Greek glaucos—blue-green, referring to the colour of the leaves.
Annual, biennial or perennial, waxy blue herbs. Sap orange. Leaves in basal cluster, pinnately lobed. Flowers solitary, large, yellow to red, occasionally with a dark blotch at the base of each petal. Sepals 2. Petals 4. Stamens many. Fruits a long cylindrical capsule with the seeds buried in soft tissue.
Sometimes grown for the ornamental leaves, fruits and flowers but inclined to become weedy, especially in warmer districts.
Long, horn-like capsules filled with pith.
About 23 species from SW and C Asia and the Mediterranean region.
Cullen (1967).
Source: (1997). Papaveraceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.