Western Poppies

... western Poppies seem a little less subtle, a lot more anxious for attention. They come on trees. They are brightly colored. They cover hundreds and hundreds of acres. The have flowers as big as saucers. And they are out in the open, covering hillsides, filling in roadsides, daring you to not see them. They are as loud and brash as their eastern cousins are quiet and somewhat bashful.

We might as well start off with the obvious: California Poppies (Eschscholzia californica subsp. californica). They are the state wildflower of California, and during years like 2003, it's easy to see why. If the winter hasn't been too dry, they flourish, turning the earth orange. Their blooming period lasts about 8 months.

They respond to sunlight, closing on cloudy days and at night. Even then, closed up beneath a heavy cloud-cover, they are a magnificent spectacle. They have a spicy fragrance that attracts beetles, which perform the duties as pollinators. There are a handful of similar cousins, such as Pygmy Poppies (E. minutiflora) and Lobb's Poppies (E. lobbii), both with bright orange, but much smaller flowers.

California Poppies can be found from southern California all the way up into southern Washington.

Large, in your face Poppies include Prickly Poppies (Argemone munita) and Matilija Poppies (Romneya coulteri). Both have papery white flowers with bright yellow grown-up bits in the center. The latter has the larger flowers at up 7" across; Prickly Poppy flowers get up to about 3" across.

Matilija Poppies can only be found in the coastal mountains of southern California. They grow as tall as 8', with pinnately divided leaves that can be as long as 8". The big papery white flowers have a sweet aroma; it reminded me of roses.

Prickly Poppies are just that, prickly, with sharp thorny things sticking out from the edges and along the veins of the leaves. The flowers look like smaller versions of Matilija Poppy flowers. The plant gets to about 4' tall. It grows in disturbed places in California. A similar family member, also called Prickly Poppy (A. polyanthemos) grows from eastern Wyoming and South Dakota down into New Mexico and the northern half of Texas.

A Poppy of a different sort, but a Poppy just the same, is the Cream Cup (Platystemon californicus). It is not nearly as large or as brightly colored as the above species, but it grows in large colonies, often sharing the spotlight with Baby Blue-eyes and Popcorn Flower, creating one of Mother Nature's loveliest wildflower meadows.

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