Photos of Papaver somniferum, Opium Poppy.

Papaver sominiferum, Opium poppy is among the plants that have given humanity the most pleasure and inflicted the most pain. Pleasure in the form of an annual ornamental in a wide array of colors, grown in every small town in America and elsewhere. Pleasure in those addicted to its crude latex, opium. It is at once quells pain through blocking pain receptors, used in every hospital in the world to alleviate pain, in the form of the alkaloid morphine and its derivatives. Pain from addiction to the more refined form of morphine, the illicit drug, heroin. The opium poppy has probably had a greater impact on humanity, good and bad, compared with any other plant.

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