Red Poppy Flower Petals (Papaver rhoeas)
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Red Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) contains a substance named rhoeadine. It's nonpoisonous and has been used as mild sedative for centuries. They have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back 3000 years, and this flower was often combined with Blue Lotus flowers when making an elixir out of alcohol, and is now a staple component of many resin blends due to its gentle sedative qualities.
Red poppy contains alkaloids (including papaverine, rhoeadine, isorhoeadine, and many others). Our poppy comes from the same private, organic farm that grows our exclusive Blue Lotus petals. BECAUSE OF THE EXCLUSIVITY OF OUR PRIVATELY-GROWN RED POPPY, WE DO NOT HONOR PRICE MATCHES ON THIS PRODUCT. The alkaloids are similar to those in the opium poppy, but are much milder. The odor of the vibrant new flowers will nevertheless give you some sense of the odor of opium poppies (P. somniferum), evocative of dens & decadence. Although the Red Poppy is not opiating, it does have medicinal properties valued by herbalists, & has for millenia been regarded as a curative for sleeplessness. This flower was often combined with Blue Lotus flowers when making an elixir out of alcohol, and is now a staple component of many resin blends due to its gentle sedative qualities. Red Poppy is also known as Field Poppy, Wild Poppy, Rose Poppy, Headache Flower, Shirley Poppy (after a location in England), Canker Flower, Copper Rose, Red Weed, or Redfield. It is called Corn Poppy, Corn Rose, Corn Flower, or Demeter's Flower, because the Greeks & Romans encouraged it to self-seed in ploughed ground amidst grains, with the belief that the Great Mother would not make millet grow without the presence of poppies. It's called American Legion Poppy, Memoral Day Poppy, or Flanders Poppy after its wartime associations. It is a native of Eurasia but is now naturalized in many areas of North America. It has many color varieties but the wild form is pure bright red. I never planted it, it was just always in the yard, & comes back every year without help or hindrance from me. Though it is an annual, it obviously self-seeds with great ease. The twin underworld gods Thanatos & Hypnos were frequently depicted with poppies, which could well have acknowledged the two best known poppies, Hypnos of the red poppy of peaceful slumber, & Thanatos deathly & addictive opium poppy. In ancient Greece & Rome, the Red Poppy symbolized the Goddess Demeter (Ceres). She either found the poppy in a distant place while wandering the world looking for her daughter; or, when the gods one by one attempted to ease her anguish over the loss of Persephone, Hypnos (Somnus) created the Red Poppy hoping it would assist the Great Mother in obtaining rest. Persephone's pomegranate, which fed her but three seeds during her stay in Tartarus, was originally a seedpod of the same Red Poppy. |
