Significance of California poppies

Medicinal plants are rapidly regaining the prominent position that they possessed in past centuries in western medicine and that they have always held in most of the world. Explosive growth is ocurring in the multibillion dollar business of medicinal plants (here is the significance of California poppy from the business point of view), most evident in the increasing array of herbal offerings and supplements found in health food stores and supermarkets. The mass media too have become fascinated with the health promoting and curative powers of medicinal plants and regularly feature the virtues of the latest species to catch the attention of the public. Those who grow, process, market, prescribe, or personally use medicinal plants, herbs or their components have a vital need to obtain accurate, contemporary, and correct information. Unfortunately, there are serious hazards and pitfalls associated with medicinal plants that can only be avoided when authoritative informations is available.

The significance of California poppies in the United States is well appreciated in environments such as: medicine, aesthetic, and culinary. Due to its pain reliever (headaches), relaxing and sedative (insomnia) properities without side effects reported, This explains by itself the intrinsic popularity and significance of california poppies.

What is the significance of California poppies? Quite important from the medical viewpoint. In teas (internal use) tinctures and dried powder of herb (external use) for example, and sometimes chewed up to get the sap directly from the plant. It’s not toxic, this means that it can be used for long periods of time without the frightening feel of getting a serious disease or side effects. It does not cause dependency because of its very, very low alkaloid content (0.01%). People who like to grow California popiees get good news when they know that this species of poppy are easy to interbreed, giving them a new variety or subspecies of California poppies. An additional advantage for people who grows California poppies is its height: 30 centimeters, so it can be grown in small places and due to its small height, when harvesting the whole plant can be cut when flowering. So it’s because of the significance of California poppy that has been named “The California state flower”.

The California poppy scientific name is: Eschscholtzia (this name was given by its discoverer, Adalbert von Chamisso in 1816; in fact, the name’s plant was given in honor to the last name of Chamisso’s close friend, the expedition’s physician Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz). Being Eschscholtzia california Champ the most widely known for its medicinal applications; some of its subspecies are: Eschscholtzia glyptosperma, Eschscholtzia caespitosa, Eschscholtzia lobbii, Eschscholtzia elegans, Dendromecon rigida, Dendromecon harfordii, just to name a few subspecies.

This plant can get diseases such as: Collar rot, Gray-mold blight, and Powdert mildow. That is why this plant is carefully protected by timed and devised applications of crop protection chemicals.