Thread: Another mystery plant

The invisible plant?

Don't know what happened there. It was OK when I previewed it.

Is it a poppy?

Originally Posted by HUON

Is it a poppy?

Bingo!
Papaver somniferum more commonly known as the opium poppy.
It's grown extensively in Tasmania but not near me - as far as I know.
As I said, first time it's appeared in the garden and so far I've had 6 of them pop up in the veggie garden and one some distance away at the edge of the lawn. I probably wouldn't have noticed the ones in the veggie garden if I wasn't so slack with the weeding.
Here's one in flower.

Could be the beginning of a lucrative sideline Geoff.

I had a few come up in the back yard at Fitzroy in Melbourne.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Could be the beginning of a lucrative sideline Geoff.

As far as I know, it's not illegal to have them growing in your garden but it is illegal to cultivate them.
Based on the evidence of the few samples I've had, they don't need a lot of TLC to flourish. From what locals have told me, they grow like weeds once they're established. I'd happily swap my fine crop of oxalis for poppies!
I don't know if the colour has any bearing on the potency of the opiates. Tasmanian poppy fields are usually shown as white flowers and one mentioned on the wikipedia link shows a filed of red flowers in the UK,
They've just started growing poppies commercially in Victoria.

Oxalis, or soursob as we called it in SA, is virtually impossible to get rid of.
It is all over Adelaide and nothing seems to really kill it.
Interesting when you dig over the soil how many of those Oxalis bulbs there are under the surface, bloody pests they are.

Not as many here in Central Vic, but it appears to be spreading.

The only to get rid oxalis is to move. i

We've got a poppy with a similar coloured flower but more petal. The folk who gave us the seed said it produces the seed you put on our baked bread.

Originally Posted by Chesand

The only to get rid oxalis is to move. i

Yes, we did!