Mostly spiny herbs, or shrubs, sometimes small trees, laticiferous, containing yellow, white, red or uncolored latex. The laticifers in leaves, in stems, in roots, in flowers, and in the fruits, or non-lacticiferous. Without etheral oil cells.
Distribution
Holarctic, Paleotropical, Neotropical, Cape and Australian. Frigid zone to sub-tropical but mainly northern temperate regions. In neoptropics: Highlands and dry lowlands of Central America and Andean South America. Common on roadsides,cut banks, and in old pastures
Floral characters
Hermaphrodite and hypogyne. Radial, large and conspicous. 2 Sepals, free and caducous, 4-6 great Petals (lacking in Bocconia), free, in 2 whorls. Stamens 8 organized in whorls, free. Ovary superior, mostly one-locular, stigmas 2-8, sessile, more or less forming a lobed cap. Placentation parietal, ovules 8, or placentation basal with 1 ovule (Bocconia).
Leaf characters
Alternate, entire and often deeply lobed or pinnate, without stipules. Hydathodes occasionally present. Hairs present, or absent; eglandular; unicellular, or multicellular. Complex hairs absent.
Stipules
absent
Fruit characters
Non-fleshy capsule, dehiscing with valves or pores. Seed are with rather small embryo and much mealy or oily endosperm, often arillate. Germination phanerocotylar, or cryptocotylar.
Glands
present, laticifers.
Hairs
present or absent
Latex
present, white, yellowish or uncolored
Odor
present, diverse: sour, nutty, unpleasant, of garlic.
Uses
Unripe capsules of Papaver somniferum supply commercial opium. strong analgesic properties. Seed (of P.somniferum) contain no opium and are edible and also supply an oil for oil-paintings. Seed of Glaucium flavum and Argemone mexicana contain an oil for soap-production. Many ornamentals (Dendromecon rigida, Strauchmohn; Eschscholzia californica ,Goldmohn; Papaver alpinum, Alpenmohn; P.nudicaule, Islandmohn; P.orientale, Türkenmohn; Macleaya cordata, Federmohn).
Chemical characters
Cyanogenic, or not cyanogenic. Cynogenic constituents tyrosine-derived. Alkaloids present (nearly always). Berberine present (at least in Argemone), or absent. Flavonols present; kaempferol, or quercetin, or kaempferol and quercetin. Ellagic acid absent (6 species, 6 genera). C3 physiology recorded directly in Argemone, Macleaya.
Distribution maps
(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):
Fumarioideae (Papaveraceae)
map: from Hultén & Lidén 1986; Fries 1986; Hong 1993; Fl. N. Am. III 1997; Fu & Hong 2000; Malyschev & Peschkova 2004; Serban Procheŝ, pers. comm. S. Africa
Papaveroideae (Papaveraceae)
map: from Ownbey 1958, 1961; Hultén & Fries 1986; Fl. N. Am. III 1997; Fu & Hong 2000; Malyschev & Peschkova 2004
