When you see the Meconopsis punicea Maxim on a hillside grassland at an altitude of 2800-4300 meters, you will initially be attracted by its fiery red among the lush greenery. At first sight of the Meconopsis punicea Maxim , under the blue sky, from a distance, it dances in the wind like a Tibetan prayer flag. The texture of silk makes it agile and graceful, and you will feel its freedom and unrestrained.

It is easy to associate it with a person named Frida Kahlo, a treasure of Mexican art and one of the most outstanding female artists of the 20th century.

Her long thick eyebrows and clusters of gorgeous flowers on her head give people a slightly rough texture in the first sense, but she is also attracted by the uncontrollable passion of life.

(Frida Kahlo 1907-1954)

Frida’s life was a legendary one, as she struggled with illness and used a single paintbrush to create vivid and brilliant depictions of shattered pieces. She created approximately 152 paintings in total, with about one-third of them being self portraits. Her husband, renowned muralist Diego Rivera, commented, “Her works are satirical yet gentle, as hard as steel, as free as butterfly wings, as moving as smiles, and as tragic as the hardships of life.

(‘I’m not sick, I’m broken, but as long as I can draw, I’m happy.’)

Frida has a passage about love that I particularly like. Here is an excerpt:

I am a child wandering in the world of colors, seeking help from myself and seeking my own assistance. Passion is a bridge that takes you from pain to change, and the most powerful art is to turn pain into a talisman of healing. I don’t want you to think like me, I just want you to think. Don’t build a wall around pain, it will devour you from within. Ultimately, we can endure much more than we imagine. I believe I can gradually solve my problems and survive. I have struggled and suffered for a long time, and I deserve something complete, strong, and indestructible. Pain, happiness, and death are just processes of existence, and the revolutionary struggle in this process is a gateway to wisdom. You deserve the best, the best, because you are one of the few honest people in this terrible world, and that is the only thing that truly matters. We like to protect ourselves by getting sick, to prevent us from being defeated by truth, ignorance, and fear. We are afraid to know that we are just a carrier, guided to build and destroy life. Nothing is absolute, everything is changing, everything is moving, everything is spinning, everything is flying by.

Having learned more, you can no longer just focus on the visual aspect. As you approach, you will find that the Meconopsis puniceais Maxim actually not Frida. It is so fiery red, yet it is a true hanging angel.Its flower stem is drawn out from the lotus root cluster, and its corolla is like a small umbrella. All the petals do not open wide to the sky, hanging down one by one, protecting the stamen and appearing both beautiful and shy.

Occasionally, there are one or two pieces, slightly stretched out, as if extending their little claws to tease something, as if saying, ‘Look, I’m actually a mischievous little beauty too.’. Walking on the plateau, you will see many flowers with dazzling colors and bold forms, conveying a message anytime and anywhere: Look at me, look at me, look at how beautiful I am. Red flowers and green velvet are so different, beautiful and introverted, instantly adding a touch of immortal temperament. The so-called true beauty, beauty is not self aware, beauty is even greater.

(Flowers  bloom in the sky at an altitude of 3500 meters )

Meconopsis punicea Maxim is an endangered and rare plant in Papaveraceae. It is a national second-class protected wild plant, distributed in northwest Sichuan, northeast Tibet, southeast Qinghai and southwest Gansu.

(Flowing water and flowers at an altitude of 3900 meters)

The Curtis Journal of Botany lists three Westerners who had contact with the Meconopsis punicea Maxim before 1907. The first one was the Russian explorer Pu’er Rwaki who discovered the Artemisia selengensis in northern Xizang in 1884, and the other one was the Russian naturalist Potanin, who discovered the Artemisia selengensis in northern Sichuan in 1885. The third one, Wilson, discovered the red flowered green velvet artemisia and the whole leaved green velvet artemisia in Songpan, Sichuan province in 1903, and collected seeds to bring back to Kew Garden. In 1905, Kew Garden successfully raised seedlings, so Wilson was the one who truly introduced the Meconopsis punicea Maxim to the West.

Botanically speaking, the drooping and inverted flower posture of Meconopsis punicea Maxim is very suitable in the harsh and harsh environment of the plateau. It can effectively protect the flower buds and pollen from natural external forces, and also provide a sheltered harbor for the small insects that pollinate it. The little beauty’s concern for life far exceeds her concern for beauty. She is a true pragmatist.

(at an altitude of 4300 meters)