The International Meconopsis Register and Checklist
The International Meconopsis Register and Checklist
The ISHS Commission for Nomenclature and Cultivar registration appointed The Meconopsis Group as the International Cultivar Registration Authority for the genus Meconopsis from 1 November 2002.
The Meconopsis Group:
The Meconopsis Group consists of gardeners, horticulturalists and nurserymen all with a particular interest and love for the beautiful plants of the genus Meconopsis. It was founded in 1998 with the aim of clarifying the correct identities of the big perennial blue poppies. At that time many of these plants were being grown and sold under incorrect names and the situation was rather confused.
Initially plants, together with their purported names, were gathered together from gardens throughout Scotland and northern England for an Identification Trial. These were sorted and grouped together in trial beds at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for assessment. A number of cultivars were quickly identified and correctly named but it soon became apparent that many garden hybrids existed and that many distinct plants did not have cultivar names.
The Identification Trial was later transferred to the large garden of Dr. Evelyn Stevens in Sheriffmuir as this provided better conditions for growing these moisture loving plants. Her garden had been registered as a Plant Heritage National Collection for the big perennial blue poppies in 2001 and in this location the plants could be studied more easily on a day to day basis by Evelyn and visited at appropriate intervals by members of the Trials and Assessment Sub-Committee of The Meconopsis Group.
After careful observation over many years a large number of distinct clones were recognised and those selected have been given formal cultivar names by The Meconopsis Group. Many of these cultivars have subsequently been given plant awards by the RHS Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee (JRGPC) and in 2013 the Award of Garden Merit (AGM) was given to 10 cultivars following a three year assessment trial at Harlow Carr, Harrogate.
The Group has been fortunate to have received such enthusiastic and willing support from its members for this project and we must also acknowledge the continued and valued support of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the Scottish Rock Garden Club, the Alpine Garden Society and the Royal Horticultural Society. We are indebted to those members who donated plants to the Identification Trial, and to all those members who have spent time assessing plants or helping with the administration of the Group. Particular thanks and recognition must be given to the late Dr. Evelyn Stevens who dedicatedly nurtured, propagated, studied and meticulously identified the characteristic features of the big blue perennial poppy cultivars for so many years.
The Register and Checklist:
In this Register & Checklist cultivar status is shown by enclosing the cultivar name in single quotation marks e.g. M. ‘Slieve Donard’.
Details of the parentage or origins of the cultivar are given where these are known together with details of any plant awards.
A brief description of the main features of the cultivar that are useful in distinguishing it from other similar plants is given but a much fuller description can be found in the books listed below. All parts of the plant are important in their circumscription but it is sometimes fairly subtle differences, or more often a combination of small differences that help to distinguish one cultivar from another. Features that are particularly helpful are:
Flowers – size, shape, colour, petal shape and texture, the extent of petal overlap, flower posture e.g. nodding or lateral facing, pedicel length, time of flowering.
Emerging foliage – time of emergence, whether upright or spreading in stance, leaf shape and petiole length, leaf colour and the presence or absence of any red-purple pigmentation, shape of indentations or teeth on the leaf blade margins, details of leaf hairs.
Mature foliage – basal leaf shape, petiole length, and the shape and positioning of any teeth or notches on the leaf margins.
Fruit capsule – size and shape, length and thickness of the style, shape and size of the stigma, details of the bristles on the capsule body and their presence or absence on the sutures between the carpels.
Details of the parentage or origins of the cultivar are given where these are known together with details of any plant awards.
A brief description of the main features of the cultivar that are useful in distinguishing it from other similar plants is given but a much fuller description can be found in the books listed below. All parts of the plant are important in their circumscription but it is sometimes fairly subtle differences, or more often a combination of small differences that help to distinguish one cultivar from another. Features that are particularly helpful are:
Flowers – size, shape, colour, petal shape and texture, the extent of petal overlap, flower posture e.g. nodding or lateral facing, pedicel length, time of flowering.
Emerging foliage – time of emergence, whether upright or spreading in stance, leaf shape and petiole length, leaf colour and the presence or absence of any red-purple pigmentation, shape of indentations or teeth on the leaf blade margins, details of leaf hairs.
Mature foliage – basal leaf shape, petiole length, and the shape and positioning of any teeth or notches on the leaf margins.
Fruit capsule – size and shape, length and thickness of the style, shape and size of the stigma, details of the bristles on the capsule body and their presence or absence on the sutures between the carpels.
Further Information:
Much fuller definitive cultivar descriptions together with numerous photographs of all the cultivars can be found in the following two reference books:
‘Meconopsis for Gardeners’, Editor-in-Chief: Christopher Grey-Wilson. Alpine Garden Society in collaboration with The Meconopsis Group. AGS Publications, 2017
‘A Pictorial Guide to the Big Blue Poppies (Meconopsis)’ by Evelyn Stevens, Dander Publishing, 2015
‘Meconopsis for Gardeners’, Editor-in-Chief: Christopher Grey-Wilson. Alpine Garden Society in collaboration with The Meconopsis Group. AGS Publications, 2017
‘A Pictorial Guide to the Big Blue Poppies (Meconopsis)’ by Evelyn Stevens, Dander Publishing, 2015
MG Rating:
The cultivars named after a long period of assessment by The Meconopsis Group Plant Assessment Committee have each been given a star rating to indicate the committee’s consensus view of their garden worth. Criteria considered in coming to this rating include: reliability, ease of cultivation, hardiness, flower quality, number of flowers and distinctiveness.
Plant Awards:
RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM)
This award is only given to plants that have been judged, over a three year period, to be of outstanding excellence in the garden.
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee may recommend awards for plants shown for exhibition. The following awards have been given to Meconopsis cultivars:
First Class Certificate (FCC)
Award of Merit (AM)
Preliminary Certificate PC)
This award is only given to plants that have been judged, over a three year period, to be of outstanding excellence in the garden.
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee may recommend awards for plants shown for exhibition. The following awards have been given to Meconopsis cultivars:
First Class Certificate (FCC)
Award of Merit (AM)
Preliminary Certificate PC)
Registration of New Cultivar Names:
Raisers and introducers of new cultivars are urged to ensure that the names of all of their plants have been registered. The form to register a new name can be obtained from the International Meconopsis Registrar at the address below. There is no charge for registration.
N.B. Acceptance of a cultivar or Group name by an International Cultivar Registration Authority does not imply judgement on the distinctness of that particular cultivar or Group, nor of its horticultural merit.
Mrs. P Murphy, International Meconopsis Registrar, xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxx, United Kingdom.
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
N.B. Acceptance of a cultivar or Group name by an International Cultivar Registration Authority does not imply judgement on the distinctness of that particular cultivar or Group, nor of its horticultural merit.
Mrs. P Murphy, International Meconopsis Registrar, xxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxx, United Kingdom.
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Groups
The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants defines a Group as “a formal category which may comprise cultivars, individual plants or combinations thereof on the basis of defined character-based similarity”. All members of the Group must share the character(s) by which that Group is defined.
When The Meconopsis Group first started to try to sort out the identities and correct nomenclature for the many disparate big perennial blue poppies submitted to our naming trial it was found useful to classify the plants into three Groups based on their individual characteristics. Details of the three Groups which were originally established are given in the following publication:
Stevens, E. and Brickell, C. “Problems with the Big Perennial Blue Poppies”, The New Plantsman, Vol. 8 part 1, March 2001.
This article was later reprinted in The Rock Garden, Vol. XXVII part 2, No. 107, June 2001.
Only the cultivars in the George Sherriff Group are closely related and now that the identification and naming work has progressed and individual cultivars have been described it is less important to associate these cultivars with a particular Group.
The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants defines a Group as “a formal category which may comprise cultivars, individual plants or combinations thereof on the basis of defined character-based similarity”. All members of the Group must share the character(s) by which that Group is defined.
When The Meconopsis Group first started to try to sort out the identities and correct nomenclature for the many disparate big perennial blue poppies submitted to our naming trial it was found useful to classify the plants into three Groups based on their individual characteristics. Details of the three Groups which were originally established are given in the following publication:
Stevens, E. and Brickell, C. “Problems with the Big Perennial Blue Poppies”, The New Plantsman, Vol. 8 part 1, March 2001.
This article was later reprinted in The Rock Garden, Vol. XXVII part 2, No. 107, June 2001.
Only the cultivars in the George Sherriff Group are closely related and now that the identification and naming work has progressed and individual cultivars have been described it is less important to associate these cultivars with a particular Group.
Meconopsis George Sherriff Group (GSG)
This Group was established to contain the sterile clonal cultivars that were previously grown and distributed under the name M. grandis L&S 600 (or GS 600). These plants first grown from Ludlow and Sherriff’s 1934 collection of seed in NE Bhutan were very different to the forms of M. grandis from Nepal and Sikkim that had been in cultivation for many years. Most of the George Sherriff Group plants have the following characteristics: a) the emerging leaves are suffused with a red-purple pigmentation and are densely clothed with short hairs, b) the mature leaves are broadly elliptical, c) the blue flowers often have a purplish/mauve cast, and d) the fruit capsules are broadly ellipsoid and are densely covered with short bristles.
Note: The forms of M. grandis found in Bhutan, southern Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh have now been recognised as a separate species, M. gakyidiana. Plants grown from the seed collected by Ludlow and Sherriff have always been referred to by gardeners as M. grandis L&S 600 or GS 600. These plants were initially fertile but are now essentially sterile. The herbarium specimen of L&S 600 was collected on 6th July 1934 on the Nyuksang La, Sakden, NE Bhutan. There is no record of a seed collection on that date but Sherriff’s diary records that bags were left with the plants for seed to be collected later when it was ripe. These bags were found to be missing when the area was revisited on 20th October and the plants had been eaten and trampled. Sherriff wrote that a packet of seed was collected with great difficulty from plants remaining in the area but this collection is not recorded in the seed collecting book. Although this appears to raise some uncertainty about this collection a note on a herbarium sheet at the British Museum (Natural History) records that plants grown from L&S 600 seed collected in 1934 flowered at Branklyn, Perth in June 1937.
Ludlow and Sherriff made two confirmed seed collections of M. gakyidiana in 1934:
L&S 875, 21st August 1934, Cho La, Tibet
L&S 1021, 5th October 1934, Me La, E Bhutan.
A later expedition to NE Bhutan in 1949 with Hicks provided two other confirmed seed collections
L,S&H21069, 22nd August 1949, Me La, Shingbe, NE Bhutan
L,S&H21431, 25th August 1949, Me La/Cho La valley, NE Bhutan.
It seems likely that all of these seed collections will have played a part in the development of the sterile George Sherriff Group cultivars grown in our gardens today.
Note: The forms of M. grandis found in Bhutan, southern Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh have now been recognised as a separate species, M. gakyidiana. Plants grown from the seed collected by Ludlow and Sherriff have always been referred to by gardeners as M. grandis L&S 600 or GS 600. These plants were initially fertile but are now essentially sterile. The herbarium specimen of L&S 600 was collected on 6th July 1934 on the Nyuksang La, Sakden, NE Bhutan. There is no record of a seed collection on that date but Sherriff’s diary records that bags were left with the plants for seed to be collected later when it was ripe. These bags were found to be missing when the area was revisited on 20th October and the plants had been eaten and trampled. Sherriff wrote that a packet of seed was collected with great difficulty from plants remaining in the area but this collection is not recorded in the seed collecting book. Although this appears to raise some uncertainty about this collection a note on a herbarium sheet at the British Museum (Natural History) records that plants grown from L&S 600 seed collected in 1934 flowered at Branklyn, Perth in June 1937.
Ludlow and Sherriff made two confirmed seed collections of M. gakyidiana in 1934:
L&S 875, 21st August 1934, Cho La, Tibet
L&S 1021, 5th October 1934, Me La, E Bhutan.
A later expedition to NE Bhutan in 1949 with Hicks provided two other confirmed seed collections
L,S&H21069, 22nd August 1949, Me La, Shingbe, NE Bhutan
L,S&H21431, 25th August 1949, Me La/Cho La valley, NE Bhutan.
It seems likely that all of these seed collections will have played a part in the development of the sterile George Sherriff Group cultivars grown in our gardens today.
Meconopsis Infertile Blue Group (IBG)
This Group contains the majority of the remainder of the sterile big perennial blue poppies which were often being grown and distributed incorrectly as M. x sheldonii. The cultivars are more disparate in nature than those of the GSG but the Group includes such important cultivars as M. 'Slieve Donard' and M. 'Crewdson Hybrid'.
Meconopsis Fertile Blue Group (FBG)
This Group was established to contain all the fertile seed-raised big perennial blue poppies which were being grown and distributed incorrectly as M. grandis or as M. x sheldonii. All seed raised plants that have not been accorded cultivar status should be referred to using the generic name Meconopsis Fertile Blue Group. The Group also contains several cultivars which have since been selected for formal naming including M. 'Lingholm', M. 'Harry Bush' and M. 'Mildred'. It must be recognised though that due to seedling variation such plants may not come entirely true from seed. To maintain the cultivar name only the best forms should be retained or else the clones should be propagated by division.