My nice neighbor just moved and left behind two of these plants. These are the only pictures I have of them and they have of course not bloomed as of yet. Anyhow... The two she took with here had multiple blooms off of them and the blooms hung down like street lanterns until they bloomed into a beautiful pinkish red flower that resembled to me like that of a carnation. I am not sure what they are but want to help these two grow like their ancestors did. Please help me to identify them so I can give them the proper care they need. Thanks you for the help in advance. Oh... I should probably say that I live in the Pacific Northwest... if that is of any help in identifing this plant.
Yes, Papaver somniferum (note -ver, not -var). Legal to grow them here (they don't produce opium in the UK climate)
Papaver somniferum! FYI: if they can be grown to flower, they can be made to produce opium! Opium is just the cured sap that has been extracted from the walls of the seed pod. It is said that the seeds from the grocery store don't produce opium either == not true. It is not so much the opium but the several alkaloids found in opium ... as well as throughout the plant ... and depending on variety. Thay have been grown in old gardens for so long many don't even know the are opium popies. They are illegal to cultivate in the USA. If the person likes the flower, and plant size, I would sugest they grow Oriental Poppies (Papaver orientale) which are legal as are many others poppies.
I wouldn't worry too much about being 'illegal', enforcement seems to be sporadic at best. It is one of the most common reseeding annual flowers here, even being sold by nurseries, as I mentioned. A motel south of here has a nice, big, conspicuous planting of frilly pink double ones flowering away, right off a busy highway. Cops drive by all the time. A few years ago a friend said she would like to try growing it (its ghostly, lettucelike, flabby leaves and bold, broad, silky petals ARE quite appealing). Last year, perhaps for the first time, some appeared on the shoulders of the arterial that goes past her property. This year they came up in one of her plantings. Magical! (You DO have to be careful what you wish for). Those tiny seeds must really travel.
In Canada its perfectly legal to posess opium plants and buy the seeds.. However its illegal to harvest them .. its a joke really when cannabis is still illegal.. if people wanted to use them for illegal purposes they could easily without anyone caring. Most people probably dont even know what it is. Also remember not only is it the bsae of heroin and opium but codiene and morephine are derived directly from papavera somniferum. its very useful as a pain killer and sedative. Jerryskid
I now think she (or a visiting friend) threw or planted the seeds onto the berm, forgot about them because they flowered all the same color - the color written on an envelope of seeds a friend had brought. Nevertheless, the ones out on the road were widely and thinly scattered along hundreds of yards of shoulder - immediately off the pavement, where there would be the narrowest little space between pavement and competing weeds - so the implication is still that it can travel rapidly via its seeds. Either that or somebody drove along scattering seeds from a vehicle, not necessarily intentionally.
Afraid not - illegal to possess the plant, but not the seed: see this thread for a discussion. Thanks for making me doublecheck, though - I note now that possession of poppy seed is not illegal (I was wrong before).
