Wood poppy

SCIENTIFIC NAME

Stylophorum diphyllum

DESCRIPTION

The wood poppy stands up to 40 centimetres tall. The leaves are mainly basal and up to 15 cm long and 6 cm across with a paler underneath with five to seven deeply divided, irregular lobed or toothed segments. The flower is deep yellow with four petals each 2 to 5 cm long; occur in clusters of up to four, blooming in May and early June. The fruit is a greyish hairy seed pod capsule divided into three or four longitudinal segments. All parts have a bitter yellow sap.

RANGE

In Canada, restricted to three small, fragmented sites near London in southwestern Ontario.

HABITAT

Carolinian forest

DIET

BEHAVIOUR

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PRIMARY ECOSYSTEM ROLES

The wood poppy feeds bees and other pollinators, mice (seeds), whitetailed deer and other browsing mammals.