Scientific Name: Papaver rhoeas
Common Name(s): Common Poppy, Red Poppy, European Poppy, Corn Poppy, and Field Poppy

Photo by Rick Echols

Identification:

The field poppy is in the Papaveraceae family, composed of 42 genera and 775 known species. Members of this family produce latex, a watery white, yellow, or red juice, when cut. The field poppy blooms from late spring to early summer, having a brilliant, radially symmetric red flower with four slightly overlapping, crepe-textured petals. The flower can reach a circumference of 3 inches, and the whole plant a height of 24 inches. Each flower has a single stem that is light green with coarse, short hair. The poppy capsules are hairless, elongate, and oblong in shape. The leaves are pinnately lobed with hairs on the bottom. Each field poppy only blooms for one day.

https://plants.usda.gov/home

Range:

Above is the map of the introduced range of the field poppy. Native to North Africa and temperate Eurasia, it has been introduced into temperate areas on every continent except Antarctica.

Ecology:

Poppies do well in well-drained soils with high light. This can include highway corridors, hillsides, and prairies. Field poppies readily reseed themselves and colonize disturbed habitats. In ideal conditions, one poppy plant can seed up to 400 more flowers during one warm season. Additionally, its seed can lie dormant in the soil for decades, but once exposed to light, it will germinate, a phenomenon called photodormancy.

This quality of photodormacy made them a symbol of Veterans, especially those lost during wartime. The artificial remembrance or memorial poppy is modeled after the field poppy. This symbol first originated in response to old wartime stories of battlefields being blanketed in poppies the season after battles in Europe. During battles of WWI and prior, the soil would be churned in the field itself, and due to the movement of equipment during battles, the soil seed bank, which primarily included field poppies, would be exposed.

They gained the name corn poppy in the agricultural industry and were considered a pest due to the seed’s photodormancy properties, causing many to germinate after tilling new soils. The field poppies mark as a pest was eliminated mainly with the development of selective herbicides in agriculture and the loss of the seed bank in agricultural soils.

The black seeds of poppies are edible and often used as a topping.  The members of this species and others in the family Papaveraceae produce latex milk.  In ancient times, this milk was used as a painkiller and was termed “the milk of the poppy” in many fiction and non-fiction accounts.  The opium poppy (P. somniferum) is mainly used in historic opium and current opiate synthesis. It was eventually used in the pharmaceutical industry, where it is the source of many painkiller opioids such as morphine.  Interestingly, the natural latex of some poppy plants may contain 10-14% morphine, while the pharmaceutical cultivar can contain up to 95% morphine, codeine, and thebaine.

Special Notes:

Here in Bella Vista, you can find field poppies along road corridors, in newly disturbed soils, and in prairie-like habitats in full sun. To cultivate seeds in your home garden, simply spread seeds in the fall before you intend them to grow. Red poppies are an excellent deer-resistant garden addition.