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Archive for June, 2009

White opium poppy (papaver somniferum)

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

A field full of pink and white

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

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.

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Spider line

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

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Day 77: Water lilies

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

This photo is quite dark, but I actually like it this way. Somehow it reminds me of paintings of water lilies, rather than photos. When I make the photo lighter or higher contrast, this effect is gone, so I left it as is. The large version (click the photo to see it) shows this better.