Shrubby Poppies in California

Sophia Warsh
Assistant Curator

Our familiar and ubiquitous bright orange California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) have finished blooming but there are some other members of the poppy family (Papaveraceae) to explore: Romneya and Dendromecon, California’s shrubby poppies.

Romneya-The largest California native flower!
Currently blooming in the California Collection is Romneya. There are two species featured, Romneya coulteri (Bed 12A) and R. trichocalyx (Bed 70B), Matilija poppy and bristly Matilija poppy respectively. Floating aloft these towering subshrubs is the largest flower of any plant native to California.

Its papery white petals and numerous yellow stamens lend it one of its other names – the fried egg flower. Matilija poppy is native to the dry canyons, chaparral and coastal sage scrub of Southern California and Baja California.

Dendromecon, which is greek for tree poppy, is a shrub to small tree native to California. The species we have on display in bed 6B is Dendromecon harfordii which is endemic to the Channel Islands. Our specimen was originally collected on Santa Cruz Island where it is associated with other denizens of the chaparral like chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum), scrub oak (Quercus dumosa), and island ceanothus (Ceanthous arboreus). Its glossy petals rival that of a buttercup and in fact they are in the same order – the Ranunculales. This early diverging clade of eudicots includes buttercups, barberries, columbine, creamcups, bleeding hearts and inside-out flowers, to name just a few.

Dendromecon harfordii

And, while you are at the garden, look around for these other shrubby members of the poppy family – Bocconia frutescens (South America Collection, bed 654) and B. glaucifolia (Mexico/Central America Collection, beds 360 and 361)