Common Name: stylophorum
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Papaveraceae
Native Range: Central China
Zone: 4 to 9
Height: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Bloom Time: May to September
Bloom Description: Yellow
Sun: Part shade to full shade
Water: Dry to medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Naturalize
Flower: Showy
Fruit: Showy
Tolerate: Drought, Dry Soil
Culture
Easily grown in rich, dry to medium moisture, well-drained soils in part shade to full shade. Foliage may scorch in full sun. Prefers rich woodland areas. Tolerates dry shade. Tolerates clay soils. Deadhead spent flowers to prolong bloom. Plants will reseed in the garden in optimum conditions.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Stylophorum lasiocarpum, commonly called Chinese celandine poppy, is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial that is native to forest understories and glades in eastern to central China. Bright yellow 4-petaled flowers (1 ½” across) bloom in terminal clusters from late spring to late summer (May –September) atop leafy stems rising to 12-18” tall and slightly above a basal foliage mound of irregularly toothed, 4-7 lobed, lyrate-pinnatifid ovate-oblong leaves. Flowers are followed by bristly, silver-haired, elongate seed capsules which explosively split open in fall when ripe to scatter seed. Roots and stems have an orange-red sap, hence the sometimes used common name of human bloodwort. Very similar in appearance to Stylophorum diphyllum (celandine poppy) which is native to woodlands in the eastern U. S., but has larger leaves with deeper lobes, tolerates drier soils and has red sap instead of yellow.
Genus name comes from the Greek words stylos meaning style and phoros meaning bearing with reference to the long columnar style.
Specific epithet comes from the Latin words lasi meaning wooly and carpus meaning fruit in reference to the hairy seed capsules.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Watch for slugs and snails.
Uses
Sun-dappled shady areas of the landscape. Shade gardens.