Photographer : David Rankin
Taxonomy
This is a close relative of M. lancifolia. It is purple flowered and from Yunnan and adjacent Tibet and upper Burma. It is characterised by flowering entirely with basal scapes and can have up to 20 flowers on a robust plant. The anthers vary from cream to orange yellow and the flowers can be a very dark purple as are the filaments. The leaves have various degrees of prickles. There is no doubt this is a difficult plant to identify since it resembles M. pseudovenusta but this tends to have more glabrous leaves. M. venusta also has more glabrous leaves which are also more deeply divided. There are also forms of M. lancifolia that only have basal scapes and again these plants are very similar to M. impedita. Best current definition would be a robust multiscaped plant with purple flowers and slightly spiny non glabrous leaves.
Photograph Information : In flower at Kevock Nurseries near Edinburgh ( Stella And David Rankin ) from wild Sichuan seed.
Cultivation
Has been grown from seed several times since first described. There is little doubt that a mixture of Norwegian skill and climate can regularly produce flowering plants of a number of these Chinese purple flowered species. Cool shady conditions, not pricking seedlings on in any hurry and a watch for fungal infections in warm spells are basic guidelines in less favoured regions.
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Map Location
View Meconopsis World impedita in a larger map