The genus Meconopsis is a small plant group and was originally based on the Welsh Poppy Meconopsis cambrica. All the other Meconopsis are Himalayan. M. cambrica was separated from the genus Papaver in 1814 by Viguier based on the presence of a short style and the lack of a stigmatic disc surmounting the ovary. It seems clear that the similarity between the Welsh poppy which is European and the Himalayan ones is convergence and that they are not closely related. Technically M. cambrica has precedence for the name but thankfully taxonomists appear to be going to keep Meconopsis for the ‘blue’ poppies and probably invent Pseudomeconopsis for cambrica. M chelonidifolia and villosa have been removed to the genus Cathcartia. This account will only deal with the Himalayan poppies.
George Taylor wrote a monograph based on herbarium material in 1934 that became the standard. He later travelled to the Himalayas and saw them in the wild. Taylor realized there was much variation and lumped together numbers of quite different plants in single species. In the last twenty years much of the Himalayas has become more accessible and in particular the Chinese mountains to the east. Dr Chris Grey-Wilson of Kew and now editor of the Alpine garden Society Journal has been totally revising the classification and in particular re-instating some of Taylor’s throw outs. This is the classification that this account will use. Grey-Wilson’s work is ongoing and there are new species still being described.
Himalayan Meconopsis can be divided into 3 groups. Plants with spiny leaves (sometimes very spiny!) that are deciduous and monocarpic (die after flowering). The flowers are usually blue or purple. This group occurs right across the Himalayas from Kashmir right into China. This includes M. horridula (the current classification has this as the very high altitude form characterised by only basal scapes). Many of the purple species are Chinese and so far have proved rather difficult to grow in cultivation. The second group again are monocarpic but are evergreen and are the classic winter rosette species. They may flower as biennials but can take up to 5 years. There are then a number of potentially perennial species like M grandis, M betonicifolia and M quintuplinervia as well as monocarpic plants like M punicea and M integrifolia.
|
| |
I am very grateful to the following for providing most of the wild pictures. PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY COMMENTS IN SUBSCRIPT FOR A PARTICULAR IMAGE ARE THOSE OF THE WEBMASTER AND NOT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Margaret Thorne; Tim Lever; Hilary and John Birks; Martin Walsh; Prof. David Rankin; Fred Hunt; Paul Egan, Kenneth Cox; Finn Haugli; Harry Jans; Anne Chambers, Ron McBeath, Tetsuo Nakazato, Pam Eveleigh.
There are many superb images of western China and the Himalayas, including lots of Meconopsis, on Harry Jans' website at www.jansalpines.com
This website was created with the professional skills of Steven Tubbrit. The webmaster would like to thank him for producing a superb site which involved a very great deal of work |
| |
|
| |
Two further species are M. barbiseta (see M. sinomaculata) and M. rebeccae (see M.paniculata) The Flora of China contains another species M. pseudohorridula
The Meconopsis horridula group have recently been split up again in to M. horridula, racemosa, rudis and prattii having been lumped by George Taylor. This site for the moment has adopted this taxonomy but it becomes increasingly clear that many individual plants are difficult to fit to a particular species and it may well be best to stick to a single species and describe obviously different plants as varieties (not sub species). So users of this site should check all four species when trying to place a plant. |
|
|
|
| |
 |
| CLICK TO ENLARGE |
The Webmaster. Dr James Cobb is a retired zoologist from St Andrews University on the East Coast of Scotland, U.K. He lives within ½ mile of the north sea and the garden can be subject to salt spray. It is amongst the driest past of the United Kingdom and 25 inches of rain throughout the year would be typical. Day temperatures over 24C are rare but in the last ten to 15 years the climate has become hotter and drier. Meconopsis that were easy to grow are now much more difficult - bright sunshine and a lack of humidity being the problems.
I have a daughter in Caithness - northern mainland Scotland. I have trial beds for all my Meconopsis there. Days over 22C are very rare, the air is moister and most days it is cool. There are long hours of light in summer. Meconopsis are still very easy to grow there. Finally I have a daughter in Cumbria – NW England. This used to be a classic place for growing Meconopsis. They still grow well there but a really hot summer can still cause serious losses. Some of the most successful Meconopsis are now grown in Norway – even north of the Arctic Circle and, accepting some very talented growers there, it does seem that cool northern climates are what Meconopsis like best (away from the Himalayan home).
|
|
|
