Platystemon californicus |
Papaveraceae |
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cream cups |
poppy family |
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Habit | Plants 0.3-3 dm, pilose or hirsute, sometimes glabrate. | Herbs or subshrubs, shrubs, or small trees, annual, biennial, or perennial, scapose or caulescent, usually from taproots, sometimes from rhizomes; sap clear, white, or colored, often sticky. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | leafy or naked, erect, spreading, or decumbent, simple or branching. |
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Leaves | 10-90 × 1.7-8.1 mm; blade broadly linear; margins entire; apex rounded to long-acute. |
basal and/or cauline, alternate to opposite or whorled, simple, without stipules, petiolate or sessile; blade unlobed or with 1-3 odd-pinnate, subpalmate, or palmate orders of lobes. |
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Inflorescences | peduncle 3.4-25.8 cm; bud globose to ovoid-cylindric. |
axillary or terminal, unifloral or else multifloral and cymiform, racemose, umbelliform, corybiform, or paniculate, pedunculate or subsessile; bracts usually present. |
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Flowers | petals white to cream colored, sometimes with yellow tip and/or base, rarely gold overall, sometimes tinged red in age, narrowly ovate to obovate, 6-19 × 3.5-16 mm, apex acute to rounded; ovary cylindric to oblong-ellipsoid; stigmas linear, margin revolute. |
radially symmetric, pedicellate or sessile; receptacle sometimes expanded and forming cup or ring beneath calyx (only in Eschscholzia, Meconella, and Platystemon); perianth and androecium sometimes perigynous; sepals caducous, 2 or 3, distinct or connate, usually obovate; petals distinct, usually obovate, mostly 2 times number of sepals, sometimes more or absent; stamens many or 4-15 (only in Meconella and Canbya); anthers 2-locular; pistil 1, 2-18[-22]-carpellate; ovary 1-2-locular or incompletely to completely multilocular by placental intrusion; placentas 2 or more, parietal; style 1 or absent; stigmas or stigma lobes 2-many. |
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Fruits | capsular, dehiscence valvate, poricidal, or transverse, or carpels dissociating and breaking transversely into 1-seeded segments (only in Platystemon). |
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Capsules | ellipsoid, to 1.6 cm. |
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Seeds | black, shining, smooth. |
usually many, small, sometimes arillate or carunculate. |
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2n | = 12 (plus occasional supernumerary chromosomes). |
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Platystemon californicus |
Papaveraceae |
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Phenology | Flowering early–late spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Open, grassy areas with loose or disturbed soil or following burns | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0-1000(-2000) m (0-3300(-6600) ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR; UT; Mexico (Baja California)
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Worldwide; mainly Northern Hemisphere |
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Discussion | This highly variable, wind-pollinated taxon has been split into as many as 57 species on the basis of characteristics showing little cohesiveness. Ecotypic variation has produced morphologic extremes ranging from semisucculent, nearly glabrous coastal forms to very robust, moderately pubescent plants of interior grassland to compact, densely pubescent plants of semidesert habitats (G. L. Hannan 1979, 1982). Several varieties are recognized in some currently used floras: Platystemon californicus var. ciliatus Dunkle, from Santa Barbara Island; P. californicus var. nutans M. Brandegee, from coastal San Diego County and Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands; and P. californicus var. ornithopus (Greene) Munz, from San Miguel, San Nicholas, and Santa Rosa islands. These geographically restricted morphotypes appear to result from the same sort of ecotypic variation found in many other parts of the range. Rather than naming each ecotype, it seems best to treat Platystemon as a single, highly variable species with many locally adapted, intergrading populations. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 25-30 (17 genera, 63 species in the flora). According to W. R. Ernst (1962b), Papaveraceae "may be divided conveniently into four subfamilies." His scheme is followed here, but with the subfamilies taken up in alphabetic order; they seem to be natural groups, but their phylogenetic interrelationships are not yet clear. Similarly, the evolutionary relationships within the subfamilies remain ambiguous, and the genera in each are listed alphabetically. Subfamily Chelidonioideae Ernst includes genera 1-5; subf. Eschscholzioideae Ernst, genera 6-7; subf. Papavaroideae Ernst, genera 8-14; and subf. Platostamenoideae Ernst, genera 15-17. Hunnemannia fumariifolia Sweet, native to the highlands of Mexico, is occasionally found in California as a garden escape. A glabrous perennial with glaucous, blue-gray stem and leaves, and glossy, yellow petals, it bears an overall resemblance to Eschscholzia but has distinct sepals, no receptacular cup, and a peltate stigma. Below, it would key out as Arctomecon. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3, p. 300. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Papaveraceae > Platystemon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | P. arizonicus, P. australis, P. californicus var. ciliatus, P. californicus var. crinitus, P. californicus var. horridulus, P. californicus var. nutans, P. californicus var. ornithopus, P. mohavensis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Bentham: Trans. Hort. Soc. London, ser. 2, 1: 405. 1834 (as californicum) | A. L. Jussieu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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