Meconopsis cambrica (L.) Vig., Welsh Poppy

Account Summary

Growth form and preferred habitats

M. cambrica is a slender, hairy, long-lived montane perennial with a deeply penetrating tap-root or tapering root-stock (Butcher 1961). Sometimes, as at the Hanging Rock NR, Welsh Poppy occurs in great abundance, forming a yellow swathe on rocky slopes under trees, but more usually it occurs as isolated clumps in slightly damp areas. In Fermanagh and elsewhere in these islands, native occurrences are typically found on moist, shady, rocky slopes, cliffs or screes, sometimes under trees in woodland or scrub and usually on limestone or base-rich soils (Stewart et al. 1994). The species also occurs quite frequently as a garden escape in somewhat disturbed ground sites, and since it is very capable of naturalising itself in the wild, distinguishing the 'escapees' from native plants is not always an easy matter.

Flowering

The solitary, fragrant, lemon-yellow flowers are produced from June to August. Like other poppies, the blossom is nectar-less but the flowers offer visiting insects a plentiful supply of protein-rich pollen as an alternative food source. Large numbers of small, black, finely pitted seeds are shaken out of the capsule and are the only means of reproduction open to the species.

The facts that M. cambrica can become a weed in the garden and that it regularly escapes into the wild, both attest to its great fecundity and manifestly efficient powers of dispersal. It is the easiest Meconopsis species to grow in the garden: all the other members of the genus are Asiatic in origin and, in the experience of the current author (Ralph Forbes), demand a degree of skill and an element of luck to cultivate successfully in our climate.

Fossil record

There are no fossil records for Meconopsis cambrica since its pollen is not distinguishable from that of Papaver (Godwin 1975).

Fermanagh occurrence

M. cambrica has been recorded from a total of 16 Fermanagh tetrads (3.0%), 15 of which have post-1975 dates. There are fairly frequent records from localities on the upland limestones, but just four questionable lowland stations in the VC that might be non-native occurrences. These records from suspect sites (eg by roadsides, on waste ground or tips, or at Boho Church) are omitted from the Fermanagh tetrad map. However, three of the four sites are in the near vicinity of upland limestones where the species occurs naturally, and it is certainly possible that they may have spread to these sites naturally. This leaves only the record on waste ground near a bridge on the Ballycassidy River as a very probable garden escape.

N Ireland and the Republic of Ireland occurrence

Elsewhere in N Ireland, M. cambrica is generally considered a rare, native plant. Apart from its Fermanagh occurrence, it has only about nine listed indigenous stations in N Ireland − one in Co Londonderry (H40), two in Co Down (H38) and six in Co Antrim (H39) (FNEI 3). In the Republic of Ireland, M. cambrica has isolated stations on the hills in ten scattered VCs at altitudes from 15-500 m, but it is strangely absent from likely sites in counties such as Kerry (H1 & H2), Mayo (H26 & H27) and Donegal (H34 & H35) (The Botanist in Ireland; BSBI Atlas; Cen Cat Fl Ir 2). It is also surprisingly rare in the limestones of the Burren, Co Clare (H9), where one would readily imagine the terrain to be ideally suited to it. In this exceptionally well-explored karst limestone region on the shores of Galway Bay, M. cambrica was first discovered as recently as the mid-1970s. It appears perfectly indigenous in the two known sites there (Webb & Scannell 1983; Nelson & Walsh 1991). Elsewhere in the Republic, the New Atlas map indicated the species is thinly scattered mainly across the Midlands and the east in non-native stations that presumably are of garden origin (Preston et al. 2002).

British occurrence

In Britain, this species is regarded as a scarce native in Wales, N Devon (VC 4) and N & S Somerset (VCs 5 & 6) (Stewart et al. 1994). Everywhere else in Great Britain (from the south coast to Shetland), it is considered a very common and widespread garden derived introduction.

European occurrence

M. cambrica is endemic to W Europe and is distributed from W Ireland southwards to the French and Spanish Pyrenees (Jalas & Suominen 1991, Map 2023). It is an established garden escape in other parts of the British Isles, France and southern Scandinavia, but not truly established in Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland (Jalas & Suominen 1991; Jonsell et al. 2001).

Names

The genus name 'Meconopsis' is derived from the Greek 'mekon', meaning 'poppy' and 'opsis', meaning 'like' or 'appearance' (Johnson & Smith 1946; Gilbert-Carter 1964). The Latin specific epithet 'cambrica' means 'of Wales', since the first site reference for the plant in the British Isles was, "in many places of Wales", in Parkinson (1640), a fact also commemorated in the English common name.

Threats

Clearance of the woodland under which it occurs.

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