By Any Other Name…
This poppy re-seeded itself from the specimen I planted last year. The grower, Annie’s Annuals, sold it as a “raspberry breadseed poppy.”
I asked Annie’s whether this interesting name was “for real.” What was the Latin name for the poppy?
Here’s the response:
It is Papaver somniferum, also known as opium poppy. We don’t want to give customers any ideas (it is quite illegal to grow opium poppies for opium purposes, but we have been assured that it is OK that people grow a few for ornamental purposes), so we don’t call it that.
What do you know? I had an opium poppy in my garden all along and never knew it. How cool.
As you can see, the flower–by whatever name–is very beautiful. Here are a few more photos:
View this photo larger.
View this photo larger.
Besides being beautiful, each flower is also very ephemeral (although the plant does seem to re-seed nicely). By the evening of the day I photographed this flower, here’s all that was left:
View this photo larger.
February 16th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
[…] 220;Poppy Cheeks.” You decide. This poppy bud belongs to an Icelandic Poppy, not the Opium Poppy I’ve been photographing lately.
This entry was posted
[…]
June 6th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
[…] s photograph larger. I photographed this poppy early this morning in my garden. It is a papaver somniferum, or opium poppy, but (of course!) I grow it for purely decorative purposes. The irr […]
March 24th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
[…] s. View this image larger. This Papaver danebrog, or Poppy Danish Flag, is a species of Poppy Somniferum, or opium poppy, that I got from Annie’s Annuals. The flower is pretty nice, an […]
May 28th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
[…] rama Queen, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger. This is a Drama Queen Poppy, Papaver somniferum, that reseeded itself in my garden. I bought the original Drama Queen from AnnieR […]