Poppy

Papaver cambricum is a slender herbaceous perennial of the poppy family growing 30-60 cm tall from a slender taproot with a yellow latex that exudes from cut surfaces. Basal leaves are long-petiolate, pinnatisect with 3-7 ovate to elliptic, coarsely toothed segments, light green and sparsely covered with soft, weak hairs; stem leaves are similar but smaller and shorter-stalked. Flowering stems are slender, erect, and bear solitary, long-stalked nodding buds that turn upright at anthesis. The bowl-shaped flowers are 4-7 cm across with four broad, crinkly, bright clear yellow to orange-yellow petals and two sepals that fall as the flower opens; numerous golden stamens surround a small ovoid ovary tipped by a flat stigmatic disc. The fruit is a glabrous, ribbed obovoid capsule 2-3 cm long that opens by small terminal pores releasing many tiny seeds. Native to damp shady places in western Europe, especially Wales, Ireland, and Iberia, it flowers from May to August.