Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Papaver heterophyllum; photograph John Rusk from Berkeley, CA, United States of America, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYJohn Rusk from Berkeley, CA, United States of America, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Papaver heterophyllum (Benth.) Greene

Papaveraceae · California, Mexico Northwest

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Papaver heterophyllum, photograph John Rusk from Berkeley, CA, United States of America, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPapaver heterophyllum, photograph John Rusk from Berkeley, CA, United States of America, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPapaver heterophyllum, photograph Toedrifter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPapaver heterophyllum, photograph Toedrifter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPapaver heterophyllum, photograph ALAN SCHMIERER, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsPapaver heterophyllum, photograph ALAN SCHMIERER, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons 8 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-2.2°C
Record low -7.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
426mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
17–53DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes December to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Papaver heterophyllum, previously known as Stylomecon heterophylla, and better known as the wind poppy, is a winter annual herbaceous plant. It is endemic to the western California Floristic Province and known to grow in the area starting from the San Francisco Bay Area of Central Western California southwards to northwestern Baja California, Mexico. Its main habitat is often described as mesic and shady, with loamy soils such as soft sandy loam, clay loam, and leaf mold loam.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Papaver heterophyllum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Papaver

Papaver is a genus of 70–100 species of frost-tolerant annuals, biennials, and perennials native to temperate and cold regions of Eurasia, Africa and North America. It is the type genus of the poppy family, Papaveraceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Papaver", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (300 mm of 411 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.9 °C against a yearly mean of 15.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

411 mm in the median year at the habitat, 300 mm of it December to March. Wettest months (2 at 84 mm), driest month July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 240 mm to 811 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 426 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 411 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -2.2 °C, the absolute minimum -7.4 °C, 577 frost nights in 44 years, 13.1 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 1.4 °C to 10.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.9 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +99 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Papaver heterophyllum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 4.2 °C; 411 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost39.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-7.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 17–53RH 50–58%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 385 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 12–1815 / 13–1817 / 14–1920 / 17–2223 / 18–2627 / 20–3130 / 22–3430 / 23–3428 / 23–3123 / 21–2518 / 16–2114 / 12–17
Night °C4 / 1–115 / 2–117 / 4–118 / 5–1211 / 9–1414 / 12–1617 / 13–2018 / 14–2016 / 13–1812 / 9–167 / 5–135 / 2–11
Rain mm84 / 44–15884 / 47–14666 / 41–12229 / 16–6110 / 4–262 / 1–81 / 0–42 / 1–56 / 4–1120 / 11–4141 / 21–9166 / 36–144
DLI19 / 15–2324 / 21–2834 / 30–3743 / 40–4649 / 47–5153 / 51–5552 / 49–5347 / 45–4940 / 38–4130 / 27–3322 / 18–2517 / 14–21
RH %57 / 52–6158 / 54–6158 / 55–6256 / 51–6254 / 47–6452 / 45–6650 / 43–6651 / 44–6651 / 46–6552 / 48–6254 / 50–6056 / 51–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 385 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1022 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1041:1160 (37.925, -121.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 385 distinct grid cells holding 1022 of the 1023 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1041:1160 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 38.00_-121.875, lapse-corrected +99 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 204 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 2888511 (Stylomecon heterophylla (Benth.) G.Taylor, 1999 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeCalifornia, Mexico Northwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker37.351, -121.694 · in the densest population, 684 records (57% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1194 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1022 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1023 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 289 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 171 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 2888511 (Stylomecon heterophylla (Benth.) G.Taylor): Kew's file holds it as Stylomecon heterophylla (Benth.) G.Taylor (synonym under Papaver heterophyllum (Benth.) Greene); 1,999 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1194 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Papaver heterophyllum, photograph 1did not loadPapaver heterophyllum, photograph 2did not loadPapaver heterophyllum, photograph 3did not loadPapaver heterophyllum, photograph 4did not loadPapaver heterophyllum, photograph 5did not loadPapaver heterophyllum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: John Rusk from Berkeley, CA, United States of America, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Toedrifter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); ALAN SCHMIERER, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Dipterostemon capitatus Dipterostemon capitatus Indian-hyacinth Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerAmsinckia menziesii Amsinckia menziesii Menzies' fiddleneck Photo: CC BY, Henry MillerRafinesquia californica Rafinesquia californica California chicory Photo: CC BY, Barbara BanfieldSalix laevigata Salix laevigata Polished willow Photo: CC BY, Jo RobertsLepidium nitidum Lepidium nitidum Shining pepperweed Photo: CC0, author not statedAdenostoma fasciculatum Adenostoma fasciculatum Chamise Photo: CC BY, Devon Bradley

Other Papaver 23 in the reference

Papaver aculeatum Papaver aculeatum Bristle poppy Photo: CC BY-SA, SAplantsPapaver armeniacum Papaver armeniacum Armenian Poppy Photo: CC BY, Roland GodonPapaver atlanticum Papaver atlanticum Atlas poppy Photo: CC BY, Geoff MorganPapaver bracteatum Papaver bracteatum Oriental poppy Photo: CC BY, relewPapaver cambricum Papaver cambricum Welsh poppy Photo: CC0, author not statedPapaver commutatum Papaver commutatum Caucasian scarlet poppy Photo: CC0, author not stated Papaver crassifolium Papaveraceae Papaver dubium Papaver dubium Blindeyes Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaPapaver glaucum Papaver glaucum Tulip poppy Photo: CC BY, ElliotPapaver lateritium Papaver lateritium Armenian poppy Photo: Public domain, DegoejePapaver lecoqii Papaver lecoqii Yellow-juiced Poppy Photo: CC0, author not statedPapaver macrostomum Papaver macrostomum Papaveraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz all 24 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Stylomecon heterophylla; Stylophorum heterophyllum; Stylomecon heterophylla var. micropetala; Meconopsis heterophylla. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Papaveraceae
Described by
(Benth.) Greene
Native to
California, Mexico Northwest
Wild records
1194 in range · 289 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Papaver heterophyllum (Benth.) Greene (plant_name_id 2560813), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1999 records of GBIF's key 2888511, Stylomecon heterophylla (Benth.) G.Taylor (Kew's file holds it as Stylomecon heterophylla (Benth.) G.Taylor (synonym under Papaver heterophyllum (Benth.) Greene)): the GBIF download; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 38.00_-121.875, lapse-corrected +99 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 182757-2, POWO 182757-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 47 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…