Early bloomer. Orange
to yellow, same genus but not the California state flower. Birds eat
seeds, leaves used for toothache.
Notes: Ours can be distinguished from the state
flower, Eschscholzia californica, by looking beneath flowers. The
californica has a washer or small green plate, the caespitosa does not. Ours
also tends to have smaller flowers. Coastal poppies tend to be more yellow,
inland-more orange, but colors can vary in the same area, even to white.
Warmer weather tends to produce more orange flowers. The seed pods
(like little caps) rupture when ripe, open like little mouse-traps, and can
project their seeds. Seeds are
used for food by some birds. The
Maidu used the leaves to relieve toothache and the plant as a sedative,
for headaches and insomnia. In art, the poppy is the symbol for sleep/death.
It is one of the few plants with special pigment molecules (escholtzxanthin).
Click on species name below to go to USDA for this species.
