California Poppy Purple Gleam, photo by Harold Davis. View this photograph larger.

This is a California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica “Purple Gleam,” in my garden. I photographed the first bud on this poppy unfurling a little earlier:

View this photograph larger.

The photo of the bud unfurling is really about the water drops, but gives a pretty good look at the poppy bud as well.

This spring I’ve spent a lot of time watching poppies bloom. I think I understand where the common name poppy for the papaver and eschscholzia genuses comes from: these flowers do indeed pop!

First the poppy forms a bud. Then it “pops” out of the bud:

Often, you can still see the shell of the poppy pod as a kind of casing. With some poppies, the (like the Purple Gleam shown here), the bud forms a kind of origami shape before it finally unfurls. Then the flower fully emerges. All this takes just a few hours.

The catalog describes the Purple Gleam as lavender, but mine seems to be more reddish (see the top photo). An unusual color for a California poppy.

The detail of the bud was taken with macro flash and tripod. Upper (top) photo with a handheld camera, extension tube, and VR zoom lens.