Papaveraceae
Papaveraceae, the poppy family of flowering plants (order Ranunculales), with 48 genera and 2,220 species. Most of these are herbaceous plants, but the family also includes some woody shrubs and a genus of small tropical trees. The family is outstanding for its many garden ornamentals and pharmaceutically important plants. Most species are found in the Northern Hemisphere.
Physical description
Members of the subfamily Papaveroideae have bisexual regular dish-shaped flowers with one superior pistil (female structure) and many stamens (male parts). The buds and flowers are usually large and often nodding. They have two or three many-seeded separate sepals and 4 to 12 or more separate, often crinkled petals. The fruit is a spherical or linear capsule. In Papaver the seeds are dispersed from holes at the top of the capsule when the plant is shaken by the wind. In some genera the plants are spiny. The leaves are usually deeply cut or divided into leaflets, and the sap is colored.
Formerly classified as its own family, the large subfamily Fumarioideae characteristically features bilaterally symmetrical flowers with two dissimilar pairs of petals. The leaves are often compound or finely divided. Many species have rhizomes or tubers.The subfamily Chelidonieae comprises annual and perennial plants with yellow, orange, or red latex in the stems.
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Major genera and species
Numerous members of the family are valuable ornamental plants, including about 50 species of the genus Papaver (poppy). One of the most commercially and culturally important species is the opium poppy (P. somniferum). It is grown as an ornamental and for its edible poppy seeds, and is an important source of opiate drugs, including opium, heroin, morphine, and codeine.
(Read Britannica’s essay “Can Eating Poppy Seeds Make You Fail a Drug Test?”)
Other genera of the Papaveraceae distinguished for their ornamental species include: Corydalis; Dicentra; Meconopsis; Eschscholzia (California poppy); Hunnemannia (Mexican tulip poppy); Dendromecon (tree poppy); Stylophorum; Chelidonium (celandine); Sanguinaria (bloodroot); Platystemon (creamcups); Romneya coulteri (Matilija poppy); Macleaya (plumed poppy); Stylomecon (wind poppy); Bocconia; and Eomecon (snow poppy). The genera Argemone (prickly poppy), Glaucium (horned poppy), and Papaver contain weedy species. See also list of plants in the family Papaveraceae.