SPECIES DESCRIPTION
PAPAVER ARGEMONE subsp. NIGROTINCTUM
Family and Genus:- See- PAPAVERACEAE/Sect. PAPAVER
Common Names:- Black-spotted prickly poppy
Homotypic Synonyms:- Papaver nigrotinctum
Meaning:- Papaver (L) Poppy.
Argemone (Gr) A name used by the Greek physician and botanist
Dioscorides for a poppy-like plant used in medicine as a treatment for cataract.
Nigrotinctum (L) With a black marking.
General description:- Short to medium bristly annual.
Stem:-.
1) 10-75 cm, erect or ascending.
Leaves:-
1) Basal and opposite, deeply, 1- to 3-pinnatipartite, segments lanceolate.
2) Pedicels, usually appressed-setose.
Flowers:-
1) Buds, almost glabrous or more or less patent-setose.
2) Sepals, usually with inconspicuous apical processes.
3) Calyx, with 2 green, free sepals, falling at flowering.
4) Corolla, red with a large dark centre, solitary, approximately 35 mm diam with 4
free petals.
5) Petals, 10-30 mm, reddish orange with a distinct basal black spot.
6) Style, with 5 stigmas.
7) Stamens, numerous;
a) anthers, violet, blue.
b) filaments, clavate, dark.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 0·9-1·5 x 0·3-0·6 cm, narrowly obovoid to ellipsoidal or cylindrical, with
patent to half-appressed setae mainly above.
2) Stigmatic disc, vaulted to distinctly pointed, with 4-6 rays, not wider than the
capsule.
Key features:-
1) Filaments, clavate.
2) Corolla, red with a large dark centre.
3) Stigmatic disc, vaulted to distinctly pointed,
Habitat:- Mostly as a weed of roadsides and field margins, occasionally in open
woodland. 0-700(-1100) m.
Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece. - Probably restricted to Greece and W
Anatolia. Rare on Crete known from only a few scattered locations.
Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
