Despite its name, the Iceland poppy isn't native to Iceland: it grows wild across subarctic Siberia, the Russian Far East, Alaska, and the Yukon. Its papery, lightly fragrant flowers sit one to a bare, hairy stem, and garden strains come in yellow, orange, salmon, pink, cream, and white. It is widely grown as a garden and cut flower.
Appearance
- Appearance
- A tuft of feathery, blue-green leaves at the base sends up hairy, curving stems about 1 ft (30 cm) tall, each topped by a single bowl-shaped flower. Wild plants have white or yellow flowers.
- Flowers
- Petals are thin and crinkly like tissue paper, and the flowers are lightly scented.
Look-alikes
Corn poppies are usually vivid red, often with a black spot at the base of each petal. Iceland poppies rise on leafless stems straight from a basal tuft of leaves and come in many pastel colors.
Why they get mixed upBoth are thin-petaled poppies grown in flower gardens, and corn poppy also has yellow, pink, and white garden forms.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Cold subarctic regions
- Gardens
- Range
- Native to subpolar Asia and northwestern North America; in the US it grows wild in Alaska (as subspecies americana). It has also been introduced in Colorado, Greenland, Tibet, and southern Argentina.
Growing it
- Care
- A short-lived perennial usually grown as an annual or biennial. Listed as hardy in USDA zones 3a–10b, it needs full sun and light, well-drained soil, and flowers best where summers are cool; in hot climates it may die within a season.
- Toxicity
- Like other poppies, all parts likely contain toxic such as chelidonine; it does not contain morphine-type narcotic compounds.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Long known as Papaver nudicaule, a name many seed catalogs still use. In 2021 the cold-climate poppies were moved into their own genus, Oreomecon. The name nudicaulis means "bare-stemmed."
- Varieties and forms
- The colorful garden strains sold as Iceland poppies are probably bred from this species and not the wild plant itself.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- One of the best poppies for cutting, lasting several days in a vase: cut the stems in bud, and sear the cut stem ends, since the milky sap otherwise blocks water uptake.
More species to explore
Record what you meet and build your own collection
Your photos are kept with their date and place, and you can fill regional albums one species at a time.