Wednesday 16 February 2005

Meconopsis pseduovenusta - Photos In The Wild

Shika Shan, Nr. Zhongdien, Yunnan. 4,200m. A rarely seen plant flowering in July. David Rankin. Note with all these plants that the only distingishing feature between this species and the less well understood M. venusta is that this last species has a long narrow seed pod and M. pseudovenusta a short chubby one and this will not be obvious until some time after flowering. Always worth looking for old seeds pods from previous flowering in the area though these plants are probably monocarpic. A lovely image of this rare species from the Beima Shan, 2009. Hilary Birks.
Beima Shan, Yunnan, 2009. Hilary Birks. A lovely image taken in Yunnan by Xiao Wei. He is currently writing up his dissertation on Meconopsis for a higher degree at University in Texas. This shows well the defining feature which separates this from M. venusta of a short broad seed pod.

Seed pods - M. venusta would be longer and narrower. Another image from Yunnan by Xiao Wei.