Corn Poppy

It is commonly known as ‘Corn poppy’ or ‘field poppy,. It is very variable in size, shape and hairiness of leaves, dark colouring of stamen filaments, black blotch on petals and shape of capsule etc. Some cultivated garden varieties called ‘Shirley poppies’ have wide range of flower shades and sometimes lack pigments. Papaver strigosum (Boenn.), Schur. has usually somewhat appressed hairs on the peduncle, but the character seems to be variable, leaving no difference between the two.

The robust and taller plants have been called Papaver hookeri Baker or var. hookeri (Baker) Fedde, but there seems to be no boundaries between the type race and this variety.

It is hardly put to any use in Pakistan, though the petals of “Shirley poppies” are said to be utilized in colouring drugs. The milk from the capsules is narcotic with a slightly sedative property and contains morphine in exceedingly minute proportion.

It seems to be under-collected in our area, and we have neither seen any specimen of this species from Baluchistan nor has Burkill (l.c) reported it from there, but R.R. Stewart (l.c) mentioned that many forms of this is cultivated in Baluchistan gardens.

J. W. Kadereit (1990) suggested that Papaver rhoeas originated on the east coast of the Mediterranean, probably derived from one or more of the other species of the section that are native in that region, and only after (and because) "suitable habitats in sufficient extent were provided by man." Various forms with pale pink or white, unspotted, sometimes doubled petals are grown for ornament, notably the Shirley poppies. In North America, the species escapes from cultivation fairly readily and has been introduced also as a crop weed. Excluded species:

Papaver dahlianum Nordhagen, Bergens Mus. Årbok 2: 46. 1931

Papaver radicatum Rottbfll subsp. dahlianum (Nordhagen) Rändel

We regard this species as being restricted to arctic Europe, a narrower circumscription than U. Rändel's (1977).

Papaver microcarpum de Candolle, Syst. Nat. 2: 71. 1821

We are so far unable to substantiate D. Löve's (1969) report of this essentially Asiatic species "from Seward and Kenai peninsulas in Alaska, the Aleutian Islands."

Annual, rarely biennial, erect or ascending, (20-) 30-90 (-120) cm tall herb, branched, hispid or stiffly hairy with 1-3 mm long, spreading whitish hairs, sometimes subglabrous, rarely glabrous. Leaves large, up to 15 cm long and 6 cm broad; basal and lower leaves ± stalked, larger, and less dissected; upper leaves sessile or subsessile, more dissected with narrow bases; all leaves usually 1-2-pinnatifid with narrow acute, ± toothed, bristle-pointed segments, ±hispid, very variable in size and segmentation but usually with a larger and broader terminal segment. Peduncle (10-) 15-30 cm long, usually stiffly hairy with spreading bristles. Flower bud large, ovoid or broadly ellipsoid, 10-20 mm long, ± stiffly hairy. Flowers very variable in size (3-) 4-8 cm in diam., usually scarlet, violet, pink (rarely whitish), often with a basal dark blotch. Petals suborbicular, 2-4 (-5) cm broad. Stamens as long as the ovary, bluish; filaments linear; anthers c. 1 mm long, oblong. Capsule subglobose to broadly obovoid, 10-20 mm long, usually slightly longer than broad, with a rounded base abruptly narrowed into an inconspicuous very short stipe, glabrous; stigmatic rays 8-12 (-20), almost reaching the end of the somewhat overlapping marginal lobes of the disk: seeds very small, dark-brown.

Plants to 8 dm, hispid to setulose. Stems simple or usually branching. Leaves to 15 cm; distal often somewhat clustered. Inflorescences: peduncle sparsely to moderately spreading-hispid throughout. Flowers: petals white, pink, orange, or red, often with dark basal spot, to 3.5 cm; anthers bluish; stigmas 5-18, disc ± flat. Capsules sessile or substipitate, turbinate to subglobose, obscurely ribbed, to 2 cm, less than 2 times longer than broad.

Europe, W. Asia, W. Africa; widely cultivated and a weed.

Distribution: Europe, Asia and N. Africa.

introduced; Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., Que., Sask.; Alaska, Calif., Conn., D.C., Idaho, Ill., Iowa, La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., Tex., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va.; Europe; sw Asia; n Africa.

2500-3000 m

Fl. Per. April-July.

Flowering spring-summer.

Fields, pastures, stream banks, railroads, roadsides, and other disturbed sites; 0-2000m.