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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Stylophorum diphyllum
In very early spring, celandine
poppy lights up the gray, still-sleepy garden with lacy blue leaves
and cup-like, lemon-yellow flowers. The sunny flowers are most
abundant in early spring, but blooming continues on and off through
fall. Bees and butterflies come calling. Celandine poppy readily
self-sows and will spread itself around quite generously if you
provide shade and moist, humus-rich soil. The fuzzy, silvery
seedpods add extra interest. For a beautiful, no-maintenance
woodland planting, combine celandine poppy with Christmas ferns and
wild violets. This fun, easy, cheery plant also looks great with
Virginia bluebells.
Papaveraceae (Poppy Family)
An herbaceous perennial with blue-green, many-lobed
leaves measuring four to ten inches. Two-inch yellow flowers appear
in early spring, followed by pale, bristly seedpods.
12 to 18 inches high and 12 inches wide.
Forms a dense, rounded mound.
Fast.
Part shade to full shade.
Celandine poppies are extremely tough, reliable, and
easy to grow. You can start a patch simply by sprinkling fresh seeds
over moist, exposed soil. During summer droughts, plants might go
dormant, but they will come back again in early spring.
Deeply cut, blue-green leaves and bright
yellow flowers bring much-needed color to the early-spring garden.
Celandine poppy doesn’t get very tall, so plant it where
it can be easily seen—at the front of a shady perennial border or
close to the edge of a woodland path.
Flowers attract pollinators. Bright, toxic sap
protects this plant from predation, and ants distribute the seeds.
Found in rich, damp woods from Pennsylvania to
Wisconsin south to Georgia and Arkansas.
Seed, division.
Also known as Wood Poppy, Yellow Poppy
Written by Leslie Kimel, Georgia Wildlife Federation
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