Sicklefruit hypecoum

Hypecoum imberbe Sm. (Papaveraceae, subfamily Hypecoideae or Fumarioideae depending on treatment) is a slender annual herb 10-40 cm tall, native to the Mediterranean basin, North Africa and southwestern Asia, where it occurs on disturbed ground, fallow fields and stony slopes. It forms a basal rosette of bipinnate to tripinnate, glaucous, finely divided leaves resembling those of fumitories. The flowering stems are branched and bear cymose inflorescences of small yellow flowers; each flower has two early-deciduous sepals and four petals, of which the two outer are entire and the two inner are three-lobed with a fleshy central lobe. Pollination is by bees and small flies. The fruit is a linear, jointed, beadlike siliqua that breaks transversely into one-seeded segments at maturity. The species is sometimes called sicklefruit hypecoum for its curved capsules and contains isoquinoline alkaloids characteristic of the genus.