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.

PLATYSTEMON

Species in genus: 1 sp
Etymology: (Greek: wide stamen)

Native

P. californicus Benth.

CREAM CUPS

Annual 10–30 cm, shaggy-hairy; sap colorless
Leaves basal and cauline, opposite, 2–8 cm, linear to lanceolate or narrowly oblong, entire
Inflorescence: flowers solitary, terminal; peduncle 10–20 cm
Flower: sepals 3, hairy; petals 6, free, elliptic, white to yellowish, 8–16 mm, persistent after pollination; stamens > 12, free, filaments flattened; longitudinal ovary segments (carpels) generally 9–18, fused, separating in fruit
Fruit: segments 10–16 mm, linear, narrowed between seeds, breaking into 1-seeded units
Seed 1 mm, elliptic to reniform, smooth, brown
Ecology: Open grasslands, sandy soils, burns
Elevation: < 1000 m.
Bioregional distribution: California Floristic Province, w Desert
Distribution outside California: to Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Baja California
Flowering time: Mar–May
Highly variable
Synonyms: vars. crinitus Greene, horridulus Greene, nutans Brandegee, and ornithopus (Greene) Munz
Plants of s ChI (Santa Barbara Island) have been called var. ciliatus Dunkle, Santa Barbara Island cream cups
Horticultural information: DRN, DRY, SUN: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.