THE BLUE POPPY

Evening Star, Issue 22442, 12 September 1936, Page 23

THE BLUE POPPY

The following extracts from an article written by the famous plant collector, Captain F. Kingdon Ward, which appeared in a recent issue of the ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle,’ will be of special interest to those gardeners in this district who have endeavoured to grow the highly-prized blue poppy of Tibet, with varying degrees of success:— “ Meconopsis betonicifolia (Baileyii), French, was discovered in western China —in north-west Yunnan, to be correct—by Pere Delavay, about 50 years ago. The locality is recorded as between Talifu and Likiang These two cities are 130 miles—six days’ journey—apart, and probably the plant was found on the mountain range between the two. I believe no one else ever collected it in that locality, or even, possibly, Yunnan, previous to 1925. it must, therefore, be quite a rare plant in western China, considering how intensively Yunnan was combed by Forrest, and later by Rock. “ In 1913, F. M. Bailey, discovered the plant at first called M. Baileyii, and subsequently M. betonicifolia var. Baileyii, at Lunang, in south-east Tibet. The two localities are 260 miles apart in a direct line; but, after nil, that is only the distance between London and Land’s End—in miles not time. It is curious that between these two small areas species is quite unknown, although not, perhaps, so curious when we reflect that the intervening area was equally unknown. “ In 1924, Lord Cawdor and I went to Lunang, rediscovered Bailey’s plant, and collected seeds, which I sent to England. Lord Aberconway exhibited tho“ first flowering specimens in 1926 ; and Mr Clarence Elliott, who obtained plants from Lord Aberconway, is hardly entitled to so much credit as Mr Fisher accords him for his display two years later; in fact, I saw an excellent display at on© of tho fortnightly shows a year previously. From my herbarium specimens the plant, after some controversy, was identified by'Dr otapr with Franchet’s M. betonicifolia, bub given varietal rank as var. Baileyii, Delavey’s plant being at the same time named var. Franchettii. “ In 1926 I found M. betonicifolia for the second time, now in far northern Burma; the exact locality is the Diphuk La (Irrawaddy-Lohit Divide); this is 250 miles from Lunang; it is also the southernmost known location. I noticed several botanical differences between this gathering and my Lunang specimens, and since the plants were growing in open alpine meadow, instead of under bushes, as generally at Lunang, I named it as a distinct variety—prntensisii. But it was Mr F. C. Puddle who told me that the plant behaved quite differently in cultivation. He flowered it in 1929 or 1930, and upheld, indeed emphasised, the verietal rank; in fact, T believe he would have gone further on his experience in handling it, and given it specific rank. But this was hardly justified on the facts. “ So far as I know, there was no importation of M. Betonicifolia seeds previous to these two varieties of the original Chinese plant; but, according to Mr George Taylor, both Forrest and Rock subsequently rediscovered Delavay’s plant in Yunnan, in the same general area (the Genus Meconopsis). I was rather surprised to learn from Mr Fisher’s note that Forrest had_ collected abundant seeds of this plant in 1930-r----that is, on his last expedition. If so, why had he never done so before? Of course, there is the possibility that the plant is so extremely rare in Yunnan that he had never met with it before. Forrest’s seeds certainly did not come from Lunang, and I should ho interested to know what was the locality of the plant which Mr Fisher states was such a poor form. He also states that seeds saved, from home-grown plants helped to bring about a deterioration of colour, which is not what one would have expected, since seeds were only saved of the very best forms.

“ I jump now to 1933, when I found M. betonicifolia for the third time. It was December, and the alpine meadow plant was in seed. The many-headed crowns were frozen brittle. This new locality was the Upper Zayul (Lohit) River, which is barely 50 miles fromHlie Diphuk La (Burma) locality for M. bentonioifolia var. pratensis. The Zayul plant, is, therefore probably that species, if the seeds I sent Home were raised (K.W. 11,010). So recently as last year, I found M. betonicifolia for the fourth time, in southern Tibet, district of Tsari, between the Himalaya and the Tsangpo. This locality is only 120 miles south-west of Lunaug, and is probably the westernmost limit. The plants were flowering in July, and appeared to be identical with the Lunang plants.”