The anatomical features of leaves and stems of seven species belonging to five genera of the Papaveraceae family were studied, including: Fumaria bracteosa Pomel, 1875; Glaucium grandiflorum Boissier & A. Huet,1856; Hypecoum pendulum Linnaeus, 1753; Papaver fugax Poiret,1804; Papaver macrostomum Boissier & A. Huet, 1867; Papaver rhoeas Linnaeus, 1753 and Roemeria refracta de Candolle,1821. The results showed that the anticlinal cell walls of the adaxial surface were more thickened in P. fugax, H. pendulum, P. macrostomum and R.refracta, while it was thin in P. rhoeas. The current investigation finds three types of the stomata (i.e., anomocytic, paracytic and hemiparacytic), and the number of stomata on the adaxial epidermis ranged between 22.11 stomata mm2 in P. rhoeas and 69.30 stomata/mm2 in P. fugax; the stomatal index percentage on the adaxial surface was 15.04% in P. macrostomum and 4.14% in P. rhoeas.
The type of the mesophyll was bifacial (dorsiventral) in structure for the species. Stems gave a good character in separation of the species; shape and size of cortex cells, and the numbers of cortex layers were taxonomically significant. The observations of this study showed six types of trichomes that were non-glandular biseriated, triseriated or multiseriated, unicellular with multicellular short hairs and finally uniseriate long hairs (in G. grandiflorum). P. rhoeas recognized by found glandular short hairs.
