page_title: Eschscholzia californica
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Eschscholzia californica / Description / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: English: E. californica subsp. californica var. maritima (E. L. Greene) Jeps., photo from Ficalini Ranch preerve, Cambria CA. Note gray-green foliage.
context_page_description: Eschscholzia californica, the California poppy, golden poppy, California sunlight or cup of gold, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae, native to the United States and Mexico. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant flowering in summer, with showy cup-shaped flowers in brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow. It is also used as food or a garnish. It became the official state flower of California in 1903.
context_section_description: Eschscholzia californica was the first named species of the genus Eschscholzia, named by the German botanist Adelbert von Chamisso after the Baltic German botanist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, his friend and colleague on Otto von Kotzebue’s scientific expedition to California and the greater Pacific circa 1810 aboard the Russian ship Rurik.
  California poppy is highly variable, with over 90 synonyms. Some botanists accept two subspecies — one with four varieties (e.g., Leger and Rice, 2003) — though others do not recognize them as distinct (e.g., Jepson 1993):
  E. californica subsp. californica, native to California, Baja California, and Oregon, widely planted as an ornamental, and an invasive elsewhere (see below).
  E. californica subsp. californica var. californica, which is found along the coast from the San Francisco Peninsula north. They are perennial and somewhat prostrate, with yellow flowers.
  E. californica subsp. californica var. maritima (E. L. Greene) Jeps., which is found along the coast from Monterey south to San Miguel Island.  They are perennial, long-lived, glaucous, short in stature, and have extremely prostrate growth and yellow flowers.
  E. californica subsp. californica var. crocea (Benth.) Jeps., which grows in non-arid inland regions.  They are perennial, taller, and have orange flowers.
  E. California subsp. californica var.  peninsularis (E. L. Greene) Munz, which is an annual or facultative annual growing in arid inland environments.
  E. californica subsp. mexicana (E. L. Greene) C. Clark, the Mexican Gold Poppy, which is found in the Sonoran Desert. Some authorities refer to it as E. Mexicana.
caption: Maritime poppies, E. californica subsp. californica var. maritima (E. L. Greene) Jeps., Cambria, California
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