Conservation biology of Himalaya poppy (Meconopsis Vig.): a case study of in situ and ex situ cultivation in Northwest Yunnan, China

The Genus Meconopsis, often called the blue poppy, is the most popular member of the poppy family, the Papaveraceae. Meanwhile, Meconopsis (Vig.) is a kind of herb medicine in traditional Tibetan medicine system. The name tsher sngon is an abbreviation of the poppy plant13. In Tibetan medicine system, 7 types of Meconopsis plants are recognized14. In literature, at least 17 species of the genus Meconopsis are mentioned as the Tibetan medicine. In the area, medical systems of the Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Chinese and Sowa-Rigpa (Tibetan and Bhutanese) are highly dependent on Himalayan medicinal Plants. These health care systems and more localized ones support health care needs of the regions' nearly one billion people because of little access to other health care systems, but also because these systems are culturally appropriate.

At present, there is a growing herbal products industry both in the region and in the developed countries. Particularly in , after logging ban and mushroom trade catastrophically declined, local ethnic groups depend mainly on the collection of wild plants. Mostly, roots and rhizomes of perennial herbs are collected for trade, such as Lilium ssp., Saussurea ssp., Rhodiola spp., Meconopsis ssp., Gentiana ssp.. The increase in the demand for native herbals, to a large extent, has been attributed to the commercial collection. However, the seedling recruitment and seed germination of sub-alpine and alpine plants is lower because of the harsh natural conditions. Furthermore, the local people have been unable to abide by the traditional collection rules in relation to price fluctuations. Present harvesting system is unsustainable by commercial collectors. This has led to not only the depletion and endangerment of the wild natural resources and biodiversity, but also the loss of the indigenous knowledge and its inheritors.

Blue poppy is listed as one of the eight most famous appreciative species of Yunnan due to their remarkable ornamented value. In , there are fifteen species in the Meconopsis genus. However, most of blue poppy in northwest Yunnan is distributed in the alpine meadow and scree, where the natural condition is extremely harsh and fragile, which makes it very difficult to implement the rehabilitation and recovery of plant population in those two ecosystems. Meconopsis(Vig.) is a kind of indicator species in those two ecosystems, at present; the biology conservation and systemic survey of resource plant are very much lacking in those two ecosystems.

This proposed intends to analyze the impact factors from people and natural conditions based on the studies of biological and ecological characteristics of Meconopsis genus in northwest Yunnan. We need to do some studies about traditional knowledge of sustainable collection and management of Meconopsis. The results from the studies and analysis on the impact factors and the biological and ecological of Meconopsis population, we intend to do some cultivation in situ and ex situ v/s collection in the wild to reduce the exhaustive collection of wild Meconopsis plants. The current study of Meconopsis in northwest