Glaucidium palmatum

Glaucidium palmatum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
Order:	Ranunculales
Family:	Ranunculaceae
Genus:	Glaucidium Siebold & Zucc.
Species:	G. palmatum
Binomial name
Glaucidium palmatum Siebold & Zucc.

Glaucidium is a genus of plants in family Ranunculaceae, comprising a single species Glaucidium palmatum (Japanese wood poppy; シラネアオイ Shirane-aoi). It is endemic to northern and eastern Japan on Hokkaidō and northeastern Honshū on mountains close to the Sea of Japan.^[1][2]

It is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant growing to 40 cm tall with a rigid stem with two large (20 cm diameter) palmately lobed leaves at the top and small membraneous leaves lower on the stem. The flower is produced singly at the top of the stem, 8 cm diameter, with four pink to pale purple (rarely white) petaloid sepals, numerous stamens and two carpels. The fruit is a cluster of follicles.^[3]

It is sometimes placed in its own family Glaucidiaceae, or in the past in the family Paeoniaceae.^[2] Paeoniaceae however has now been shown unequivocally to belong in Saxifragales,^[4] while Glaucidium is firmly in the family Ranunculaceae.^[5]

References

1. Shiro Tsuyuzaki, Hokkaido University: Japanese Wood Poppy
2. Germplasm Resources Information Network: Glaucidium
3. Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan ISBN 0-333-47494-5.
4. Shuguang Jian, Pamela S. Soltis, Matthew A. Gitzendanner, Michael J. Moore, Ruiqi Li, Tory A. Hendry, Yin-Long Qiu, Amit Dhingra, Charles D. Bell, and Douglas E. Soltis. 2008. "Resolving an Ancient, Rapid Radiation in Saxifragales". Systematic Biology 57(1):38-57. (see External links below).
5. Wei Wang; An-Ming Lu; Yi Ren; Mary E. Endress; Zhi-Duan Chen (2009). "Phylogeny and Classification of Ranunculales: Evidence from four molecular loci and morphological data". Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11 (2): 81–110. doi:10.1016/j.ppees.2009.01.001.