Welsh poppy
Encyclopedia
The Welsh poppy (2n=28) is a perennial plant of the family Papaveraceae
. Its habitat is damp, shady places on rocky ground, and it is native to south-western England
, Wales
, Ireland
and Western Europe
. In its most western locations, it is increasingly found on more open ground with less cover.
It has pinnate
ly divided leaves. The flower is distinctively yellow or orange with four petals, and hairy green sepals that fall off quickly after the flower opens. It spreads easily from the numerous small black seeds produced in the summer. It is especially well adapted to colonising gaps and crevices in rocks and stones. This habit has enabled it to colonise the urban environment, growing between paving slabs and at the edges of walls.
It was originally classified as Papaver cambricum and may be referred to as such in older texts. It is the only member of the Meconopsis (Papaveraceae with yellow latex) genus native to Europe.
On 24 February 2006 the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru
adopted the Welsh poppy as its party logo.
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...
. Its habitat is damp, shady places on rocky ground, and it is native to south-western England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
. In its most western locations, it is increasingly found on more open ground with less cover.
It has pinnate
Pinnate
Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...
ly divided leaves. The flower is distinctively yellow or orange with four petals, and hairy green sepals that fall off quickly after the flower opens. It spreads easily from the numerous small black seeds produced in the summer. It is especially well adapted to colonising gaps and crevices in rocks and stones. This habit has enabled it to colonise the urban environment, growing between paving slabs and at the edges of walls.
It was originally classified as Papaver cambricum and may be referred to as such in older texts. It is the only member of the Meconopsis (Papaveraceae with yellow latex) genus native to Europe.
On 24 February 2006 the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
adopted the Welsh poppy as its party logo.