Poppies Revisited

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A couple of weeks ago, we discovered we had poppies growing in one of our beds.  I always liked the tons of poppies our former land-ladies grew (orange, red, white, and yellow).  Mark doesn't remember planting these and we think they might be volunteers.

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Our poppies came out a mauve color.  The buds' protective sheathe would pop off in the morning, and the blooms would furl open.  There were four opposite petals, which would last about a day before falling off.

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About every other day, another bud's stem would straighten, the sheathe would open, and a new bloom open.

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I thought it was cool that there were only four petals.  Most of the flowers I'm familiar with have three or six; apples and roses have five.

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What I didn't notice was that the seed head has a nine-fold radial symmetry.

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We had about ten days of the blooming cycle.  This provided many opportunities for photography.  I suppose if we had more plants I could have cut a few more blooms, put on some robes and twisted sheets and shot some wildly allegorical photos (Morphius and His Cat, Death Drinking Tea, "Poppies Will Make Them Sleep").  I do occasionally get Sting's "Children's Crusade" stuck in my head, though.

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Eventually, all the flowers had bloomed and dropped their petals.  I am not sure, but I think the seed heads would balloon out a little to a more spherical shape, then contract at the base.

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I knew they would develop little holes, but I couldn't remember if they would be in or just below the crown shape at the top.

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After about a four or seven days, we discovered the holes at the base of the crown.  The stems turned yellow and brittle a few days later.  Mark and The Child removed a seed head and scattered a few seeds in various places (our yard's soil chemistry is wonky, so who knows if anything will sprout).

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Mark also bisected the head, which is when we realized the interior is nine-fold.  I cut open a few more and dragged out the camera to try to document in interior structure.  I should have included a ruler for scale.

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The seeds, I think, form on the inside ribs of the seed head and eventually fall off into the chambers.

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The inside had about a half teaspoon of seeds, which I scattered along the side of the house and around the Sphinx.  Fingers crossed that the soil works.