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POPPY
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Poppy is the common name for several hundred species of plants in about 13 of the 26 genera making up the poppy family, Papaveraceae. These include the California poppies, Eschscholtzia; the plume poppies, Macleaya; the bush poppies, Dendromecon; and the Mexican poppies, Hunnemannia. The genus Papaver consists of about 100 species of annual, biennial, or perennial herbs native to the Old World, except for a few from western North America.
Poppies of the genus Papaver contain a white, milky sap and have lobed or deeply dissected leaves and mostly long-stalked, large, showy flowers of red, white, violet, or yellow. The flower buds are generally nodding, or bent downwards, due to the rapid growth of one side of the flower stalk. The flowers have an outer layer of two sepals, which drop off as the bud opens, and an inner layer of usually 4 but sometimes 5 or occasionally 6 petals. The flower's stamens are numerous and surround the pistil, which consists of a many-celled ovary capped by a multi-lobed, pollen-receiving stigma. The ovary develops into a short capsular fruit with an upper row of windowlike pores (a poricidal capsule), roofed over by the dried, lobed stigma. The tiny seeds escape through the pores when the capsule is shaken.
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