Are all papaver soniferum varieties opium poppies?

[Jim]

I am kind off confused on the whole opium poppy thing. Are all colors of papaver soniferum opium poppies?

[jason]

I'm pretty sure all Papaver somniferum are opium poppies. Does anyone worry about the legality of this plant in their flower gardens?

[lavandulagirl]

Yes all P. soniferum are opium poppies. While the DEA officially bans the opium poppy as a Class II narcotic, the flowers, when used as ornamentals, a typically not a crime they worry about. Here's the DEA list: www.dea.gov/pubs/scheduling.html
I wouldn't worry about growing them, or be too highly concerned about their effect to your new baby, Clarkbar (if that was the concern). There are other plants I'd ban from a toddler's reach before the poppies.

[Jim]

I'm not worried at all thanks. I'm just curious.

[flowerpower]

When you see pics of the opium fields, the flowers always look dark pink to red. In NY, it is legal to grow them and even save seeds. The opium is obtained when the seedpods are green (before they mature). If you slit the side, it oozes a liquid where the drug is present. If you make any kind of hole, you are committing a felony. You are technically "manufacturing narcotics".

My original poppy seeds came from a trade. They are all different shades of pink. I did not get any of the Hungarian Blue to germinate last yr. If I did, they were pink too. lol I think Alan said they were included in his Madcaps Poppy Mix.

[Jim]

I think you sent me the pink ones earlier this year. I bought some darker ones on Baker Creeks site today.

[johno]

I agree with everything said above.

I was a little concerned when I bought the Hungarian Blue breadseed poppies from BC, so I looked into it...

I saw an episode of Mythbusters where one of the guys ate a ton of poppy seed buns and had himself drug tested. He didn't get high, but he did fail the drug test! So there are trace amounts in the seeds.

But like fp said, I think they don't get upset with you unless you cut the green pods to get the sticky stuff. Then again, there it is in black and white listed as a class II narcotic. So it depends on their mood, technically.

[tomc]

Scarifying green seed pods is the lynch point in collecting opium, and is past the paughty point and well into the felony part of herbalism.

Poppy seems to not do well with transplanting. Direct sowing looks to me like the only way to grow.

[johno]

Yeah, I wintersowed some last year, and the transplanted ones didn't do so well, if they survived at all. The volunteers did great.

[Alan]

Transplanting definitely doesn't work well with poppies, just make sure wherever you plant them is where you want them because they will easily and readily self-seed any area where they are planted and come back year after year.

In the state of Indiana poppies can be grown legally, it is only when you puncture and collect the opium then you are committing the felony, at least according to my law enforcement plans and considering that I planted a whole field of them next to the highway at the entrance to the farm and haven't been arrested and a ton more here around the greenhouses I am supposing that all is well.

One of the major opium poppies actually used in the middle-east is commonly sold on wal-mart racks under the name "hens and chicks", they get absolutely huge and are quite beautiful.

-Alan

[Jim]

Talk about a spiritually important plant to mankind. It's only when man gets greedy and plays with his chemistry set that ruin something nice. Just my thoughts.

[flowerpower]

admin said:

One of the major opium poppies actually used in the middle-east is commonly sold on wal-mart racks under the name "hens and chicks", they get absolutely huge and are quite beautiful.

-Alan

Shouldn't they have a warning label on them? lol

Morning Glory seeds also have hallucinogenic properties. And there are plenty of mushrooms that come up in the cow pastures that have "properties"

My mom bought me this book called "Plants of the Gods". She did not look through it first. It was not a book on which plants are sacred to what gods. It was on how to prepare certain plants to get closer to the Gods through visions. Interesting book.

[flowerpower]

I hope these are legal in Canada. I packed up some of the Madcaps Mix for Blue to use for her Fairy Corner

[Jim]

Almost everything is legal in Canada. My cousin is a police officer in Stratford, ON and I was telling him about the seeds I saw for sale on the ontario or toronto seed bank website. Basically like 100 varieties of cannabis and cocca. He said it is completely legal to own seed. Some plants are not allowed to be grown but you can posses the seed. Also Richters seeds poppy and morning glory seeds...not to worry flowerpower. Also that sounds like a great book.

[Alan]

yep, morning glory seeds (of some varieties) contain amounts of LSA which is the chemical that LSD is based upon, so to do mushrooms of certain species. Fair warning, don't go eating mushrooms out of cow fields unless you know what your doing and if your going to take the time to learn to make that concoction out of morning glory seeds make it out of ones you have saved because you never know what they use to clean those seeds or if their covered in fungicide! Best bet is don't do it at all.

Wormwood is another fairly common plant/herb that has hallucinogenic properties as well and is a major ingredient in Absinthe due to it's Alpha Thujone content. There is also another very sacred herb from South America that is a halucenogen, that last I check is still legal, it is Salvia Divinorum.

All kinds of stuff, couple thousand years of native americans and other people around the world dosing themselves and coming up with oral stories on how to do so, everything has a use.