![09-042a WIND-POPPY (stylomecon heterphylla) (3482234378)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/09-042a_WIND-POPPY_%28stylomecon_heterphylla%29_%283482234378%29.jpg)
''Papaver heterophyllum'', previously known as ''Stylomecon heterophylla'', and better known as the wind poppy, is a winter annual
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 ...
plant. It is endemic to the western
California Floristic Province and known to grow in the area starting from the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
of Central Western
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
southwards to northwestern
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Its main habitat is often described as mesic and shady, with loamy soils such as soft sandy loam, clay loam, and leaf mold loam.
It is a member of the family ''
Papaveraceae'', the poppy family of flowering plants mostly found in the Northern Hemisphere.
The name
poppy originates from Early Old English popeġ, popaeġ, popæġ, or popei
and is suspected to have previously come from Late
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
papavum, popauer.
Morphology
The wind poppy consists of radially symmetrical flowers supported by long, thin, and wiry stems with lobed leaves. The flower has bright orange petals and a purple-black central disk. The central disk is a deep red which distally fades at the petal bases, while the staminal filaments are dark red to black. It is a relatively short lived annual herb with a blooming period that can occur from February to late May, with the peak occurring in March and April. The wind poppy is a
polyploid
Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contain ...
, with reports on chromosome number for the species concluding it as being octoploid. It is also self compatible and autonomously self-pollinating.
''Papaver heterophyllum'' can be compared to ''
Papaver californicum
''Papaver californicum'' is a species of poppy known by the common names fire poppy and western poppy.
It is endemic to California, where it is found in Central Western California and Southwestern California. It grows in chaparral, oak woodlan ...
'' because of the close species relationship delineated by similar vegetative and reproductive traits. It was stated by Ernst in 1962 that the “seedling stages are identical, and even the adult plants are so similar that determinations cannot be made without the gynoecia.” The species are more easily distinguishable through leaf, flower, and fruit morphology.
Kadereit & Baldwin describe the
gynoecium
Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...
of ''Papaver heterophyllum'' to have a flat ovary roof with capsules that split apart through pores under it. The seeds of ''Papaver heterophyllum'' have a mean length of 803 µm, with a coarser
seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...
surface when compared to the smaller seeds of ''P. californicum''.
As for leaf morphology, ''Papaver heterophyllum'' has a delicate “dissection” pattern on the middle and distal cauline leaves. It is thought that the name heterophyllum came from the observation of the distinctive sharp transition between the proximal and middle cauline leaf margins.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
''Papaver heterophyllum'' has no known subspecies.
Genus
''Papaver heterophyllum'' resides under the genus ''Papaver'', which contains over a 100 species and includes other poppy species, with the type species being the opium poppy, or ''
Papaver somniferum''. Current studies do not support that ''Papaver'' is a monophyletic group.
A
phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...
systematics study in 2011 concluded that ''P. heterophyllum'' could hybridize with ''P. californicum'', which favors a botanical name change from its previous one, ''S. heterophylla.''
This conclusion occurred almost fifteen years after it was first postulated by one of the same investigators in 1997 that ''S. heterophylla'' arose from
Papaver and should not be placed into a separate
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
.
The 2011 paper by Kadereit & Baldwin compared ''Stylomecon heterophylla'' (now known as ''Papaver heterophylla'') to ''Papaver californicum''. ''S. heterophylla'' is closely related to ''P. californicum'', but because of differing gynoecium and fruit morphology, this relationship was unexpected. The gynoecium of ''P. californicum'' has a sessile stigmatic disc and below the disc are small valves where the capsules open. This morphology is typical of ''Papaver'' while the gynoecium of ''S. heterophylla'' has a style over an ovary roof and below the roof are pores by which the capsules open. This morphology, specifically gynoecia with a style, is usually found in the ''
Meconopsis
''Meconopsis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae. It was created by French botanist Viguier in 1814 for the species known by the common name Welsh poppy, which Carl Linnaeus had described as ''Papaver cambricum''. ...
'' family which led the wind poppy to be placed in that family. DNA evidence, along with a comparison of vegetative and reproductive traits, has since indicated that ''S. heterophylla'' is actually in the ''Papaver'' genus.
Family
''Papaver heterophyllum'' falls under the family of ''Papaveraceae'', which contains more than 825 species and 44 genera.
Habitat
''Papaver heterophyllum'' is native to the coastal mountains of central California down to Baja where it grows on the sides of slopes below altitudes of 4000 feet (1200 m). They are often found 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 ...
,
grasslands
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natural ...
and
oak woodlands. They prefer an environment with low moisture and well-drained soil in part shade
and are uncommon even within their range. They seem to survive a relatively broad range of environmental conditions, at least compared to ''P. californicum.''
Ecological relationships
They are annuals and bloom in the spring but are especially abundant after a fire because the seeds are cued to
germinate by cues such as heat, smoke, or charred wood. Within its habitat, wind poppy flowers usually stand a little taller than most of the surrounding vegetation which is thought to help them sway in the wind to attract
insect pollinators from further away.
Carotenoids
The wind poppy is known for its bright orange color. This color results from the presence of
carotenoid
Carotenoids (), also called tetraterpenoids, are yellow, orange, and red organic compound, organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, and Fungus, fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpki ...
s, organic pigments, in the flower,
although early studies have found that its flowers only contain a small amount of carotenoids. These pigments are
terpenoids
The terpenoids, also known as isoprenoids, are a class of naturally occurring organic chemicals derived from the 5-carbon compound isoprene and its derivatives called terpenes, diterpenes, etc. While sometimes used interchangeably with "terpenes", ...
often of the formula C
40, that absorb wavelengths of 400 to 550 nanometers. These wavelengths correspond to the visible light spectrum from green to violet. Thus, the pigments reflect red to yellow light, giving the poppies their orange color.
Human use
![Wildfire in California](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Wildfire_in_California.jpg)
The wind poppy is most often found in the wild, and rarely seeds except after
wildfires. While many poppy species are used medicinally across the world, the wind poppy is not known to be farmed, lauded for medicinal use, or consumed by humans.
However, wind poppy seeds are commercially sold, as the bright flower is thought to be appealing due to its bright color and lily-like scent.
Hybrids
Since it is most often found in the wild and rarely seeds, there are no natural or manmade
hybrids. There is seldom hybridization between the two species because successful reproduction requires ''P. heterophyllum'' to be the female parent. Kadereit & Baldwin attempted to hybridize ''P. heterophyllum'' and ''P. californicum'' (western poppy), which produced plants that developed well but were
sterile.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q25407894
heterophyllum