Eschscholzia glyptosperma (Desert poppy)

This desert poppy is a native of the Mojave, Sonoran, and portions of the Colorado Deserts.

Leaves: Foliage is basal, alternate, and blue- or gray-green in color. The leaves are so highly divided that they appear linear, almost grasslike.

Flowers: Bright yellow-orange bowl-shaped flowers, resembling buttercups, are about 1″ (2.5 cm) across, with a single flower per stem. Each flower has four petals, each about ⅜″ (1 cm) in size. Flowers occur on bare stems (that is, stems are scapose). Compare these to Eschscholzia parishii, whose stems are not bare.

Fruits: Long, narrow, cylindrical capsule up to 2½″ (6.3 cm) long, with small, round, brown seeds.

Habitats: Creosote bush scrub, Joshua tree woodland, at elevations of 160–5000′ (48–1524 m).

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin)
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves
Subclass	Magnoliidae	Includes magnolias, nutmeg, bay laurel, cinnamon, avocado, black pepper, and many others
Order	Papaverales	A group that includes buttercups and other poisonous plants
Family	Papaveraceae	Poppy family
Genus	Eschscholzia	Named after Dr. Johann Friedrich Gustav von Eschscholtz (1793-1831), a Latvian or Estonian surgeon, entomologist and botanist who came with the Russian expeditions to the Pacific coast in 1816 and 1824
Species	glyptosperma	From glypto, “to carve,” and sperma, in compound words signifying “seeded,” thus “carved-seeded,” the ashen-gray globose seeds being coarsely pitted

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