PAPAVER RHOEAS

Family:- PAPAVERACEAE/Sect. RHOEADIUM

Common Names:- Common Poppy, Corn Poppy, Corn Rose, Corn-poppy,

Field Poppy, Red Poppy.

Synonyms:- P. guerlekense, P. seudo-haussknechtii, P. robertianella, P.

rumelicum, P. somniferum ssp. setigerum, P. stipitatum, P. subumbilicatum,

P. tenuissimum, P. strigosum,

Meaning:- Papaver (L) Poppy.

Rhoeas (Gr) The old generic name of the field poppy.

General description:- Variable medium to tall, rather bristly annual.

Leaves:- Alternate, deeply divided into lance-shaped lobes, with hairy, sometimes

toothed segments.

Flowers:- Red, solitary, from 40-100 mm diam., carried by long stalks with white or

red spread out hairs. Corolla with 4 free petals, sometimes with black marks at the

base. Stamens numerous, free between them, with narrow and reddish filaments,

bluish or purplish anthers. Style with 7-12 stigmas spreading from the centre on a

disc.

Fruit:- Capsule 0·5-1·6 x 0·4-1·4 cm, 1-2 times as long as wide, usually broadly

obovoid, cylindrical or almost globose, sometimes shortly stipitate, usually more or

less abruptly contracted at base. Disc usually wider than capsule, sometimes

slightly umbonate, with 6-16 rays.

Key features:-

1) Pedicel setae usually patent, sometimes loosely appressed.

2) Capsules usually less than twice as long as wide.

3) Stigmatic disc usually wider than the capsule.

Habitat:- Weed of cereal fields, roadsides and wasteground. 0-800(-1200) m. often

gregarious, occasionally to 1800 m. along mountain tracks.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean region.

Widespread and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mid-Apr to mid- June, sometimes later.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

PAPAVERACEAE

General description:- Herbs with or without latex.

Leaves:- Usually spirally arranged, variously dissected.

Flowers:- Hermaphrodite, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, hypogynous. Sepals 2

(3), falling early (caducous). Petals 4-6. Stamens 2, 4 or numerous, whorled. Ovary

superior, 1-celled, 2-celled or imperfectly many-celled; carpels 2 to many.

PAPAVER

General description:- Annual, biennial or perennial herbs with latex.

Flowers:- Sepals 2 or 3, usually caducous. Petals 4 or 6, usually entire, often

bright red, crumpled in bud, usually caducous. Stigmas 4-16, sessile over the

placentae. Capsule club-shaped (clavate) to globose, opening by valves or pores

below the stigmatic disc, or disc deciduous.

Fruit:- Seeds kidney-shaped (reniform), without aril.

Sect. RHOEADIUM

General description:- Annuals with few to many usually setose hairs.

Leaves:- Pinnatisect to pinnatipartite; upper cauline leaves not amplexicaul; lower

leaves petiolate.

Flowers:- Filaments filiform, dark violet.

Fruit:- Capsule glabrous.

MEDICINAL AND HERBAL USES

Researched and written by Enda McMullen

The appearance of the poppy heralds the arrival of warmer weather and carries with

it hints of summer. The poppy plays a very important role in the history of medicine,

with evidence of its medicinal uses going back as far as 4000BC. And then there

are of course the stories and myths....

Poppy seeds are used in baking, as most of us would know. But they have a much

more powerful property as a pain killer and a relaxant. My grandmother had her

"magic sweets" which helped us sleep when we were too wound up to do so. These

consisted of crushed poppy seeds rolled into small little balls using solid honey as

a binding agent. Very much in the same way as Traditional Chinese Medicine pills

are made. The same magic sweets were effectively used as a painkiller specifically

for headaches, toothaches and earaches.

In antiquity, the poppy was related to a few different Gods, none in the least

Hypnos, Hades and Aphrodite. It was also the main ingredient in èçñéáêÞ, a

concoction of 64 ingredients invented by Aíäñüìá÷ïò, the 1st century Cretan

physician (also credited with writing the first scientific work on pharmacy), and

administered as a cure for poisoning, mostly by venomous snake bites. This

remedy is often referred to by that other great Greek physician Galen (Êëáýäéïò

Ãáëçíüò), and was based on the "work" by Mithridates VI of Pontus, the dr.

Mengele of antiquity who used prisoners for his experiments with poisons. Many

dead prisoners later, he claimed to have found an omni-cure for all forms of

poisoning.... It is worth noting that Theriac is in essence a homeopathic remedy,

using like to cure like