Papaver dubium L., Sp. Pl. 1196. 1753; Hook. f. & Thomson in Pl. Brit India 1: 117. 1872.

Herbs, annual, caulescent or subscapose, hispid or bristly, 14 - 40 cm high. Leaves pinnatisect, sometimes pinnatifid, oblong-ovate, entire or often dentate, obtuse or acute, 2 - 10 x 2 - 3 cm; upper leaves pinnatifid into linear or oblong-linear or lanceolate 4 - 10 mm broad, entire or dentate with bristly acute segments. Peduncles 5 - 33 cm long, erect, large, with enlarged summit, hairy; flower buds ovoid, tapering to a more acute apex, hornless, 8 - 16 x 4 - 8 mm, roughly tubercular, white and silky hairy; flowers 3 - 7 cm across, terminal. Sepals 2, ovate, caducous, glabrous or bristly. Petals ovate, 2.4 - 2.8 x 3 - 3.6 cm, brick red to red in colour, not overlapping, caducous. Stamens few, as long as ovary; filaments slender, up to 9 mm long; anthers broad-elliptic, ca 1 mm long. Rays of stigmatic disc yellow in colour, 6 - 8 in number. Capsules sessile, oblong, ovate, clavate, cylindrical, 10 - 20 x 3 - 9 mm, glabrous; stigmatic rays 6 - 8 (-9); seeds reniform, ca 0.6 mm in diam., purplish black.

Fl. & Fr. April - Aug.

Distrib. India: N.W. Himalayas,1000 - 3000 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran to Europe.

Notes. A very variable and complex species, and as a result several varieties have been recognised, which are collectively referred under the single polymorphic species P.dubium.

Chromosome no. n = 14 (Koul et al. in Nucleus 15: 117 - 123. 1972); 2n = 28, 42 (Koopmans in New Phytol. 69: 1121- 1130. 1970).

Bahl & Tyagi (in Curr. Sci. 58: 1384 - 1385. 1989) analysed the karyotype of this species.