• Scientific Name: Papaver somniferum L.
• Ref: Sp. Pl.:508. 1753
• Synonyms:
  • Papaver album Mill.
  • P. album-nigrum Crantz
  • P. amoenum Lindl.
  • P. amplexicaule Stokes
  • P. hortense Hussenot
  • P. indehiscens Dumort.
  • P. nigrum Bubani
  • P. officinale C.C.Gmel.
  • P. opiiferum Forssk.
  • P. paeoniiflorum (Alef.) Corrêa
  • P. somniferum var. album (Mill.) DC.
  • P. somniferum var. nigrum DC.
  • P. sylvestre Godr.
• English Common Name: opium poppy, breadseed poppy
• Chinese Common Name: 罂粟 yīngsù, 鸦片 yāpiàn, 大烟 dàyān, 阿芙蓉 ā∙fúróng
• Japanese Common Name: ケシ [芥子] keshi
• Family: Papaveraceae
• Genus: Papaver
• Distribution: Cultivated at many medicinal institutes in China and also illegally [cultivated in Afghanistan, India, Laos, Myanmar, and N Thailand; native to S Europe where it is also widely cultivated ornamentally and for the pharmaceutical industry].
• Photo: Gaoshancun, Zhejiang
• Note: The Japanese common name original refers to the seed of Brassica juncea, it is misapplied to Papaver somniferum as their seeds look similar.

Herbs, annual, 30-60(-100) cm tall (to 1.5 m in cultivation), glabrous or rarely slightly setose on plant below or on peduncle. Taproot erect, almost conical. Stems erect, glaucous, glabrous, occasionally somewhat setose. Leaves alternate; blade ovate or oblong, 7-25 cm, both surfaces glabrous, glaucous and rather waxy, veins distinct, slightly raised, base cordate, margin irregularly undulate-serrate, apex acuminate to obtuse; leaves below shortly petiolate but above sessile and amplexicaul. Flowers solitary, deeply cup-shaped, 5-12 cm in diam. Pedicel to 25 cm, glabrous or rarely sparsely setose. Flower buds nutant at first, erect at anthesis, oval-oblong or broadly ovoid, 1.5-3.5 × 1-3 cm, glabrous. Sepals 2, green, broadly ovate, margin membranous. Petals 4, white, pink, red, purple, or various, often with a dark basal blotch, suborbicular or almost flabellate, 4-7 × 3-11 cm, margin undulate or variously lobed. Stamens many; filaments white, linear, 1-1.5 cm; anthers yellowish or cream, oblong, 3-6 mm. Ovary green, spherical, 1-2 cm in diam., glabrous; stigmas 5-12(-18), actinomorphic, united into compressed disk, disk margin deeply divided, lobes crenulate. Capsule brown when mature, spherical or oblong-elliptic, 4-9 × 4-5 cm, glabrous. Seeds many, black or deep gray, adaxially alveolate. Fl. Mar-Aug. 2n = 18, 22-23, 25, 32. (Flora of China)