| L |
Flora Eur. 624 |
E | opium poppy, garden poppy | S | Papaver somniferum L. |
| G | Schlaf-Mohn, Garten-Mohn | F | pavot, oeilette | I | papavero |
E.2.47 |
A. 4.486 9.436 |
The opium poppy, but also the main garden species, and the source of poppy seeds.
Mynors on G. 1.78 rightly identifies Vergil's poppy as P. somniferum. In the Georgics it is a garden crop, and so P. somniferum, and not the wild P. rhoeas, called erraticum by Pliny 19.169. Abbe (1965: 96-97) saw P. rhoeas in G. 1.212 and 4.131, while Maggiuil (1995: 390) saw it at G. 4.131, E. 2.47, and A. 9.436.
But because P. rhoeas is so lovely, and since one of its names is the Shirley poppy, I've included it here, as a tribute to my friend Shirley Werner, scholar and gardener:
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