Meconopsis villosa (Hook. f.) G. Taylor, Acc. Meconopsis 28. 1934. Cathcartia villosa Hook. in Curtis, Bot. Mag. 77: t. 4596. 1851; Hook. f. & Thomson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 119. 1872.

Herbs, polycarpic, perennial; rootstock stout, short, clothed with rufous bristly membranous persistent leaf sheaths; stems up to 60 cm long, erect, usually unbranched, patently bristly with rufous barbellate 3 - 5 mm long bristles. Leaves broadly ovate-cordate or orbicular, cuneate or cordate at base, palmately 3 - 5-lobed with palmatilobed segments,4 - 12 x 6 - 15 cm, appressed hairy, 3 - 5-veined; lobes coarsely or bluntly toothed; basal leaves shorter, petioled or sessile, passing into bracts. Flowers solitary, terminal or axillary, 1 - 7 per stem; pedicels slender, 5 - 12 cm long, hairy. Sepals ovate-oblong, subacute or obtuse, 1.5 - 2 cm long, appressed bristly, yellow. Petals 4, obovate, suborbicular, obtuse to rounded at apex, 2.5 - 3.5 x 3.5 - 4 cm, yellow. Filaments 8 - 10 mm long, filiform, yellow; anthers yellow to dark brown, ca 2 mm long, basifixed. Ovary cylindric or narrowly oblong, 1.5 - 2 cm, glabrous; stigma sessile, with 4 - 7 radiating lobes.Capsules narrowly oblong, cylindric, with 4 - 7 prominent ribs alternating with faint ribs, 4 - 8 x 0.5 - 0.7 cm, dehiscing by 4 - 7 valves to more than half way down its length; seeds subreniform, dark.

Fl. & Fr. May - Sept.

Distrib. India: Endemic to Eastern Himalayas, rocky streamsides and forests, 2700 - 4200 m. West Bengal (Darjeeling) and Sikkim.

Nepal and Bhutan.

Notes. Horticulturally valued as an ornamental woodland garden plant for temperate regions.

Chromosome no. n = 16 (Ratter in Notes R. Bot. Gard. Edinb. 28: 191- 200.1967).

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