Wednesday 2 February 2005

Meconopsis impedita - Photos In The Wild

Dr. Chris Grey-Wilson has identified this and the following as M. impedita.Taylor showed this species is very close to M. pseudovenusta and except for the seed capsule with M venusta too. There are images on the website of M. pseudovenusta and viewers should compare them - they are probably not easily separable in the field.Serkhyem La, 4,600. John Mitchell. Same location as previous - note this plant shows a more regular outline to the leaf.Taylor suggests M pseudovenusta has more glabrous leaves, more rigid pedicels and occasional agglutinization of the scapes when compared to M. impedita. John Mitchell.
Habitat shot on the Serkhyem La at 4,600m. John Mitchell. Seed pods. These are similar in M. iimpedita and M. pseudovenusta but would distinguish the very similar M. venusta. Thia last species, described from the Chungtien plateau, has only been seen once for nearly 100 years and was described by Taylor as having a very restricted distribution; it was reportedlly flowered in cultivation by Jens Nielson. John Mitchell.