Meconopsis sect. Racemosae C. Y. Wu & H. Chuang

Elvebakk, Arve & Bjerke, Jarle W., 2024, Papaver recircumscribed: A review of neighbouring Papaveraceae genera, including Afropapaver nom. et stat. nov. and Oreomecon, a large, Arctic-Alpine genus, PhytoKeys 248, pp. 105-188 : 105-188

4.1. Meconopsis sect. Racemosae C. Y. Wu & H. Chuang , Acta Bot. Yunnan. 2 (4): 374. 1980

Type species.

Meconopsis racemosa Maxim.

Notes.

In their phylogenetic study, Xiao and Simpson (2015) concluded that species in the strongly bristly section Racemosae do not merit classification within the two series proposed by Grey-Wilson (2014), but show a complicated and partly reticulate evolutionary pattern. Therefore, Xiao and Simpson (2015) proposed that these species should be treated as the “ M. horridula Hook. f. & Thomson species complex ” pending further phylogeographic studies. This involves the following additional taxa not accepted at the species level by Grey-Wilson (2014): M. calciphila Kingdon-Ward , M. castanea H. Ohba, Tosh. Yoshida & H. Sun , M. pseudohorrida C. Y. Wu & H. Chuang and M. rigidiuscula Kingdon-Ward. Two more species were later described from Bhutan / adjacent India by Yoshida et al. (2016 a, b) and one from Sichuan / Yunnan by Yoshida and Sun (2019 b). The latter study did not accept all species included in the M. horridula species complex by Xiao and Simpson (2015). We conclude that the section comprises 18 species, significantly increasing from the 11 species monographed by Grey-Wilson (2014).