A poppy is any of a number of showy flowers, typically with one per stem, belonging to the poppy family. They include a number of attractive wildflower species with showy flowers found growing singularly or in large groups, many species are also grown in gardens. Those that are grown in gardens include large plants used in a mixed herbaceous boarder and small plants that are grown in rock or alpine gardens.
The flower color of poppy species include: white, pink, yellow, orange, red and blue, some have dark center markings. The species that have been cultivated for many years also include many other colors ranging from dark solid colors to soft pastel shades. The center of the flower has a whorl of stamens surrounded by a cup or bowl shaped collection of 4 to 6 petals. Prior to blooming, the petals are crumpled in bud and as blooming finishes the petals often lay flat before falling away.
Poppies may be found in the genera:
Meconopsis - Himalayan poppy, Welsh poppy and relatives.
Papaver - Iceland poppy, Oriental poppy, Opium poppy, corn poppy and about 120 other species.
Romneya - Matilija poppy and relatives.
Eschscholzia - California poppy and relatives.
Stylophorum - Celandine-poppy, mock poppy, yellow-poppy, wood-poppy.
Argemone - Prickly-poppy
Canbya - Pygmy-poppy
Stylomecon - Wind-poppy
Arctomecon - Desert bearclaw-poppy
Hunnemannia - Tulip poppy
Dendromecon - Tree poppy
The pollen of the oriental poppy, Papaver orientale, is dark blue. The pollen of the field poppy or corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is dark blue to grey. Bees will use poppies as a pollen source.
The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, is grown for opium, opiates or seeds to be used in cooking and baking, eg. Hungarian Poppy seed rolls.
Poppies in Afghanistan
Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium, from the poppy (papaver somniferum). Poppy cultivation is currently illegal and so all opium produced is diverted to the illegal narcotics trade: Afghanistan is also the world's leading source of heroin, made from opium. Since the international intervention in 2001, the international community and the Afghan authorities have carried out programmes to eradicate poppy to try and limit the illegal traffic of opium and heroin. Although poppy cultivation decreased for a time, since 2003 the trend has reversed and cultivation has increased. Millions of Afghans depend on poppy cultivation for their livelihood and alternative development programmes have not been put in place by the international community to replace lost livelihoods. Some have suggested that eradication has failed and another policy should be put in place. The Senlis Council is one of the organisations working to find an alternative to eradication and hopes that a project to for opium licensing for medicinal use could provide a solution to the problems of diversion, poverty among the rural population and a shortage of essential poppy-based medicines such as morphine and codeine.[1]
Symbolism
Poppies have long been used as a symbol of both sleep and death: sleep because of the opium extracted from them, and death because of their (commonly) blood red color. In Greco-Roman myths, poppies were used as offerings to the dead.[2] Poppies are used as emblems on tombstones to symbolize eternal sleep. This aspect was used, fictionally, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to create magical poppy fields, dangerous because they caused those who passed through them to sleep forever.[3]
A second meaning for the depiction and use of poppies in Greco-Roman myths is the symbolism of the bright scarlet colour as signifying the promise of resurrection after death. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, 24. 15 p 96, ISBN 0-14-001026-2
The poppy of wartime remembrance is the red corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas. This poppy is a common weed in Europe and is found in many locations, including Flanders Fields. This is because the corn poppy was one of the only plants that grew on the battlefield. It thrives in disturbed soil, which was abundant on the battlefield due to intensive bombing. During the few weeks the plant blossoms the battlefield was colored blood red, not just from the red flower that grew in great numbers but also from the actual the blood of the dead soldiers and civilians that lay scattered and untended to on the otherwise barren battlegrounds. Thus the plant became a symbol for the dead WWI soldiers.[citation needed] In many Commonwealth countries, artificial, paper versions of this poppy are worn to commemorate the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I and other wars, during the weeks preceding Remembrance Day on November 11. It has been adopted as a symbol by The Royal British Legion in their Poppy Appeal.
In New Zealand and Australia, paper poppies are widely distributed by the Returned Services Association leading up to ANZAC day (April 25th).
The golden poppy, Eschscholzia californica, is the state flower of California.
False positive drug tests
Although the drug opium is produced by "milking" latex from the unripe fruits ("seed pods") rather than from the seeds, all parts of the plant can contain or carry the opium alkaloids, especially morphine and codeine. This means that eating foods (e.g., muffins) that contain poppy seeds can result in a false positive for opiates in a drug test.
This was considered "confirmed" by the presenters of the television program MythBusters. One participant, Adam Savage, who ate an entire loaf of poppy seed cake tested positive for opiates just half an hour later. A second participant, Jamie Hyneman, who ate three poppy seed bagels, first tested positive two hours after eating. Both tested positive for the remainder of the day, but were clean 18 hours later. The show "Brainiac: Science Abuse" also did experiments where a priest ate several poppy seed bagels and gave a sample, which also resulted in a false positive.
The results of this experiment are inconclusive by current standards, because a test was used with an opiate cutoff level of 300 ng/mL instead of the current SAMHSA recommended cutoff level used in the NIDA 5 test, which was raised from 300 ng/mL to 2,000 ng/mL in 1998 in order to avoid false positives from poppy seeds [1]. However, according to an article published in the Medical Science Law Journal, after ingesting "a curry meal or two containing various amounts of washed seeds" where total morphine levels were in the range 58.4 to 62.2 µg/g seeds, the urinary morphine levels were found to range as high as 1.27 µg/mL (1,270 ng/mL) urine . Another article in the Journal of Forensic Science reports that concentration of morphine in some batches of seeds may be as high as 251 µg/g [3]. In both studies codeine was also present in the seeds in smaller concentrations. Therefore it is possible to cross the current standard 2,000 ng/mL limit of detection, depending on seed potency and quantity ingested. Some toxicology labs still continue to use a cuttoff level of 300 ng/mL.
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