65. Meconopsis wallichii, Hook.

The medicinal plant Meconopsis wallichii is a member of the Papaveraceae (poppy) family. This page includes its habitat, botanical descption, medicinal uses (eg., Ayurveda), chemical constituents and history of use in modern and ancient India.

Index in Flora of British India (Hooker): 1.319.

Habitat:—Temperate Himalaya, Nepal and Sikkim.

Botanical description:—Welsh Poppy. A prickly perennial herb; slender, stellately pubescent and softly hairy in tender parts.

Stem: 4-6 ft., leafy, branched.

Leaves: 8-12 in., pinnatifid, oblong or obovate.

Lanceolate: glaucous beneath, long-petioled.

Flowers: much panicled, purple 1-1½ in. diam., many, pedicels short.

Sepals: densely pubescent, not setose.

Petals: 4.

Stamens: numerous; filaments slender; anthers erect.

Style: distinct, persistent, stigmatic lobes clubbed.

Capsule: 1 in., elliptic-oblong, 5-valved, densely bristly, seeds many, small, rugose.

Part used:—The root.

Medicinal uses:—The root is used as a narcotic in Kashmir.