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Common name: Oriental Poppy
Botanical name: Papaver orientale Family: Papaveraceae (poppy family)
Delicate blossoms of Poppies have enchanted for generations. Oriental poppies
are among the most flamboyant of the early summer flowers, with enormous,
often frilly double flowers around 15cm (6in) across in loud colours many are
vermilion red, and most have black bases to the petals. Sunlight makes the
translucent petals positively glow with color. Even though the narcotic
content is minimal to absent in the red Oriental Poppy
or the annual Common Poppy (P. rhoeas),
the odor of the vibrant new flowers will nevertheless give you some sense of
the odor of Opium Poppies. The Oriental
Poppy generally has single flowers with black center, they come in early
summer. Large, silky flowers feature black blotches at the base of each petal.
Plants bloom profusely in May and June, the year after the seed is sown.
Foliage dies back in midsummer, reappears in fall or the following spring.
| Photographed in Munirka, Delhi. |
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