鬼罂粟 gui ying su

Herbs, perennial, setose throughout, ivory lactiferous. Roots whitish, fusiform, fleshy, with numerous fibrous roots. Stems erect to ascending, tufted, 60-90 cm tall (cultivated plants over 100 cm), erect, terete, almost compressed- or appressed setose, leafy in lower 2/3. Basal leaves green on both surfaces, ovate to lanceolate, 20-30 cm including petiole (longer in cultivated plants), sparsely serrate or incised, teeth bristle-tipped, both surfaces setose, bipinnatipartite; lobules lanceolate or oblong. Cauline leaves many, alternate, similar to basal leaves, but smaller; lower leaves long petiolate, uppermost sessile. Flowers solitary, terminal, bowl-shaped, large, 10-16 cm in diam. Pedicel densely setose. Flower buds erect, ovoid or broadly ovoid, 2-3 cm, spreading setose. Sepals 2, sometimes 3, outside green, inside whitish. Petals 4-6, red or carmine, with or without a basal dark blotch or flecking, broadly obovate or flabellate, (3-)5-8 cm, basally shortly clawed, abaxially with thick veins. Stamens numerous; filaments dark, filiform, below ampliate; anthers indigo-violet, oblong. Stigma 10-16-rayed, actinomorphic, indigo, uniting into compressed disk, margin sparsely thickly serrate. Capsule spheroidal, 2-3.5 cm in diam., glabrous, with a flat 10-16-rayed stigmatic disk. Seeds brown, orbicular-reniform, broadly striate, with small foveolae. Fl. Jun-Jul. 2n = 28.

Widely cultivated as an ornamental in Taiwan [native to the Caucasus, N Iran, and NE Turkey].

Many cultivated forms are recorded in a wide range of colors, including orange, reds, mauve, purple, pink, and white. These are mostly of hybrid origin between Papaver orientale and the closely related P. bracteatum Lindley.