M. 'Jimmy Bayne' (George Sherriff Group)
A cultivar probably of garden origin with an affinity to M. gakyidiana. M. ‘Jimmy Bayne’ has a neater and less robust appearance than the other George Sherriff Group members. Some distinguishing features are that the tips of its basal leaves tend to be less acute and the style of the fruit capsule is slightly shorter and broader than other members of this Group.
MG Rating: ★★★★   Awards: AM (2005)
Introduced by: J. Bayne. Named by: E. Stevens, 1997.
Registered by: The Meconopsis Group, 2002.
Flowering: late May-June. Two or three nodding to half-nodding, blue or mauve-blue flowers arise from the false whorl. Their petals are broadly oval to somewhat rounded. They are initially broadly overlapping to form elegant bowl-shaped flowers which have smooth and only very slightly undulate margins.
Emerging foliage: Broad leaves suffused with a pronounced red-purple pigmentation and densely covered with short straw-coloured hairs.
Mature foliage: Broadly elliptic on long petioles, the leaf margins notched with many crenate-dentate teeth. Leaf base shortly attenuate, apex sub-acute to sub-obtuse.
Fruit capsule: Narrowly ellipsoid, covered with short pale straw-coloured bristles. Medium length sturdy style with a prominent stigma. Essentially sterile
Etymology: Named after Jimmy Bayne who had given it to Evelyn Stevens in the early 1980s. He had obtained it in about 1962 from a garden in Dunblane.