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. munita Durand & Hilg.

CHICALOTE

Annual or perennial herb 6–15 dm; sap generally yellow (rarely red in NCoRH)
Leaf 5–15 cm, ± equally prickly on margins and veins of both surfaces
Flower: petals 25–40 mm; stamens 150–250
Fruit 35–55 mm
Seed 2–2.5 mm
Ecology: Open areas
Elevation: 70–3000 m.
Bioregional distribution: Northwestern California (except North Coast), Central Western California, Southwestern California, Great Basin Floristic Province, Desert
Distribution outside California: n Baja California
Flowering time: Aug
Synonyms: subspp. argentea G.B. Ownbey, rotundata (Rydb.) G.B. Ownbey, and robusta G.B. Ownbey, prickly poppy
TOXIC but not generally eaten
Horticultural information: DRN, SUN, DRY: 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.