Papaver somniferum

Papaver somniferum, called the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, belongs to the Papaveraceae family. This plant is the source of both opium and poppy seeds, and it also serves as an ornamental in gardens. Its likely native range covers Macaronesia and the western and central Mediterranean, but because people have grown and spread it since ancient times, its exact original range is now unclear. Today it has become naturalised in many temperate regions around the world.

Description

The plant is an annual herb that reaches about 100 centimetres tall. It has a greyish-green, waxy look, with a few coarse hairs scattered on the stem and leaves. The large leaves are lobed; upper leaves wrap around the stem, while the lowest leaves have short stalks.

Flowers measure 8 to 18 centimetres across and usually have four petals in red, white, or mauve, often with a dark spot at each petal’s base. The fruit is a smooth, round capsule topped with 12 to 18 radiating stigmatic rays, like a fluted cap. Any wounded part of the plant oozes white latex.

Distribution and habitat

The opium poppy’s likely native range covers Macaronesia and the western and central Mediterranean. However, centuries of cultivation and introduction across Europe have hidden its true origins. It has escaped from gardens or been deliberately introduced, becoming naturalised throughout the British Isles—especially in the south and east—and in nearly all other countries with suitable temperate climates. Archaeological remains from the Bronze Age include its seeds.

Taxonomy

Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus gave the species its accepted name in 1753, on page 508 of his Species Plantarum. It sits in the genus Papaver within the family Papaveraceae. There are two accepted subspecies and one natural hybrid between them. The hybrid, Papaver somniferum nothosubsp. authemanii, comes from France; it was first described as a hybrid in 1893 and reclassified to its current name in 2012.

The subspecies Papaver somniferum subsp. setigerum was originally named Papaver setigerum in 1815 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, then reclassified as a subspecies in 1882 by Giovanni Arcangeli. Its native range stretches from Morocco to Libya in North Africa and from Portugal to Italy in southern Europe. The autonymic subspecies, Papaver somniferum subsp. somniferum, is a cultigen—a plant shaped by human selection.