Opium Poppy - Papaver somniferum

Medium to tall, erect plant. Leaves greyish green, oblong, but lobed and undulate, the upper clasping the stem. Flowers large, 8 to 18 cm purple, pale lilac or red, often with a deep blotch at the base of each petal, anthers pale yellow. Capsule rounded.

Cultivated and waste land, waysides.

June to August.

Annual.

Found fairly frequently throughout Britain.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 83 of the 617 tetrads.