A-Z of Botany: Nudicaule
For once the word sounds like what it means – nudi is naked. ‘cauli’ is the stem and plants that have no stem, like the carline thistle, are acaulescent. Plants that produce their flowers direct from the stem or bark, like the Judas tree (cercis) are ‘cauliflorus’. So the poppy here is the common Iceland poppy, well known as Papaver nudicaule because the flowers are produced on stems that grow from the basal rosette of foliage and have no leaves – hence they are naked. Of course nothing is simple and this has had its name changed and is now Papaver croceum (croceum means gold – as in ‘rich as croesus’).
iv always loved this poppy , bit of a lover of yellows ans oranges