4. Eschscholzia Chamisso in Nees, Horae Phys. Berol. 73. 1820.
花菱草属 hua ling cao shu
Authors: Mingli Zhang & Christopher Grey-Wilson
Herbs, perennial to annual, glabrous, slightly hyaline lactiferous. Leaves alternate, generally tripinnatipartite; lobules mostly linear, narrow. Flowers solitary on long pedicels, yellow or orange, occasionally white or cream, large; receptacles cupular-inflated, flowers perigynous. Sepals 2, fused, usually herbaceous in one piece, oblong or conical, in bud margins joined to caplike, at flowering pushed off in one piece due to expanding corolla, apically acute or acuminate. Petals 4, broad, from margin of cupular receptacle, imbricate or contorted in bud. Stamens many, from margin of cupular receptacles; filaments short; anthers linear or oblong, usually longer than filaments, basifixed, 2-celled, introrse. Ovary linear, 1-loculed, 2-carpellate, from bottom of cupular receptacles; styles very short; stigmas 2 or more, almost broadly linear. Capsule narrowly terete, 10-ribbed, 2-valved, dehiscing from base to apex, later usually curved. Seeds many, spherical, tessellate, tuberculate, not carunculate. Cotyledons linear, entire or 2-incised, lobes linear.
About 12 species: widely distributed in the Pacific region of North America in deserts and grasslands; one species (introduced) in China.