Meconopsis punicea var. elliptica Z. J. Cui & Y. S. Lian; M. punicea var. glabra M. Z. Lu & Y. S. Lian.

Herbs, perennial or monocarpic, 30-75 cm tall in flower, base with persistent leaf bases, armed with dense shortly branched yellowish or brown setae. Roots fibrous. Leaves all basal, forming a rosette, deciduous; petiole 6-34 cm, basally slightly ampliate sheathed; blade oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, 3-18 × 1-4 cm, both surfaces with dense, shortly branched, yellowish or brown, barbellate setae, obviously longitudinally veined, basally attenuate and decurrent into petiole, margin entire, apex acute. Scapes 1-6 from rosette leaf cluster, usually costate, fulvous barbellate-setose, ribbed. Flowers solitary on basal scapes, nutant. Flower buds ovoid. Sepals ovate, 1.5-4 cm, adaxially densely yellowish or brown barbellate-setose. Petals 4, rarely 6, intense carmine, rarely white, elliptic, 6-10 × 2.3-5 cm, apex acute or rounded. Filaments reddish, linear, 1-3 cm, flat; anthers yellow or brownish yellow, oblong, 3-4 mm. Ovary broadly oblong or ovate, 1-3 cm, densely yellowish barbellate-setose; styles very short or obsolete; stigmas 4-6-lobed. Capsule elliptic-oblong, 1.8-2.5 × 1-1.4 cm, glabrous or densely yellowish barbellate-setose, 4-6-valvate for a short distance from apex. Seeds densely papillose. Fl. Jun-Sep.

White-flowered forms have been assigned to Meconopsis punicea f. albiflora L. H. Zhou (Bull. Bot. Lab. N. E. Forest. Inst., Harbin 1980(8): 98. 1980).

● Grassy slopes, open shrublands, mountain heaths and moorlands; 2800-4300 m. SW Gansu, SE Qinghai, NW Sichuan, NE Xizang.