Although the English name of this flower is similar to that of the ‘celandine’ of the buttercup family, its growth form, leaf and flower are very different.

The yellow-orange latex that exudes from leaves and stems when broken is bitter and poisonous. In traditional remedies, this sap was believed to help heal warts.

Flowers close and the heads droop in wet weather.

The seeds are small and black, borne in a long capsule. Each has a nutritious attachement, an elaiosome, which attracts ants to disperse the seeds.

Poppy is a mildly poisonous plant producing an acrid, milky sap (latex) when damaged.

It has deep roots, up to a metre long and feathery leaves emerging around the base. The flowers are carried on long slender stems and unfold from the hairy bud, the petals retaining a crumpled, papery appearance. The numerous separate stamens produce masses of pollen released in a daily rhythm, the main release taking place during the morning.

It is an annual plant, producing large quantities of tiny seeds that can lie for many years in the soil (soil bank), germinating when the soil is disturbed. This, together with the fact that its life cycle synchronises well with that of cereal crops such as wheat and barley, makes it a very successful coloniser of ploughed corn fields. The seeds develop within a large capsule, before the corn is cut. When seeds mature, openings appear around the top of the capsule and the seeds, between 2,000 to 5,000 per capsule, are shaken out when the wind blows, as if from a pepper pot. The ledge-like overreaching top of the capsule catches the wind and exaggerates the movement so that, in a strong wind, seeds can be scattered as far as 4 metres from the parent plant.

During the First World War red poppies rapidly colonised the disturbed ground between the trenches and for that reason it has become a symbol for fallen soldiers and is worn on ‘Remembrance Day’ in many countries of the world.