Taxonomy
Originally collected by Wilson in west Sichuan as M. napaulensis and north of Wolong. An evergreen monocarpic species The plant is dainty with well-cut ferny leaves with short squat fruits (this is subsp. wilsonii). A second subsp. australis occurs in NW Yunnan and Burma and was first collected by Forrest. This is similar but with coarser leaves. Curtis Botanical Magazine (2002) 23,176. Professor David Rankin has descibed a new sub species from NE Yunnan.
M. violaceae is clearly very close to M wilsoniicomplex and also to the purple form of M. wallichii and these form a sub group of blue / purple monocarpic evergreens.
The images of M. wilsonii were taken at Glendoick of plants grown by Peter Cox.
David Rankin is publishing an account of the species featured in the images currently shown under wild images of M. wilsonii as M. wilsonii orientalis. I will add the reference as soon as I have obtained it.
Cultivation
This has been grown and successfully flowered near Edinburgh by Professor Rankin and very beautiful it is too. Will probably take 3 years to fower from seed (though the related M. wallichii nearly always takes two years. Probably fairly straight forward in cool northern areas but many of these evergreen monocarpic species of all colours can be grown in hotter and drier areas since they are monocarpic and need to be renewed from seed. Seed stored cool (it will need harvesting later than many Meconopsis since like M. wallichii it is late flowering) and then sown in January and given a little bottom heat after a month. Heat is not essential since they germinate as soon as spring starts to warm up. They need pricking on when two leaves have formed beyond the seed leaves into a rich moist compost and then potting into small plastic pots before planting out preferably by the end of August where the are to flower. They can be over wintered in the pots and planted out mid March when back in growth.
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Map Location
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