PAPAVERACEAE - Poppy Family
Annual or perennial herbs
with milky sap
Leaves alternate, basal or
cauline, much divided
Flowers solitary, bisexual,
actinomorphic
Fruit a capsule with pores
or valves, seeds often small and numerous.
Placentation parietal
25 genera, 200 species
The Papeveraceae is broken up into four subfamilies mostly on the
basis of hair and pollen grain characteristics. In some
classifications, the Fumariaceae is included in the Papaveraceae.
Economic importance: minor ornamental and opium poppies (narcotic
alkaloids), Sanguinaria
root.
Medicinal uses - Morphine is a component of opium and heroin is a
synthetic derivative of morphine. Morphine is widely used as a
painkiller but heroin is outlawed for virtually any use in the U.S.A.
While doctors in Europe have the option of using heroin to relieve
the extreme pain that is experienced by terminal cancer patients,
U.S. doctors do not have that option. The purpose of the ban is to
lower levels of heroin addiction but the ban only prevents everyone
but legitimate healthcare workers and patients from obtaining it. The
consumption of poppy seeds, which are often put on salads and baked
goods, can result in a false positive on drug tests.
Diagnostic characteristics - herbaceous plants with highly
dissected leaves, flowers showy and actinomorphic, gynoecium of 2 or
more fused carpels, fruit a capsule with pores or valves.
IMAGE GALLERY
FLOWERING
PLANT GATEWAY