Little Sun on the Prairie

In May last year, I tweeted about Yu Meimei and Iceland Yumeiren, which are often planted in urban greening. The Icelandic Yu beauty is very popular, blooming every late spring and early summer, with rich flowers, thin petals and tall and weak stems. The spring breeze holds by, like thousands of colorful butterflies flying.

Yu beauty is not as common as Icelandic Yu beauty, and the only common color is red. But this is enough. The bright red petals always remind people of the solemn and stirring nature of Yu Ji's suicide in Wujiang River.

But what I want to talk about today is the wild poppy, which is a relative of both Yu Mei and Yu Mei of Iceland in the wild. When I visited Saihanba in Hebei last week, wild poppies were in full bloom on the prairie.

[wild opium poppy Papaver nudicaule] Papaveraceae Papaveraceae > > opium poppy

In fact, Papaver nudicaule "Iceland Poppy Flower" of Iceland is the horticultural species of wild poppy Papaver nudicaule. We can find that the two scientific names are basically the same, but the Icelandic Yu Mei people have a string of species names called "Iceland Poppy Flower". "Iceland" was later literally translated into Iceland, and "Poppy Flower'" means poppy.

Wild opium poppy, which is common in subalpine meadows and grasslands in northern China, has smaller flowers and more monotonous colors (basically yellow) compared with the horticultural species Yumei of Iceland. After all, they are wild plants, which can never be compared with horticultural species in the dimensions of "big" and "bright".

However, it seems that it is not appropriate to judge wild plants by their large and bright colors. The beauty of wild plants can not be measured by some universal evaluation criteria. They have their own characteristics, and each kind of wild plant is unique.

For example, the wild opium poppy, with its bright petals and tall posture, has become one of the most charming flowers on the prairie of North China in July and August.

When the wild opium poppy blossoms, the stem is about half a meter high. But it can only emerge slightly on the grasslands where the water plants are abundant. Its flowers have 4 petals, light and thin, with a slightly waxy luster. The four petals warped slightly to form a bowl.

From petals to stamens, wild poppy flowers are all golden yellow. In sunny weather, flowers seem to be brighter than the sun, protruding in all kinds of flowers and plants. Such bright flowers seem to have a strong attraction to insects, and all kinds of insects can often be seen flying around the flowers.

Like Yu Mei and Icelandic Yu Mei, the bud of wild opium poppy is drooping, and the stems and buds are covered with fluff.

After flowering, the ovary of the wild opium poppy begins to expand, and countless small seeds are produced in the fruit. The shape of the fruit is like an ancient container called "Poppy" (a container with a big belly and a small mouth). That's how wild poppies and poppies get their names.

Wild poppy has a nickname in the north: mountain smoke. This not-so-good nickname reminds us of the link between wild opium poppy and opium. As a matter of fact, Yu Beauty, which is common in cities and Iceland, is often regarded as poppy, and I often hear passers-by whispering.

This is a very contradictory thing, on the one hand, many cities will poppy plants as ornamental plants, or even planted into a sea of flowers; on the other hand, poppy plants are a kind of plants that people avoid talking about.

Wild poppy, Icelandic Yumei and other plants cannot be equated with opium poppy. According to data, the structure and pharmacological effects of papaverine in wild opium poppy are different from those of opium, which is not narcotic and not addictive. It is also a nationally recognized essential drug and has not been included in the scope of narcotic drug administration. [1]

Authentic poppy

I have also seen authentic poppies in the past year. You might as well make a comparison. It can be seen that the leaves of opium poppy are very different from those of wild opium poppy and Yu Mei. Opium poppy leaves are large, with irregular serrated edges.

His fat fruit is the most striking (by comparison, the fruit of the wild opium poppy is too small). If you cut the fruit, there will be a white juice, which is called opium when dried.

References:

Lan Rong, Cui Jian, Qin Xiaoyan, et al. Chemistry and application research status and development prospect of national medicine wild opium poppy [D]. , 2006

Author: Jiang SB.

Picture: Jiang (unless indicated)

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