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Plant ID: Big Pretty Flower - oriental poppy

 
Posts: 79
Location: Zone 4A
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Hey all, located in zone 4 new england. This flower is in an established perrenial bed. Any ideas what it is?

Thanks!
downsized_0604131030a.JPG
red oriental poppy flower
 
Posts: 222
Location: Douglas County OR
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Looks like a poppy to me. Poppy seeds, yum!
 
pollinator
Posts: 316
Location: Yukon Territory, Canada. Zone 1a
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Definitely a poppy.
You can let it be pretty until it dries out; It will stay standing with just it's stalk and pod going brown and hard. Then you can crack open the top and gather a thimble full of edible seeds.
Or, before it dries out, you can cut small slits in the sides of the pod and "milk" the flower. Make an alcohol tincture with the milky latex to act as a mild pain-killer. On a larger scale this is how both morphine and heroin are made. Do be careful .

wikipedia poppy straw page
 
steward
Posts: 3999
Location: Wellington, New Zealand. Temperate, coastal, sandy, windy,
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While it's definitely a poppy, it's hard to tell from the flower whether it's a perennial oriental or opium variety.
Are the leaves and stems bluey-green and hairless? If so, it's probably an opium poppy.
If the leaves and stems are hairy and dark green it's probably an oriental, which isn't narcotic as far as I know.

Chris Sturgeon wrote: you can cut small slits in the sides of the pod and "milk" the flower. ...Do be careful


Be careful in more ways than one: it's illegal to 'milk' opium poppies in my neck of the woods...
I don't care about legality, but I know having opium poppies in view of passersby can be a bad idea as I had all the poppy flower buds in my front garden snapped off.
I have orientals out the front that haven't bloomed yet and considering the early demise of my opium poppy buds, they probably need to go round the back!
*edit* Just spotted the leaves: it's an oriental. Beautiful, perennial, insects love them and no use for back pain
 
Guarren cito
Posts: 79
Location: Zone 4A
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I'm always surprised by the amount of knowledge on this site!

It looks like a perrenial oriental as it has hairs on the stem and leaves. Are the seeds still edible? I'll post another picture and confirm using a search of the plant before attempting to eat them.

Thank you!!!
 
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