Papaver rhoeas L., corn poppy, field poppy, flanders poppy . Annual, taprooted, rosetted, 1–stemmed at base, branched along main axis, ± ascending to lax–stemmed and spreading, to 80 cm tall; shoots with basal leaves and cauline leaves, glaucous, coarsely hirsute; latex cloudy white.
Stems cylindric, to 6 mm diameter; hollow.
Leaves helically alternate, 1—2–pinnately lobed, petiolate (basal leaves) and sessile (cauline leaves), without stipules; petiole winged, to ca. 20 mm long; blade of basal leaves ovate in outline, to 185 × 110 mm, 7—9–lobed with lateral lobes mostly paired, 2.5—7 mm wide at sinuses (the narrowest at the lowest sinuses), lobes lanceolate, 20—55 × 12—20 mm, terminal lobe to 70 × 30 mm and sometimes also lobed, dentate on margins, acute at tip, pinnately veined with principal veins raised on lower surface, sparsely hirsute; blade of cauline leaves widely trowel–shaped in outline, 75—100 × 85—90 mm, 3—5–lobed, 1.5—4 mm wide at sinuses (the narrowest at the lowest sinus), lobes lanceolate, dentate to serrate on margins, acute at tip, sometimes lobed again, ultimate divisions entire.
Inflorescence 1–flowered or 2–flowered cyme (often appearing solitary), terminal, flower on long pedicel (peduncle), bracteate, coarsely hirsute; bract subtending pedicel leaflike; pedicel (peduncle) to 300 mm long, coarsely hirsute.
Flower bisexual, radial, 15—32 mm across; bud typically nodding, ellipsoid, 14—15(—20) × 8—10(—14) mm, coarsely hirsute, the hairs with large, conically swollen bases; sepals 2, falling as soon as flower opens (caducous), deeply cupped, green but with 1 margin narrowly membranous, exposed, and overlapping the margin of other sepal, the other margin broadly membranous, overlapped by margin of other sepal; petals 4 or 6, spreading forming dish–shaped corolla, petals obovate to oval or depressed–ovate, in range 30—33 × 47—60 mm, entire to broadly crenate on upper margin, in range red with white spot at base above green basal edge; stamens ca. 120, free; filaments ascending or inner ones appressed to ovary, threadlike, 4—11.7 mm long, unequal within a flower, white and sometimes purplish red (purple) below anther; anthers basifixed, dithecal, linear–oblong, 1.3—1.7 mm long, yellow (to bluish), longitudinally dehiscent; pollen pale to light yellow; pistil 1, in range 5—6 × 2.5 mm; ovary superior, truncate–ovoid, green, glabrous, 1–chambered with many ovules produced on 13—17 placentae, the placentae intruding from the sides toward the center, the top of ovary (commonly referred to as the stigmatic disc) at anthesis domed with marginal flaps aging shallowly conic and disclike; styles absent; stigmas 13—17 downwardly radiating arms from a conic center, the arms above placentae, widening toward the tip, fused laterally to form a disc, light tan or pale yellow and free from ovary on upper edges, papillate.
Fruit capsule, dehiscent by pores beneath appressed flaps of stigma disc lobes, many–seeded, barrel–shaped to spheroid, ± 15—20 × 7—13 mm, smooth, glabrous, glaucous, with as many pale green to tannish stripes as stigmas, capsule on a short, cylindric receptacle 0.7—1.5 × 1.8—3 mm (where other flower parts formerly attached).
Seed kidney–shaped, ca. 0.75 × 0.6 mm, black, netlike ridged on surface; aril absent.
A. C. Gibson & B. A. Prigge