Opium Poppy – not suitable for home use
The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, is illegal in many countries, because it is the source of morphine, from which heroin is synthesized. In other countries, it is grown as an ornamental. This includes the US – where it is, in fact, illegal! In the UK, it’s OK to grow it, but tapping it to extract the morphine is against the law.
The poppy seeds often used in cooking are usually derived from the variety “Hungarian blue seeded”, but any single-flowered opium poppy will produce huge numbers of seeds which can be used in the same way. In fact, if you have them growing in your garden just once, you will either have them forever, or you will spend a lot of time pulling up poppy seedlings every year from then on. Cut a single poppy after the flower has faded, remove any petals and let the capsule dry somewhere cool and airy (inside a bag, to retain the seeds), and you will be amazed how many seeds you get from that one seedhead.
Opium poppies are also sometimes called white poppies (though they come in many different colors) and mawseed. They are closely related to the corn poppy. They will grow in any well drained soil, and though the literature says they require moist soil, I’ve grown them successfully on very dry soil. They prefer full sun and will not grow in the shade.
Apart from the seeds, which you can collect to use in cooking, all parts of the opium poppy are poisonous. This plant has many medicinal purposes, but should not be used by anyone who is not a trained herbalist, so I’m not going to list them here. Opium poppies are very pretty, and available in very many varieties for ornamental purposes, so if you would like to grow them as ornamentals with the added bonus of free poppy seeds for your bread, go for it. They are one of the easiest ornamentals there is.
To find out more about growing organic herbs visit the Gardenzone.
Related Posts
Poppy
Meadow Saffron
CornflowerRelated posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
