PAPAVERACEAE

POPPY FAMILY

Curtis Clark

Annual to small tree; sap often colored, often milky
Leaves basal, cauline, or both, generally toothed, lobed, or dissected; cauline generally alternate; stipules 0
Inflorescence: cyme, raceme, or panicle (terminal), or flower solitary
Flower bisexual, generally radial; sepals 2–4, sometimes shed ± at flower; petals generally 4 or 6 (or more), sometimes in 2 unlike pairs; stamens 4–many; ovary generally 1, superior, chamber generally 1, stigma lobes 0–many, ovules 1–many
Fruit: generally capsule, dehiscent by valves or pores, generally septicidal
Genera in family: 40 genera, 400 sp.: n temp, n tropical, s Africa; some cultivated (Papaver, Dicentra, Eschscholzia ). Petal length includes any spur or pouch. Hunnemannia fumariifolia Sweet (Eschscholzia-like garden per with free sepals) an uncommon waif in CA. Corydalis, Dicentra, Fumaria formerly treated in Fumariaceae.

ARGEMONE

PRICKLY POPPY

Annual, perennial herb, armed; sap yellow or orange, milky
Leaves generally cauline, oblanceolate to ovate, toothed or deeply pinnately lobed
Inflorescence: flowers solitary, terminal
Flower: sepals 2(3), prickly, with pointed appendage below tip, shed at flower; petals 4 (or 6), free, obovate, crinkled, white, shed after pollination; stamens 12–many, free; placentas 4–6, style 0 or 1, stigma lobes 4–6
Fruit ovate to lanceolate, prickly, dehiscent at tip by slits
Seeds many, 1–2.5 mm, round to ovate, net-ridged, brown or black
Species in genus: ± 30 species: North America, South America, Hawaii
Etymology: (Greek: ocular cataract, supposedly remedied by sap of other plants with this name)

Native

A. corymbosa Greene

Perennial 4–8 dm; sap orange
Leaf 8–15 cm, prickly on margins and veins, generally less so on upper surface
Flower: petals 20–35 mm; stamens 100–120
Fruit 25–30 mm
Seed 1–1.5 mm
Ecology: Dry slopes, flats
Elevation: 400–1100 m.
Bioregional distribution: East of Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert
Flowering time: Apr–May
Horticultural information: TRY.