Eschscholtzia spp.
Native Poppies
Family: Papaveraceae
Mostly we are going to talk about native annual poppies here but we want you to understand the word poppy and understand the difference between the native species and the domesticated species.
In Arizona the native poppy is the Mexican poppy—not to be confused with the Arizona poppy which isn’t even a poppy at all, but a plant in the same family as creosote bush and goat’s head weed (look up Kallstroemia).
The Mexican poppy is Eschscholtzia californica subsp. mexicana, and to the lay person would be almost identical to that plant called the California poppy (Eschscholtzia californica subsp. californica). Our native species in southern Arizona is differentiated by being slightly a smaller plant, which is lacking a pronounced ridge at the base of the flower (see images below). Their geography is also different: subspecies mexicana is generally found to the east of the sierras in California (the mountains that also contribute to the aridity of Arizona). The subspecies californica is found on the west side of those sierras. Also, the California poppy can sometimes become a perennial, whereas the Mexican poppy is always annual.
There are 15 species of Eschscholtzia in North America and adjacent Mexico.
Photo by Max Licher, SEINET
California poppy (E. callifornica subsp. californica) with pronounced outer rim of the hypanthium. Photo by James Bailey, iNaturalist
Mexican poppy (E. californica subsp. mexicana) with nearly obsolete, outer rim of the hypanthium. Photo by Sue Carnahan, SEINET
Superbloom in California. Occasionally in the southwest we get superbloom years, when there has been enough precipitation to wake up millions of seeds.
Mexican poppies are cool season annuals which you can plant from seed or plant as early as September or October, and continually throughout the cool season, as late as early March. Plants planted toward the end of the cool season will be shorter when they bloom. Grow in full sun with regular water and they should last until it gets hot or if soil dries out. Plants reseed readily and may re-emerge in the fall in moist locations.
Butterflies and bees love the flowers and the plant is a larval food plant for several metalmarks, blues, and moth species. As with all cool season annuals, many insects have evolved with the timing of the bloom cycle, and thus depend on these plants as resources.
California and Mexican poppies are traditionally used in food and medicine for many people, but they are also considered toxic to ingest. So if used as either, use precaution.
Eschscholzia is named for Dr. Johan Friedrich Gustav von Eschscholtz (1793-1831) a Latvian or Estonian surgeon and botanist, while californica refers to California, and mexicana refers to Mexico.
Mexican poppy is found usually on sandy or gravelly soil, and now on roadsides, widespread to 4,500 ft mostly in Arizona, but also to the east of the mountains in southern California, southern Nevada and Utah, eastern New Mexico, and in northern Mexico, especially Sonora.
Eschscholtzia californica subsp. mexicana on iNaturalist
Photo of Mexican poppy by Sue Carnahan, SEINET
Desert gold poppy (Eschscholzia glyptosperma) is a smaller cousin of the famous California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) because it grows only in the desert. Virtually every aspect of the plant is dwarfed, a natural mechanism for greater efficiency in a very harsh, dry climate. Photo by Liz Makings, SEINET
Eschscholzia minutiflora is a species of poppy known by the common name pygmy poppy. It is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico and has much smaller flowers that are dwarfed by its own foliage. Photo by Liz Makings, SEINET
The opium or breadseed poppy is commonly cultivated as a cool season annual. Is original native range was east of the Mediterranean Sea. It is not invasive, only rarely showing up in the wild. There are almost countless horticultural selections of this plant. Photo by David Thornburg, SEINET
The Iceland Poppy (Papaver nudicaule) is often grown as a cool season annual in Arizona, and may also be found in the trade. It also is not invasive.
The Arizona poppy (Kallstroemia grandiflora) is not a poppy at all but in another family (the Zygophyllaceae). It is also a monsoon season annual, not a cool season annual. Photo by Max Licher, SEINET
Occasionally the Mexican poppies come up pale, almost white. Photo by Patrick Alexander, SEINET