Featured Plant

Papaver rhoeas is an annual herb that grows 12-30 inches tall. The flowers are large and showy with four overlapping, papery petals that can be white, pink, or orange, but are most commonly vivid red, often with a black or white blotch at their base. The flower stem is usually covered with coarse hairs that are held at right angles to the surface of the stem. A multitude of seeds are released from the capsule that develops following the flower, creating a long-lived seed bank in the soil. Poppy seeds can lie dormant for over 80 years before germinating, which is usually triggered by disturbance.

It is thought that Papaver rhoeas originated on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea and was probably introduced to northwestern Europe in the seedcorn (seed saved from one year's harvest for planting the following year) by early settlers, thus another of the common names, "corn poppy." It is known to have been associated with agriculture in the Old World since early times and has had ancient symbolism and association with agricultural fertility. A single plant can produce up to 60,000 seeds, and en masse when associated with field crops can yield hundreds of millions of seeds. Since it also has an affinity for pastures, stream banks, railroads, roadsides, and other disturbed sites, especially created by man, it has become very widespread and has naturalized throughout much of Europe, Asia and North America.