News - March 2010

Dr. Chris Grey-Wilson recently talked to the Meconopsis Group at the Royal Botanic gardens at Edinburgh. Dr Grey-Wilson is currently researching and writing a new monograph on the genus. He talked particularly about the group of species related to M. horridula. and described them as an aggregate of species still actively evolving. There are a number of quite clear cut species but many plants that do not fit in. Quite certainly what we grow as M. horridula in gardens is not that species but something much nearer the Chinese species M.pratti though it is clear that it will be called M.horridula by seed merchants and seed lists as that species for some time. The only other species that does grow relatively easily in cultivation is M. rudis - another Chinese species. I will gradually amend this site to take account of the way this story is unfolding. If you want to read further on this, then I shall use the page on this site of M. horridula to expand this.

News - January 2010

I tend to add pictures as the species are submitted to me.  I am not familiar with a number of species and so far have not used herbarium specimens.  Margaret Thorne submitted pictures which we decided were M. sinuata, however, Margaret now thinks these are related to M. lyrata and I tend to agree.  She has consulted the herbarium at RBG Edinburgh on this little known species and this rather confirms the new diagnosis.  The last picture on the M. sinuata page is from Martin Walsh and this does seem to be the genuine thing.  These pages have now been changed.