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Meconopsis
Blue poppy from the Tibetan plateau
High altitude meadows, over 5000 m above sea level. Tanggula Mountains, on the border of Qinghai Province and Tibet Autonomous Region.
Spotted on May 26, 2002
Submitted on Nov 5, 2013
5 Comments
That is a really interesting bit of information, MarcFoggin. Thank you very much for sharing.
According to Jennifer Schultz Nelson (Extension Educator, Horticulture) at http://web.extension.illinois.edu/dmp/pa...
"In world of flower breeding, the color blue is the "Holy Grail" of flower colors. ... The Himalayan Blue Poppy is one of the only true blue flowers in the world. They are native to the Himalayas, where summers are cool and moist. They grow as a woodland plant in well-drained, acidic soil, which keeps the blooms a clear shade of blue. The blue color is provided by the pigment delphinidin, named for being originally isolated from Delphinium. For the delphinidin in the flower to appear blue, the environment inside the plant's cells must be acidic. The soil provides this acid–otherwise the flowers appear pinkish-purple just like many flowers around the world. This "acid factor" is what makes blue such a rare find in the plant kingdom. Not only does a plant have to have the gene to make delphinidin in its flower cells, the plant must be able to maintain a level of acidity within the cell to make the pigment appear blue. Few plants can accomplish this."
great! love blue flowers :)
Beautiful spotting!
But,Why 'holy grail of wild flowers'.
The infamous Blue Poppy! The holy grail of wild flowers. Fantastic spot Marc! Welcome to Noah. Look forward to more stuff from the Tibetan plateau. Just to let you know, you can use Blue poppy as the common name when editing the spotting and add Meconopsis sp, as the scientific name, if you're not sure of the species. I have a great book on poppies, I will take a look through and try and find the exact species for you.