POPPY

“That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe. “

John Berger

The true poppy genus is Papaver, but many flowers of related genera are also called poppies. The most frequently cultivated is the Oriental poppy (P. orientale), usually bearing a large scarlet flower with a purplish black base.

The California poppy, Eschscholzia californica, is the state flower of California.

The poppy of wartime remembrance is Papaver rhoeas, the red-flowered corn poppy.

In Mexico, Grupo Modelo, the makers of Corona beer, used red poppy flowers in most of its advertising images until the 1960s.

 The poppy is part of the coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia.

Poppies are commonly featured as the central flower in Puerto Rican weddings.

Canada issued special quarters (25-cent coins) with a red poppy on the reverse in 2004, 2008 and 2010. The 2004 Canadian “poppy” quarter was the world’s first coloured circulation coin.

• Poppies produce a wide variety of medicines including opium, heroin, morphine, codeine. Each of these medicinal derivatives come from the unripe seed capsule or pod of P. somniferum. The ripe seed pods of the opium poppy are also the source of the commonly used culinary poppy seeds.

BOLD and DYNAMIC

Bright, colorful and alive

Striking and electric

IN HOT SUMMER COLORS

DEEP Scarlet RED and Sweet JUICY Orange

•♦◊ P o p p i e s ◊♦•

Mystical and magical

•• Intoxicating ••

Dreamy

•  THE POPPIES WILL MAKE THEM SLEEP….   (Poppy scene from Wizard of OZ)

•  References and suggested reading

• Poppy Emporium (poppyemporium.com)
• Opium poppies   (www.erowid.org)
• Scientists Identify Opium Poppy Genes that Make Promising Cancer Drug (healthland.time.com)
• California Poppy (totheforest.wordpress.com)
•  Poppy (wikipedia)

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