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Meconopsis horridula; photograph (c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-07-02

Meconopsis horridula Hook.f. & Thomson

Prickly blue-poppy

Papaveraceae · Qinghai, Tibet +3

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Meconopsis horridula Hook.f. & Thomson: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Hook.fil. & Thomson.

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Meconopsis horridula, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMeconopsis horridula, photograph (c) Zheyuan LIU, some rights reserved (CC BY)Meconopsis horridula, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Meconopsis horridula, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Meconopsis horridula, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Meconopsis horridula, photograph (c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY) 23 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-15.4°C
Record low -22.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
12°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,008mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Meconopsis horridula, the prickly blue poppy, is a flowering plant from the family Papaveraceae. It grows in high altitudes. The height of the plant varies from 20 cm (7.9 in) to 1 m (3 ft 3 in). It is a monocarpic, dicot plant.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Meconopsis horridula", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (732 mm of 978 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 5.9 °C against a yearly mean of -3.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

978 mm in the median year at the habitat, 732 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 227 mm, driest month December at 7 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 585 mm to 2,734 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,008 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 978 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -15.4 °C, the absolute minimum -22.6 °C, 10,164 frost nights in 44 years, 231.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -22.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -27.4 °C to -12.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 11.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -15.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +91 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Meconopsis horridula through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 12 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -22.3 °C; 978 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost22.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-22.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 25–47RH 53–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 111 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-9 / -14–-1-8 / -13–-1-5 / -10–30 / -5–75 / 0–1110 / 5–1412 / 7–1511 / 7–148 / 4–122 / -2–8-4 / -10–4-8 / -13–0
Night °C-22 / -27–-13-21 / -25–-11-17 / -22–-8-12 / -17–-4-6 / -11–0-1 / -4–52 / -1–71 / -1–6-2 / -5–4-9 / -14–-2-16 / -24–-7-20 / -27–-11
Rain mm11 / 3–4814 / 4–6926 / 7–9943 / 16–14290 / 41–174160 / 90–433227 / 133–585207 / 122–502138 / 83–33546 / 16–1139 / 3–277 / 3–29
DLI27 / 22–3233 / 28–3941 / 35–4647 / 39–5147 / 38–5241 / 31–4737 / 25–4334 / 26–4134 / 27–3833 / 27–3728 / 24–3325 / 21–30
RH %55 / 46–6656 / 47–6655 / 48–6656 / 49–6758 / 52–6862 / 58–7366 / 59–7667 / 58–7564 / 59–7259 / 52–6654 / 47–6453 / 45–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 111 grid cells holding the 143 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1165:5578 (31.725, 98.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -22.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -15.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 111 distinct grid cells holding 143 of the 143 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1165:5578 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 31.50_98.750, lapse-corrected +91 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4169 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeQinghai, Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal, Myanmar · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker31.894, 96.596 · in the densest population, 206 records (61% of those in range)
Kew's description“monocarpic perennial” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 337 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 143 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 147 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 183 km away. 54 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 194 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 337 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Meconopsis horridula, photograph 1did not loadMeconopsis horridula, photograph 2did not loadMeconopsis horridula, photograph 3did not loadMeconopsis horridula, photograph 4did not loadMeconopsis horridula, photograph 5did not loadMeconopsis horridula, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Zheyuan LIU, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Wang.QG, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Phlomoides rotata Phlomoides rotata Common Lamiophlomis Photo: CC BY, 王天明 Hymenidium foetens Apiaceae Rhododendron nivale Rhododendron nivale Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, 王天明 Rheum moorcroftianum Polygonaceae Allium sikkimense Allium sikkimense Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Rudolphous Gentiana obconica Gentianaceae

Other Meconopsis 31 in the reference

Meconopsis aculeata Meconopsis aculeata Thorny satin poppy Photo: CC0, author not statedMeconopsis baileyi Meconopsis baileyi Papaveraceae Photo: CC BY, 王天明Meconopsis betonicifolia Meconopsis betonicifolia Papaveraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan Shebs Meconopsis × cookei Papaveraceae Meconopsis delavayi Papaveraceae Meconopsis dhwojii Papaveraceae Meconopsis discigera Papaveraceae Meconopsis gakyidiana Meconopsis gakyidiana Papaveraceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossMeconopsis grandis Meconopsis grandis Blue Poppy Photo: CC BY, Jiao Sun (孙娇)Meconopsis henrici Meconopsis henrici Papaveraceae Photo: CC BY, Wang.QG Meconopsis impedita Papaveraceae Meconopsis integrifolia Meconopsis integrifolia Farrer's lampshade-poppy Photo: CC BY, Morten Ross all 32 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Meconopsis horridula var. typica; Meconopsis racemosa f. horridula. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Papaveraceae
Described by
Hook.f. & Thomson
Native to
Qinghai, Tibet, East Himalaya +2
Wild records
337 in range · 147 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 8239441 is Meconopsis horridula Hook.fil. & Thomson; the page links Kew's Meconopsis horridula Hook.f. & Thomson, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22; "Papaver horridulum" not shown: a scientific name Kew or this reference holds
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 31.50_98.750, lapse-corrected +91 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 673306-1 is Kew's for Meconopsis horridula Hook.f. & Thomson
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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