taxonID	type	description	language	source
480087A16C12FFE8FD3BFB9FFB88C3A4.taxon	description	Flowering & fruiting: Flowering from July to August and fruiting from August to September. Habitat: The plants occur on Northwest facing alpine meadows and rocky slopes in high altitude Himalaya, between 3800 – 4500 m. The species is very rare and occurs in the field with scattered populations confined to some isolated pockets in the Northwest regions of the Nagula lake area. The Monpa community of Tawang has strictly prohibited the collection of fuel wood, fodder and other forest resources from the Nagula Tso sacred landscape under their community customary laws. Distribution: Eastern Bhutan and now in India. Specimen examined: INDIA, Arunachal Pradesh, District Tawang, Nagula Tso N 27 ̊ 39 ' 04.07 " E 91 ̊ 51 ' 48.95 ", 4200 m, 30.07.2018, K. S. Kanwal & M. Ori SERB / KSK / 1203 (ARUN, GBPI). Conservation notes: Meconopsis merakensis var. merakensis faces threats from livestock, mainly from trampling by yaks and horses, unregulated tourism, development works that result in the destruction and fragmentation of the species’ habitat. In the future, the species may face further threats due to climate change. Seven species of Meconopsis have shown an upward shift in mean elevation of 302.3 m between the pre 1970 s (1922 – 1969) and the post 1970 s (1970 – 2016) in the Himalaya – Hengduan Mountains region (He et al., 2019). Endemic and rare plant taxa, such as M. merakensis var. merakensis, with very small populations and special habitats, require specific conservation measures such as the development of an on-site Meconopsis garden for the germplasm conservation in the Tawang district. Notes: The detailed analysis carried out here revealed that M. merakensis var. merakensis is close to M. prainiana Kingdon-Ward var. prainiana in having four-petalled flowers, hairy stems and in leaf structure but differs by its longer and sub-cylindrical capsules and stems less densely covered with spiny hairs (Yoshida et al., 2017 [“ 2016 ”]). Meconopsis merakensis has two varieties, var. merakensis characterised by its bluish or purplish flowers, and M. merakensis var. albolutea Tosh. Yoshida, Yangzom & D. G. Long distinguished by its white or yellow flowers (Yoshida et al., 2017). The latter variety is distributed in Bhutan and western Arunachal Pradesh, India.	en	K. S., Kanwal, U. L., Tiwari, M. S., Lodhi, Rawal, R. S. (2020): Meconopsis merakensis var. merakensis (Papaveraceae), a new record for India. Rheedea 30 (3): 391-395, DOI: 10.22244/rheedea.2020.30.03.05, URL: https://doi.org/10.22244/rheedea.2020.30.03.05
