Trees and plants in Bhutan

The Stately Cypress trees

                           Bhutan, a Himalayan kingdom in the Eastern part of the great mountain range is home to many beautiful plant species. The lush green landscape is decorated with flowers, ferns, lichens, and conifers. Cypress the national tree of Bhutan is a stately conifer that can grow very tall. It is often seen growing along with pines and Junipers and Rhododendron.

The Cypress Tree

Leaves of Cypress Tree


                                The flowering season of Rhododendron comes to an end by June, yet I was lucky to catch what was probably the last tree with blossoms on my way up to the Taktshang Monastery.

The filamentous strands of Lichen hanging down from the stately coniferous trees made me go crazy clicking!

The close cousins of these Lichens grow on rocks and are called crustose Lichens. They help in breaking down the rocks by secreting acids that dissolve stones.

Many ferns grow in gay profusion in the damp and shady areas, adding to the beauty

The Iris growing wild at Dogchu La made everyone think that they were the blue Poppies, the national flower of Bhutan.  Sadly enough, Poppies do not flower before mid July!

The yellow flowers of Calthe palustris made a yellow carpet at the highest point in Chelle La

There were wild Strawberries too. We did pluck a few and tasted!

There were many more pretty wild flowers at Chelle La which I clicked

The Dogwood or Cornus species were almost everywhere making a pretty sight!

The Dog rose and Angelweed were not to be left behind in adding beauty to the landscape!

The Thimphu Dzong was a gay profusion of different colours of roses, and it would not be fare to not share them here.

So that was a glimpse of the beautiful flora of Bhutan. I plan to go back during the flowering season of the exquisite Himalayan Blue Poppy and share them with you. Till then Bye and have a wonderful day.