Himalayan Blue Poppy: claimed by many flower, Himalaya and British enthusiasts to be the most beautiful flower in all the world! This is the Meconopsis aculeata, the more widespread and common form.
Meconopsis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Papaveraceae. It was first described by French botanist Viguier in 1814 who named it as poppy-like (gr. Mekon poppy, Opsis alike). The species have attractive flowers and have two distinct ranges. A single species, Meconopsis cambrica (Welsh Poppy), is indigenous to England, Wales, Ireland, and the fringes of Western Europe, although recent studies suggest that it does not belong in the genus. The other 40 or so (depending on classification) species are found in the Himalayas. Within the Himalayan types there is much debate as to what constitutes a particular species as many readily hybridise with each other and produce viable seed. It is likely that some individually named species are in fact a single species but with an under-appreciated morphological diversity.
A large proportion of species are monocarpic and as such are notoriously difficult to maintain in cultivation.
Meconopsis grandis, nicknamed the Blue Poppy (although it is only poppy-like), is the national flower of Bhutan. In the late spring of 1922, a British Himalayan expedition, led by legendary mountaineer George Leigh Mallory, discovered the plant on their failed attempt to reach the summit of the then-unconquered Mount Everest. The flowers were introduced to much excitement at the Royal Horticultural Society's spring show of 1926. However, since they are difficult to grow, the species has become fabled over the decades. In 2009, horticulturalist and author Bill Terry published his "gardening memoir", Blue Heaven, about the plant.
In June 2007, Hale Books published the novel "Dreams of the Blue Poppy" by English author Angela Locke. The book's central theme concerns a sickly child who dreams of finding the fabled plant and ends up on a journey of both personal and botanical discovery to the Indian Himalaya.
Dandelion flowers burst forth, in a Himalayan meadow
This flower must be one of the most widespread in terms of distribution and territory worldwide!
Meanwhile, later in the clip, the meadow throws forth a profusion of Corydalis and Pedicularis, as well! Definitely rarer and more pedigreed than plebian dandelions!
Taraxacum /təˈræksəkʉm/ is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. They are native to Eurasia and North and South America, and two species, T. officinale and T. erythrospermum, are found as weeds worldwide. Both species are edible in their entirety. The common name dandelion (/ˈdændɨlaɪ.ən/ DAN-di-ly-ən, from French dent-de-lion, meaning "lion's tooth") is given to members of the genus, and like other members of the Asteraceae family, they have very small flowers collected together into a composite flower head. Each single flower in a head is called a floret. Many Taraxacum species produce seeds asexually by apomixis, where the seeds are produced without pollination, resulting in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant.
Source - Wikipedia
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