Eomecon chionantha, also known as the snow poppy or dawn poppy, is a poppy

Papaveraceae

Papaveraceae, informally known as the poppy family, are an economically important family of 44 genera and approximately 770 species of flowering plants in the order Ranunculales. The family is cosmopolitan, occurring in temperate and subtropical climates, but almost unknown in the tropics...

 of woodlands in eastern China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, in particular Gansu

Gansu

' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...

 and Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

 provinces.

E. chionantha is a perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 developing from rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

s that often send out stolon

Stolon

In biology, stolons are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external skeletons.-In botany:...

s to considerable distances. The basal leaves are different from all other poppies, being large (10-15 cm across) and heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, each carried on its own stalk. The flowers are on branching scape

Scape

In biology, the term scape may refer to:* The first segment of an insect antenna* A finger-like appendage of the epigyne of a female spider* Scape , a flowering stemScape may also refer to:...

s up to 40 cm tall, each branch having a single bract

Bract

In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...

at its base. The flowers are 3-4 cm across, and consist of four white oval petals, with a cluster of bright yellow anthers in the center.

In cultivation it proves quite hardy as long as it is shaded, with a habit of popping up new growth at some distance from the usual planting.

The misspelling E. chionanthum is often seen.