Papaver rhoeas L.
field poppy
Annual herb; rosette tufted; stems erect, usually sparsely hispid, 30-60-(100) cm tall. Lvs dull green, 7-20 × 1-8 cm, at least the lower petiolate. Lamina narrow-ovate to triangular, cuneate at base, sparsely to densely hispid, pinnatifid to 2-pinnatisect, the upper becoming less divided. Pedicels to 30 cm long, with fine spreading hairs throughout. Sepals hispid, 10-20 × 5-10 mm. Petals red, rarely pink or white, 2-4 × 2.5-6 cm, usually with dark, sometimes white, basal blotch. Capsule subglobose to broadly obovoid, widest above 1/2 way, flat-topped, rounded at shortly stipitate base, slightly ribbed, glabrous, 10-15-(20) × 8-15 mm. Stigmatic disc = width of capsule, flat when ripe; rays (5)-8-12-(18).
N.: Auckland, Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay; S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, Southland.
Temperate Eurasia, N.W. Africa 1870
Waste land, riverbeds, roadsides, gravel pits, old gardens.
Mostly, all plants have red fls (Plate 1, 14), but some populations, probably more recently escaped from gardens, display a range from white, through pink, to red as is found in P. rhoeas cultivated as Shirley poppy. P. rhoeas is the common poppy of Europe which grew in large numbers on the battlefields of World War I.
