Yes, I should definitely have explained more about the Swedish Snuff box. Apologies to everyone who is not familiar with the Swedish Snuff boxes.  The box has just been measured and it is 7cm i diameter and 2.5 cm thick.

Attaching an old picture (from 2009) of a snuff box together with a Arisaema griffithii.

& Meconopsis simplicifolia with the box


Johan