Poppy Family :

Papaveraceae (pa-pav-er-AY-see-ee)

Iconic Features

Description (Jepson)

Eudicotyledons (eudicots) – a major lineage of flowering plants including most plants traditionally described as dicots and generally characterized by
- 2 seed leaves (dicotyledon)
- Netted (reticulate) leaf venation
- Flower parts in fours and fives
- Pollen grains with 3 pores (tricolpate)
- Vascular bundles in stem arranged in a ring
- Taproot system
Annual, biennial, or perennial herbs
- Also a few woody shrubs or small trees
Leaves
- Simple (not divided into leaflets) or compound (divided into leaflets)
- Often highly dissected and fern-like
- Alternate (1 leaf at each junction with stem)
Flowers
- Flowers are bisexual, often nodding, and of two types
  - Poppy subfamily (Papaveroideae)
    - Inflorescence (flower arrangement) is solitary and often large
    - Radially-symmetrical flower with a wide-open cup shape, petals usually in fours, and numerous stamens (male flower parts), e.g. poppy
  - Fumitory subfamily (Fumariaceae)
    - Inflorescence is usually a raceme (unbranched stem with stalked flowers opening from the bottom up)
    - Bilaterally-symmetrical flowers, with usually 6 stamens and 4 petals in two dissimilar pairs, e.g. bleeding heart
- Sepals (usually green, outer flower parts) generally half the number of petals
  - Usually shed after flower opens
- Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
Fruit is a capsule (a dry multi-chambered pod that splits open) with many small seeds
- Capsules of some species open explosively

Notes

Approximately 770 species worldwide
- Found in temperate and subtropical climates, usually in the Northern Hemisphere
- Includes poppies, cream cups, and bleeding hearts
Plants produce a caustic latex, which is usually colored and may be milky or watery
Pollinated mostly by insects, usually flies, wasps, or bees
- Flowers in the Poppy subfamily (Papaveroideae) have numerous stamens offering pollen and lack nectaries
- Flowers in the Fumitory subfamily (Fumarioideae) have only 6 stamens and offer pollen and nectar, the latter from a pouch or spur at the base of the 2 larger petals
Seeds of some species, such as bleeding hearts (Dicentra species), have oily, fleshy appendages called elaiosomes, nutrient-rich food packages that attract ants
- Ants carry the seeds back to their colony, feed the food packet to their larvae, and discard the seed, thus aiding in seed dispersal (Lengyel 2010)
- This strategy for seed dispersal, called myrmecochory, is a kind of mutualism, as both the plant and ants benefit
Many species contain narcotic alkaloids
- Morphine and culinary poppy seeds both come from the opium or breadseed poppy, Papaver somniferum
Scientific name from the included genus Papaver, first published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, from the Latin papaver, “poppy”
The previously separate Fumitory family (Fumariaceae) was combined with the Poppy family due to the similar chemistry of its poisonous compounds and leaf traits
Represented by 4 species at Edgewood

Specific References

Lengyel S. 2010. Convergent evolution of seed dispersal by ants, and phylogeny and biogeography in flowering plants: A global survey. Abstract. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 12: 43–55. Science Direct.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.

Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family