Papaver aculeatum flower

This Papaver aculeatum flower bears only three petals, one of its options. Flowers with four are common, ones with five are also seen.

Another option of this plant is flower colour variations. Salmon pink and orange red are often seen and recorded in the descriptions. But have a look what the iNaturalist website presents among its photos: at least white and yellow are also there, as well as a strange pink form.

The numerous stamens spread richly around the superior ovary of the flower. The sessile, linear stigmas are arranged in a disc over the placentas.

The genus is given by iNaturalist as Afropapaver instead of Papaver. Not (yet?) what SANBI calls it at the time of writing (Manning, 2009; Germishuizen and Clarke, 2003; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Eliovson, 1984; Elvebakk and Bjerke, 2024: Papaver recircumscribed: A review of neighbouring Papaveraceae genera, including Afropapaver nom. et stat. nov. and Oreomecon, a large, Arctic-Alpine genus. PhytoKeys 248: 105–188 (2024); iNaturalist; iSpot; www.plantgenesis.co.uk; http://redlist.sanbi.org).