Tuesday 19 March 2013

News

I have recently been discussing with other members of the Edinburgh based Meconopsis Group the many forms of M. grandis.

The image also pasted shows 3 seed heads, Lingholm is the wonderful hybrid between M. betonicifolia and M. grandis which produced a tetraploid (2 sets of chromosomes from each species) seed pod and because both sets of chromosomes are present from each true species this hybrid is fertile and tetraploid. This is exactly the same origin as Kingsbarns Hybrid. The parent plants that produced the tetraploid pods were the cross M. x  sheldonii, in both cases though different forms since M. x sheldonii has been produced a number of times by crossing M. betonicifolia with M. grandis.