New Species - Photos In The Garden

New Species - Photos In The Wild

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Meconopsis pseudohorridula. This species occurs in the Flora of China. It is described as dwarfish - ca. 9 cm. tall with a broad 5cm taproot and a leaf blade ovate or narrowly so with the margin pinnately lobed.	Meconopsis bijiangensis. A new species to be described by Ohba, Yoshida and Sun in the Journal of Japanese Botany late 2009/2010. Closely related to M. rudis and M. racemosa but differs by having large ellipsoid capsules up to 3.8 cms long with 3 or 4 grouves and dense spreading spine like hairs with raised blackish bases. It occurs in mid west Yunnan on the Biluo Xueshan Mts. between the Mekong and Salween at 3700 to 4000 m. This is the Gaoligong Shan. This range contains the impressive and unclimbed Meili Xueshan ( The Meili Snow mountain) There are images to be published including the isotype.
No Image Available	An image is available as a black and white drawing in the journal referenced below.
Meconopsis castanea. Another new species from the previous 3 authors in the same Journal; again found by Toshio Yoshida this time north of Fugong County in the same mountain range at a similar height mainly on the west side. It is described as intermediate between M. racemosa and M. bijianensis but with characteristic maroon or dark red petals only. Again images and the isotype image will be published. Illustrated in The Alpine Gardener. April 2011 Vol. 79 no. 1	Meconopsis nyingchiensis Zhou 1980 in Bull. Bot.Lab. N.-E Forest. Harbin. In the Flora of China this has been reduced to a synonym of M. simplicifolia. It is a relatively dwarf form of the plant from NW China.
Meconopsis biloba No current image but an excellent black and white drawing is published in Novon 19, 286-288 in Sept. 2009.
This species has been described by Li-Zhe An; Shu-Yan Chen and Lian Yong-Shan. It occurs in Lingtan Province in Gansu. It is closely related to M. quintuplinervia but is distinguished from this taxon by having uniquely bilobed blue/purple flowers. The lobing occurs between 1/3 and 2/3rds of the petals.	Meconopsis barbiseta. This species was left out when the website was originally constructed and was one of four new species described by Chinese botanists and listed and described by Stephen Haw in an Alpine Garden Society Bulletin. This image is taken from the M.lancifolia section of this website and taken by Martin Walsh. It is identical to the plant described as M. barbiseta in 1979 in a Chinese Journal. Grey-Wilson suggests it is similar to M.sinomaculata which he described - but it does not look like it all!! A mystery to be solved! There is a link under M. sinomaculata.
Meconopsis heterandra. Illustrated by Toshio Yoshida in Alpine garden Society Journal April 2011 - Vol .79 No. 1 This is very similar to a scapose M. pratti or racemosa with slight notching on the leaves.	M. pulchella. Described from Minaning SW Sichuan. as a purple blue species and illustrated by Toshio Yoshida on page 186 of the AGS Journal of April 2011 in Vol.79 part 1.
M. exilis. To be described by Toshio Yoshida as a new species from the Biluo Shan in West Yunnan. Described as similar to M compacta, polygonoides and M. lyrata. The first two were sunk many years ago by Taylor into M. lyrata. The sooner Chris Grey-Wilson adjudicates on these new species the better. There is clearly wide spread variation in some species and especially M. horridula relatives but giving each variation a species name may please the finder but makes life difficult for most others.	M. 'discigera' Toshio Yoshida in the AGS Journal April 2011 - which contains the proceedings 8th International conference - mentions a blue form of M. discigera and says this differs from the pale yellow one. All of this is discussed under M. discigera and has been well known for some years. However this does have some sympathy with the webmaster since species that are yellow and blue are almost non existance except as hybrids usually with. M. integrifolia. This is discussed under M discigera.
M.bikramii. Described in the Indian Journal of Forestry Vol 8 (1) 84-85,1985 This plant was described from a single location in the Himachal Pradesh in a valley near Koksar, Lahul at 3200 m. on 13th Juli 1977. It is descibed as perennial- which is highly unlikely and is very close to M. aculeata. It is illustrated with a black and white drawing and the distinguishing character is that some of the largest leaves are palmate. Difficult not to see this within the normal variation for M. aculeata.	M. manasluensis. Described in Phytotaxa 20:47 - 56 (2010) by Paul Egan. This is in the sub genus Discogyne - characterised by a disk between the ovary and the stigma and style. It is so far unique in this group by having mainly scapose flowers rather than the invariably racemose of the other five. See also the new Identification pages on the website.

Hybrids - Photos In The Garden

This is named 7/8ths. It was created from a M. x Cookei cross made by Leslie Drummond of Forfar on the East Coast of Scotland. He then back crossed this to M. punicea and then again back crossed with M. punicea producing a plant that is 7/8th M. punicea. This is a perennial plant, which is valuable, but not as large and refined a plant as the species. Nevertheless very interesting. It is just possible that this cross occurs in the wild and may account for reports that in the wild M. punicea can be perennial.	A cross between M. delavayi and M. quintuplinervia made by Leslie Drummond. Perennial with characters largely derived from M. quintuplinervia.
The cross between M. betonicifolia and M. grandis has been made many times.It was named x Sheldonii after the man who first made it. Most crosses probably used the Himalayan as opposed to the Chinese M. betonicifolia but a great variety of M. grandis have been used and there is much variability in the cross. This cross ended up in Ireland and was named Slieve Donard. The best blues are subjective but this is invariably without any trace of purple, vigorous, very perennial and in my opinion the best of many very similar big blue poppies.	This is the cross between M. simplicifolia and M. grandis and was originally called M. x Hybrida by Charles Puddle who first made it. This plant is growing in the garden of Avril and Leslie Drummond in Forfar on the east coast of Scotland. He has called it M. x Simplygrand. This shows the stem leaves of M. grandis but is otherwise a typical big blue poppy. It is interesting since this cross has probaly occured spontaneously in gardens many times or maybe even in the wild but not recognised.
Another hybrid blue poppy but actual parentage is not certain but probably a x Sheldonii. This is Mrs Jebbs. It is one of the most distinctive being a medium sized plant but with very cup shaped medium sized flowers. Sufficiently distinct to be worth adding to a collection and very long lived especially if regularly divided. Does not set seed.	Many of the big blue poppies are named after places or people associated with their origins. This is another sterile hybrid rescued from George Sherriff's garden at Ascrievie north of Dundee. The rather flat flower is typical but the differences between many of these blue hybrids is at best subtle. Growing in the garden of Fred Hunt in Invergowrie, Tayside.
Marit. Grown in Norway from Lingholm seed. The webmaster has also had five of these cream Meconopsis from Lingholm seed, they are perennial but sterile. The cream colour seems likely to be a backcross with either M integrifolia or more likely M. pseudointegrifolia. The fact that it is sterile supports this hypothesis since one would expect an albino plant to be white but also fertile. There are a number of cream hybrids between blue species and M. integ/pseudointeg.	The hybrid between M. punicea and M. quintuplinervia 'Old Rose' (left) and 'Satin' (right). Ian Christie.
Hybrids have been recorded between many unlikely species of Meconopsis in the garden. This is a hybrid between something like M. paniculata and M. horridula. It behaved like a standard evergreen monocarpic and died after flowering and set what looked like viable seed but this did not germinate. The growth form was M. paniculata but the buds and leaves spiny like M. horridula.	The same hybrid between M. delavayi and M. quintuplinervia as image 2 above growing in the webmasters garden. This is a nice perennial plant and easy to grow but not really as good as either parent.

Hybrids - Photos In The Wild