Stylophorum diphylium, Wood Poppy, Quart Pot, New for 2024

Stylophorum diphylium, Wood Poppy

PS - Shade, Zone 4, Blooms April-May, 1’ x 1’, Medium Wet - Medium Dry, deer resistant

A woodland garden plant that is very well behaved and requires little to no care once established. We’ve had this plant growing in our Rose Garden, in partial shade conditions next to Jacobs ladder and Hellebores. Trillium would be lovely also! After its bloom time it fades back to the summer blooms and reemerges the next spring. Also known as Celandine Poppy. This plant is also used in shady rain garden sites.

The stems contain a yellow/reen sap that the Native Americans used for war paint and dye, It is that sap that makes the plant deer resistant. Seeds are distributed by ants through a process known as myrmecochory. The ants seek the seed for their elaiosomes which are white fleshy attachments filled with lipids and proteins.  They transport the seed back to the nest, feed the elaiosomes to the larva and discard and distribute the remnant seed.

We planted one plant in 2021 and you can see from the first two photos it has spread nicely, but not too much. The abundant rain we have received the last two season is most likely the cause.

The flowers provide pollen to native bees, flies and beetles.