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.

ESCHSCHOLZIA

Annual, perennial herb; taproot sap colorless or clear orange
Leaves basal and generally some cauline, ± linear-dissected
Inflorescence: cyme, 1–many-flowered
Flower: receptacle funnel-shaped, tip cupped around ovary base, sometimes spreading-rimmed below petals; sepals 2, fused, shed as a unit at flower; petals generally 4 (except doubled flowers), free, obovate or wedge-shaped, generally yellow to orange (white or pink), shed after pollination leaving crown-like membrane (formerly called "inner rim"); stamens 12–many, free; placentas 2, style 0, stigma lobes 4–8, spreading, linear
Fruit cylindric, dehiscent from base
Seeds many, 1–2 mm, round to ovate, net-ridged, bur-like, or pitted, tan, brown, or black
Species in genus: 12 species: w North America
Etymology: (J.F. Eschscholtz, Russian naturalist, 1793–1831)

Native

E. californica Cham.

CALIFORNIA POPPY

Annual (or perennial herb from heavy taproot), erect or spreading, 5–60 cm, glabrous, sometimes glaucous
Leaf segments obtuse or acute
Flower: bud erect, acute to long-pointed, glabrous, sometimes glaucous; receptacle obconic; petals 20–60 mm, yellow, bases generally orange-spotted
Fruit 3–9 cm
Seed 1.5–1.8 mm wide, round to elliptic, net-ridged, brown to black
Chromosomes: 2n=12
Ecology: Grassy, open areas
Elevation: 0–2000 m.
Bioregional distribution: California Floristic Province, w East of Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert
Distribution outside California: to s Washington, Nevada, New Mexico, nw Baja California
Flowering time: Feb–Sep
Highly variable (> 90 taxa have been described). Annual plants with entire cotyledons from DMtns have been called subsp. mexicana (Greene) C. Clark; large plants from s SNF have been called E. procera Greene, Kernville poppy. CA state flower. TOXIC but rarely eaten
Horticultural information: SUN: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 &IRR: 13; CVS.