Horridula?

[Blue Stu]

This is a mec I have as horridula, I believe I got the original seed from the RHS distribution in 2010 or 2011  - does anybody still have the list to verify this? The plants I have are grown from seed I saved in 2015, are fairly uniform & all have the purple spots at the base of the bristles.
Reading up on horridula it seems most of them in gardens are hybrids.
The nearest to it on the meconopsis world site is pratii which James Cobb says was grown for 50 years in Scotland as horrudula.
Can anyone help?

[IanScott]

Hi Stu,

If the plant is Meconopsis horridula it will have yellow or golden stamen when it flowers, and not cream or grey stamen. The true species seems to be difficult to raise from seed and extremely rare in cultivation, although Chris Chadwell probably collected seed in the past.

As you obtained the seed as Meconopsis horridula it probably will be a hybrid or a different species, but still a nice plant and well worth growing.  There are some pale blue and white variants which need to be established as pure strains.

If you are thinking of collecting seed and passing it on, then I would suggest that you label it as Meconopsis horridula (of hort).

[Blue Stu]

I'll post a photo when it flowers. It seems to germinate & grow easily so it suggests its not the real McCoy.

I've also got a racemosa? from the same source which is putting up a flower stem at the moment

I've just looked at the back of the label & it was from the group distribution 2015

[Meconopsis_Matt]

This is a M horridula (of Hort), that I have always thought of as prattii or racemosa, it spreads its self around the rockery quite nicely.

[Blue Stu]

Disaster has struck my "racemosa".

I'd put a piece of ply behind it as a background to take a photo, as I looked at my camera a gust of wind caught the ply & it fell onto the plant completely snapping it off at ground level. I put it in some water but yesterday afternoon the sun sneaked out & by time I found it, it was completely limp. I put it in the shade & it had recovered a bit by this morning. I hope I can still get some seed off it.
It was 45cm tall at its demise.

Meanwhile back at the bench the "horridula" are forming nice clusters of buds so watch this space.

[Blue Stu]

My "Horridula" are in full flower now.

The tallest ones are 45cm with a flower 55mm diameter.
The stamens are cream (so they're not true Horridula) same as the "Racemosa", but the plants themselves are different.

Any suggestions as to their lineage?

[Blue Stu]

Another pic

[Blue Stu]

And another (blurry) one, I'll try & get a sharper focus & also one of the stigma.

[Meconopsis_Matt]

It looks like very close to M. racemosa for  me,

[Blue Stu]

Yes Matt the flowers are almost identical. The main differences are in the basal leaves.

The "horridula" have white midribs, minimal white petioles & purple spots at the bases of the hairs.
The "racemosa" has purple petioles & midribs, no spots & longer hairs.

Is the truth that neither are what they claim to be?

[IanScott]

I suspect that the plant which we have been growing for years as Meconopsis racemosa, is it fact Meconopsis zhongdianensis.  A lot of the Meconopsis racemosa seed can be traced back to the ACE collection near Zhongdian.