Before this week, I had never seen an opium poppy. So, when David Boag announced on Twitter he was going to look at a poppy field, I was expecting the ordinary red poppies. But then he posted this photo on Flickr, of a beautiful and very large field full of white and pink poppies: opium poppies.
This morning I was up early and went out cycling a bit further than usual, and guess what I found? Yup, a poppy field, full of opium poppies. Papaver somniferum. Nowhere near as large as the field David photographed, but beautiful nonetheless. I have no idea which subspecies it is though, as I can’t find a description of the visual differences between them. I also don’t know whether these are cultivated for medicinal use, or for their edible seeds.
Naturally, I had to go in and take a bunch of photos, this is the first of the set.
