Shirley poppy

Papaver rhoeas, the common or corn poppy, is an erect annual herb of the poppy family, 20 to 90 cm tall, with slender, branching, bristly-hairy stems that exude a white latex when broken. The leaves are deeply pinnately divided into toothed, lance-shaped lobes and are also stiffly hairy. The flowers are solitary on long stalks; the buds nod before opening, then the two sepals fall to reveal four large, delicate, crumpled, brilliant scarlet petals, often with a dark blotch at the base. The numerous stamens surround a flat-topped ovary that develops into a smooth, rounded capsule opening by a ring of pores beneath the disc to scatter the tiny seeds. Native to Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia, the corn poppy is a familiar weed of cornfields, roadsides, and disturbed ground on a range of soils.