Welsh poppy
| Welsh poppy | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Magnoliophyta |
| Class: | Magnoliopsida |
| Order: | Ranunculales |
| Family: | Papaveraceae |
| Genus: | Meconopsis |
| Species: | M. cambrica |
| Binomial name | |
| Meconopsis cambrica (L.) Vig. |
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| Synonyms | |
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Papaver cambricum L. |
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012) |
The Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica) (2n=28) is a perennial plant of the family Papaveraceae. Its habitat is damp, shady places on rocky ground, and it is native to south-western England, Wales, Ireland and Western Europe. In its most western locations, it is increasingly found on more open ground with less cover.
It has pinnately divided leaves. The flower is distinctively yellow or orange with four petals, and hairy green sepals that fall off quickly after the flower opens. It spreads easily from the numerous small black seeds produced in the summer. It is especially well adapted to colonising gaps and crevices in rocks and stones. This habit has enabled it to colonise the urban environment, growing between paving slabs and at the edges of walls.
On 24 February 2006 the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru adopted the Welsh poppy as its party logo.
[edit] Taxonomy and phylogeny
The species was originally named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as Papaver cambricum. In 1814, Louis Viguier separated it from Papaver, making it the type species of the new genus Meconopsis. One of the reasons was the structure of the style: Papaver has unstalked stigmas, arranged in a disc shape, whereas M. cambrica has stigmatic surfaces at the end of a distinct style. Later many newly discovered species from the Himalayas and adjacent regions of China were added to the genus. M. cambrica is the only species which is native to Europe.[1]
However, a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2011 showed that M. cambrica is not related to other species of Meconopsis, but is instead nested within Papaver, suggesting that Linnaeus' original name should be restored. However, this would leave the genus Meconopsis without a type species and hence without a valid name, unless the name were to be conserved.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Kadereit, Joachim W.; Preston, Chris D. & Valtueña, Francisco J. (2011), "Is Welsh Poppy, Meconopsis cambrica (L.) Vig. (Papaveraceae), truly a Meconopsis?", New Journal of Botany 1 (2): 80–87, doi:10.1179/204234811X13194453002742
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