Celandine-poppy

Stylophorum diphyllum, the celandine-poppy or wood-poppy, is a perennial herb in the Papaveraceae family native to rich deciduous woodlands of eastern North America. The plant grows thirty to fifty centimetres tall from a thick, branching rhizome that exudes a thick yellow-orange latex when cut. Most of the foliage is basal; the leaves are pale bluish-green, deeply pinnately lobed into five to seven oblong segments with rounded teeth, and softly hairy beneath. The flowering stems bear a pair of opposite stem leaves resembling the basal foliage. Showy bright yellow four-petalled flowers, four to five centimetres across, open in spring, borne in small clusters on slender pedicels. The fruits are nodding, oblong, bristly capsules about three centimetres long that split open at maturity to release numerous small pitted seeds bearing oily appendages attractive to dispersing ants. All parts contain alkaloids and are considered toxic.