New Species

The latest Alpine Garden Society Bulletin Vol 77 no. 2 June 2009 has an article by Chris Grey-Wilson re-instating Meconopsis baileyi for the Tibetan form and leaving M. betonicifolia to describe the Chinese species from Yunnan - which was described first. I think most gardeners with a sense of taxonomy would happily accept when confronted by these two species that they were simply consistent variations as occur in many other single Meconopsis species. Grey-Wilson lists 9 differences between the two new species; most of these are on size of various parts. There is some overlap in leaf characteristics but in the seed pod and associated structures where Grey-Wilson describes clear differences these are not clear cut in the Tibetan form so common in gardens and this was the basic conclusion of George Taylor who did see this species in the wild  The Chinese ( M. betonicifolia ) form is apparently readily propagated because it is stoloniferous. Sometimes we forget that the Chinese and Tibetans have a long and sophisticated history and Meconopsis had value both as sources of oil as well as having rather ill-defined medicinal value. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a good easily propagated plant of value might have been artificially moved and certainly some explanation is required for the disjunct populations. The one feature that is much more critical is that Grey-Wilson says that in Alaska, where both forms are grown together, they do not set seed if cross-fertilised. If this is so then separate species is probably reasonable. However, Meconopsis in cultivation do not always reliably set seed due to factors that are not always clear but of which temperature may be critical. I have had plantings of M. grandis in Caithness for many years and it is only rarely that some forms set viable seed. Last year there was a good set particularly from the KEKE form and the so-called Sikkim form. These plants are immediately adjacent and yet they appear not to cross-pollinate.

New Image - By David Rankin

David Rankin, recently returned for Yunnan, and found M. violacea in the Wu Meng Shan.  Previously, this species was described from Northern Burma ( Myanmar ) by Kingdom - Ward in 1926.  This is a completely new location.  Was in cultivation, but lost many years ago.  Beautiful images of a superb plant.  Also from the same area by the same exploring group M. wumungensis photographed in colour for the first time by a western photographer, Pam Eveleigh ( of Primula World fame ).  Note : It is becoming increasingly clear that M. wilsonii is probably conspecific with M. violacea.  I am very grateful to Professor David Rankin and Paul Egan for lots of helpful comments and advice as well as extensive images.  There are more details under the two species but the website will be udpated as things become more clear.

Google Maps - Meconopsis

Google Map Data has now been developed and integrated within the site.  These maps will be gradually added for all species as I learn how to do it - the biggest difficulty is finding exactly where one is on maps of these remote regions.

There is potential to put sites on with GPS Data but this will need doing with care.  I have recently been reading Peter Coxs' and Peter Hutchinsons' splendid book ' Seeds Of Adventure ' - full of wonderful pictures and fascinating accounts of many adventures in the Himalayas and China.  They comment that they think some Meconopsis may be getting scarcer.  I have only been to China once and saw a number of species but even monocarpic species like M. lancifolia needed searching for and M. pseudointegrifolia was often just a very few plants.  Species like M. punicea and M. integrifolia in Sichuan clearly do occur in huge numbers as does the high altitude M. horridula on large tracts of the Himalayas.  Many other species are very localised however.  It may be that many populations are relics from past ice ages where presumably plants in much of the area simply went down hill in the cold.  An interesting species which makes on think is M. sherriffi.  This is a localised plant in Bhutan but there is a photograph in Eiko Chibas' lovely book of plant portraits ' Where The Blue Poppies Bloom ' which always fascinated me and she has confirmed it was taken on a pass near Kanging, Sichuan.  Perhaps there are sites in between ( Joseph Rock found a pink M. integrifolia somewhere ), perhaps it is naturally a scarce plant but maybe it has been over collected in the past for herbal use.

China has a large and significant botanical professionalism and an impressive attitude to conservation but there, as in the West, there will be strong political and monetary pressures for scientific conservation to stand up against.  Hopefully in all the countries with Meconopsis, commercial use of the plants for medicine ( or possible oils in the case of Meconopsis ) will fade away as Western medicine can be afforded or else where plants are valuable for these reasons they will be cultivated rather than harvested from the wild.  What this is saying is that publishing very detailed descriptions of where plants are is probably not sensible.

We who love to have the precious plants to adorn our gardens will have to make much more effort to understand how to maintain them in cultivation and which parts of the world this is most likely to be successful, especially with the monocarpic species that need to be renewed from seed and must be grown in isolation to stop hybridisation.  Where seed may be legitimately and legally collected in the wild, it would be well to collect a very few seed pods and scatter the vast bulk of the seeds around the parent plant.  Even where there are many plants and they are being collected professionally, a good proportion of seed should be scattered.  A little Meconopsis seed goes a long way since germination should be very high.  I am shaken how poor germination often is with seed from exchanges.  I am sure the main reason is seed collected before it is ripe.  Capsules need to be opened naturally and be shedding seed and this takes weeks after the flowers have gone.  Seeds need to be stored cool ( below 10C ) and dry.  It is well to remember that most commercial seed collected in 2009 will not be in packets for sale until 2011 - which explains a lot.  There are exceptions to ease of germination - M. quintuplinervia is a pig to germinate ( and needs better understanding ) and M. punicea needs sowing as soon as ripe ( it will germinate the following spring ) and there may be others.

New Species - Photos In The Garden

New Species - Photos In The Wild

No Image Available	No Image Available
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