PA PAVER AC 



205 



36. PAPAVERACE/E. Poppy Family. 



Herbaceous plants (Dendromecon is a shrub) with mostly colored 

 juice and regular perfect flowers. Sepals .2 or 3, the petals twice as 

 many. In Eschscholtzia the 2 sepals are united into a single piece 

 like a fool's cap. Stamens numerous, rarely few. Carpels 2 to 

 several, united into a 1-celled superior ovary (in Platystemon the 

 lightly united carpels become distinct in fruit). 



Sepals 3, petals 6; annuals; leaves opposite or radical. 

 Filaments petal-like; carpels 6 to 20, In anthesis united into a compound 

 ovary, in fruit separating and through constrictions breaking up into 



1-seeded joints 1. Platystemon. 



Filaments filiform or flattened; carpels 3, united into a 3-angled or terete 



ovary, forming in fruit a 3-valved capsule 2. Platystigma. 



Sepals 2 (in Eschscholtzia the calyx is a single mitre-like piece which is pushed 

 oft* by the expanding.petals); petals 4; leaves alternate. 

 Leaves entire, coriaceous; capsule 2-valved; shrubby . . . 3. Dendromecon. 

 Leaves not entire. 



Receptacle hollowed or cup-like; flowers erect in bud; capsule 2-valved; 



leaves ternately dissected; annual or perennial herbs 



4. Eschscholtzia. 



Receptacle not excavated; flowers nodding in the bud; capsule opening 

 by holes just below the summit; leaves pinnately cleft, lobed or 

 divided; ours annuals 5. Papaver. 



1. PLATYSTEMON Benth. 



Low annual with mainly opposite entire leaves. Sepals 3. Petals 

 6 in two series. Stamens numerous; filaments petal-like and obovatc 

 or spatulate. Stigmas subulate-filiform, one terminating each carpel; 

 carpels 6 to 17 or 20, each several-ovuled, connivent or coherent in a 

 circle, becoming torulose, at maturity separating, and breaking 

 transversely into indehiscent 1-seeded joints. Anthesis lasting for 

 more than one day. Petals tardily deciduous, withering and closing 

 over the forming fruit. (Greek pfatus, broad, and stemon, a stamen.) 



1. P. Californicus Benth. Cream-cups. Conspicuously pilose; 

 branched from the base, widely spreading and more or less decumbent 

 or nearly acaulescent, 3 to 6 in. high; peduncles more or less scape- 

 like, 5 in. long; petals cream-yellow; stamens about 25. 



Common almost throughout California, in the hills and on the 

 plains, in Apr. Free ovules are sometimes found opposite the con- 

 strictions in the carpels, having been forced through the thin suture 

 as the carpels become torulose. In plants from Ukiah the petals are 

 deeper colored at apex with this color repeated as a spot on the lower 

 portion of the petals. 



2. PLATYSTIGMA Benth. 



Annual herbs with the leaves, sepals and petals as in Platystemon, 

 the flowers rarely with 2 sepals and 4 petals. Petals deciduous. 

 Stamens 6 to 12. Carpels 3, combined into a single 1-celled ovary, 

 which is 3-lobed or nearly terete. Placenta? as many as the carpels, 

 parietal, many-ovuled. Stigmas ovate to subulate. Capsule com- 

 pletely 3-valved, dehiscent through the placenta 1 . (Greek platus, 

 broad, and stigma, a stigma.) 



