Taxonomy and Phylogeny
The species was originally named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as Papaver cambricum. In 1814, Louis Viguier separated it from Papaver, making it the type species of the new genus Meconopsis. One of the reasons was the structure of the style: Papaver has unstalked stigmas, arranged in a disc shape, whereas M. cambrica has stigmatic surfaces at the end of a distinct style. Later many newly discovered species from the Himalayas and adjacent regions of China were added to the genus. M. cambrica is the only species which is native to Europe.
However, a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2011 showed that M. cambrica is not related to other species of Meconopsis, but is instead nested within Papaver, suggesting that Linnaeus' original name should be restored. However, this would leave the genus Meconopsis without a type species and hence without a valid name, unless the name were to be conserved.
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