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Volume IV (1988) - Flora of New Zealand Naturalised Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, Dicotyledons
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Papaver L.

PAPAVER L.

Annual herbs or root perennials, with white or coloured latex. Lvs simple and toothed to pinnatifid to 2-pinnatisect, glabrous or hispid, glaucous or green. Fls solitary or in lax leafy cymes; buds usually drooping. Sepals 2, entire, free, falling as fl. opens, not horned. Petals 4-(6), crumpled in bud, orange to red, sometimes lilac or white. Stigma lobes 4-18, forming a broad sessile stigmatic disc. Capsule ovate, clavate, orbicular or oblong, opening by pore-like valves just below stigmatic disc. Seeds reniform or comma-shaped, without aril.

Key

1
Capsule and ovary hairy
2
Capsule and ovary glabrous
4
2
Stem lvs 0; fls solitary, on scapes; hairs of capsule and ovary black
*nudicaule ζ
Stem lvs present and fls borne in their axils; hairs of capsule and ovary pale
3
3
Capsule oblong-clavate, with widest point above 1/2 way
1. *argemone
Capsule ellipsoid, with widest point near 1/2 way
4. *hybridum
4
Lvs either glabrous or spiny, rarely the teeth hair-tipped and a few hairs on margins; cauline lvs amplexicaul
5
Lvs hispid on surface, the teeth usually hair-tipped; cauline lvs cuneate at base, never amplexicaul
6
5
Capsule < 2× as long as broad, ovoid, globose or obovoid; stems glabrous; pedicels with bristly or soft hairs, or glabrous
6. *somniferum
Capsule at least 2× as long as broad, elliptic-oblong; stems and pedicels spiny
*aculeatum ζ
6
Subfloral bracts present, pinnatifid; petals 6; capsule obconic
*pseudorientale ζ
Subfloral bracts 0; petals 4; capsule obovoid or clavate to subglobose
7
7
Capsule subglobose to broadly obovoid, < 2× as long as broad; pedicel hairs spreading
5. *rhoeas
Capsule clavate to oblong-obovoid, at least 2× as long as broad; upper pedicel hairs appressed
8
8
Perennial; lvs pinnatifid, cuneately narrowed; petals pale orange
2. *atlanticum
Annual; lvs deeply 1-2-pinnatisect, abruptly narrowed; petals red
3. *dubium

c. 100 spp., mostly N. Hemisphere, a few tropical, 1 in South Africa and Australia. Naturalised spp. 9.

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