''Romneya coulteri'', the Coulter's Matilija poppy or California tree poppy, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae.

Native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to southern California, USA, and Baja California, Mexico, it grows in dry canyons in

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

and

coastal sage scrub Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is w ...

plant communities, sometimes in areas recently

burned Burned or burnt may refer to: * Anything which has undergone combustion * Burned (image), quality of an image transformed with loss of detail in all portions lighter than some limit, and/or those darker than some limit * ''Burnt'' (film), a 2015 ...

. It is a popular ornamental plant, kept for its large, showy flowers. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''coulteri'' commemorates Thomas Coulter, an Irish botanist and explorer. This

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennial may exceed in height, its stem growing from a network of

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s. The gray-green, waxy-textured leaves are each divided into a few lance-shaped lobes, the blades growing up to 20 centimeters (7.8 in) long. The inflorescence is a large, solitary flower with six crinkly white petals each up to long. At the center of the flower is a cluster of many yellow

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s. The fruit is a bristly capsule, long, containing many tiny seeds. This plant often grows aggressively once planted. It spreads clonally by underground

s and can appear several feet away from the original plant. This plant bears the largest flowers of any species native to California, rivaled only by ''

Hibiscus lasiocarpos ''Hibiscus lasiocarpos'' (also, ''H. lasiocarpus'' ''orth. var.'') is a species of hibiscus known by the common name hairy-fruited hibiscus. It is also one of several hibiscus called rosemallow. It is native to much of the southeastern United Sta ...

''. It was nominated for the honor of California state flower in 1890, but the California poppy won the title in a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

. In cultivation in the UK, ''Romneya coulteri'' and the cultivar ‘White Cloud’ have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

Chemical composition

Protopine is the major alkaloid of this plant, followed by coulteropine and romneine.

Gallery

Romneya coulteri 3 (Corse).JPG Bot-rome6.jpg

References

External links

*
Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
Papaveroideae Flora of Baja California Flora of California Garden plants Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Ranunculales-stub