Papaver rhoeas
Papaver californicum
amapola, common poppy, coquelicot, corn poppy, field poppy, flanders poppy
fire poppy, western poppy
simple or usually branching.
simple or branching.
to 15 cm;
distal often somewhat clustered.
to 15 cm.
peduncle sparsely to moderately spreading-hispid throughout.
peduncle glabrous or sparsely pilose.
petals white, pink, orange, or red, often with dark basal spot, to 3.5 cm;
anthers bluish;
stigmas 5-18, disc ± flat.
petals light orange or orange-red, with pink-edged, greenish basal spot, to 2.5 cm;
anthers yellow;
stigmas 4-8(-11), disc conic, usually umbonate.
sessile or substipitate, turbinate to subglobose, obscurely ribbed, to 2 cm, less than 2 times longer than broad.
sessile, ellipsoid to obovoid-turbinate, distinctly ribbed, to 1.8 cm.
= 28.
Papaver rhoeas
Papaver californicum
J. W. Kadereit (1990) suggested that Papaver rhoeas originated on the east coast of the Mediterranean, probably derived from one or more of the other species of the section that are native in that region, and only after (and because) "suitable habitats in sufficient extent were provided by man." Various forms with pale pink or white, unspotted, sometimes doubled petals are grown for ornament, notably the Shirley poppies. In North America, the species escapes from cultivation fairly readily and has been introduced also as a crop weed.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Papaver californicum grows in central western and southwestern California in the Coast, Transverse, and Peninsular ranges. This is the only caulescent poppy, and the only annual one, native to the flora. In the past it has been included in Papaver sect. Rhoeadium, together with the other annuals that have glabrous capsules and distal leaves not clasping, which are native to Eurasia. Recently, based on differences in filament color, stigmatic disc shape, and capsule dehiscence, J. W. Kadereit (1988b) assigned P. californicum to a new monotypic section and suggested that it originated from the same stock as the perennial, scapose, arctic-alpine poppies (Papaver sect. Meconella).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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