General:
Perennial herb from a taproot with a stem-base clothed with brown decaying leaf bases; stems curved to erect, simple, bowed, spreading stiff-hairy, 6-12 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves 2-5 cm long, the stalks half the leaf length or more, deeply dissected into elongate or egg-shaped segments, with 2 pairs of primary lateral lobes, smooth or sparsely stiff-hairy, blue-green; stem leaves lacking.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of solitary flowers on brown bristly-hairy stalks, buds nodding, 8-12 mm long; petals 4, salmon-pink to orange-yellow, sometimes with a basal yellow spot, 8-10 mm long.

Fruits:
Capsules, conical or narrowly egg-shaped, 10-13 mm long, 1-2.5 times longer than wide, bristly-hairy, the hairs ivory-coloured.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Papaver alpinum L.
Papaver radicatum var. pygmaeum (Rydb.) S.L. Welsh