Meconopsis smithiana (Handel-Mazzetti) G. Taylor ex Handel-Mazzetti, a perennial herb species of the family Papaveraceae, is endemic to the southern Hengduan Mountains in south-west China and the extreme north-east of Myanmar. It was first collected by Handel-Mazzetti in north-west Yunnan in 1916, and described by him as Cathcartia smithiana in 1923 (H. Handel-Mazzetti, 1923, Anzeiger der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-Naturwissenchaftliche Klasse, 60, 182). Since then, the species had only been collected a further four times, once each in 1938 and 1940, and twice in 1982, by Tse Tsun Yü, Kuo Mei Feng, and the Qinghai-Tibet Expedition, respectively. According to these collections (Tse Tsun Yü 20663; Kuo Mei Feng 8344; Qinghai-Tibet Expedition 8346, 8737), at the herbarium of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, this species is only known from the Irrawaddy–Salween divide, in the southern Hengduan Mountains, an area of c. 4,000 km2 in western Yunnan.
With the joint support of the Biodiversity Survey and Assessment Project of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China (Grant No. 2019HJ2096001006), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31770228), the Talent Project of Yunnan (Grant No. 2015HB092) and Yunnan Science and Technology Innovation Team Programme (Grant No. 2019HC015), the Kunming Institute of Botany surveyed for any remnant M. smithiana in the southern Hengduan Mountain range during July–September 2019. Fortunately, c. 200 individuals in flower (Plate 1) were discovered in five separate sites in moist grasslands at an altitude of 3,345 m. The total area of occupancy of the species in these sites is c. 1,800 m2. This suggests that it should be categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List on the basis of criterion B2ab(i,ii,iii,v). Also, because of its restricted distribution, small population size and the degradation of its habitat, the species should be included in the list of Plant Species with Extremely Small Populations in China (Sun et al., 2019, Trends in Plant Science, 24, 4–6). Our survey and information obtained from interviews with local people indicated that the main threats to this species are its small population size, the high frequency of destruction by grazing, and habitat loss as a result of road construction. Urgent and effective measures need to be taken to protect this species.
Plate 1 Meconopsis smithiana. Photo: Rong Li.
The Kunming Institute of Botany is now carrying out studies on the phylogeography of M. smithiana and its genetic relationships to other Meconopsis species of the southern Hengduan Mountains, to obtain a better understanding of the microevolution of this species. With the collaboration of the staff of nature reserves, we are planning to collect seeds of M. smithiana for ex situ propagation and potential future restoration of the species in the wild. Using species distribution models we also plan to identify and explore other sites in China where the species could potentially occur.
