Two new species of Himalayan poppy from Nepal

April 2011

With the recent publication of two new species of Meconopsis endemic to Nepal the Department of Botany continues to build upon strong Nepalese research connections. The species were discovered during field research undertaken by Paul Egan (a PhD student at the Department) and on the Edinburgh/Tokyo Manaslu '08 expedition, and include the late flowering M. autumnalis P.A.Egan, and M. manasluensis P.A.Egan; a high-altitude species endemic to the vicinity of Mount Manaslu (8156m). The critical lack of a floristic inventory for the country has provided impetus for the on-going Flora of Nepal project, for which Paul has contributed the accounts of a number of Papaveraceae genera. The Flora is being co-edited by Dr. Colin Pendry of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, a former Postdoctoral researcher with Botany, TCD. Other research underway in the Department by PhD student Man Kumar Dhamala is focused upon delineating Important Plant Areas in east Nepal as a means to conserving regional biodiversity hotspots. It is currently estimated that over 2% of the world’s flowering plants are accounted for in Nepal alone.
Links to:
New species paper - http://www.mapress.com/phytotaxa/content/2011/f/pt00020p056.pdf
Flora of Nepal - http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/nepal/floraofnepal/index.html
Nepalese PhD research - http://www.tcd.ie/Botany/postgraduate/current/man-kumar-dhamala.php