California Poppy

Where it grows

The California poppy occupies dry, sunny grasslands and slopes from southern Oregon through California to Baja California. Mass spring blooms — so-called superblooms — turn whole hillsides orange in years of high winter rainfall, drawing crowds to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve and Walker Canyon.

How to recognise it

A delicate annual or short-lived perennial twenty to sixty centimetres tall with finely dissected, almost lacy blue-green leaves. The flowers have four overlapping satiny orange petals forming a cup three to seven centimetres across that opens flat in sun and closes against cloud, cold, and night. Long slender seed capsules split explosively when ripe.

Garden & cultural uses

California poppies tolerate poor, dry, gravelly soil and reseed reliably without becoming invasive in most regions. Native cultivars in cream, red, and pink expand the palette beyond the orange of the wild form. Mild sedative compounds in the foliage give California poppy tea a reputation in herbal sleep blends.

In law

The California poppy was adopted as the state flower in 1903 and is celebrated on California Poppy Day on April 6 each year; picking poppies on public land is a misdemeanour, although the rule is often misstated.