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Poppy self-seed. Legends, myths, symbolism, description, cultivation, methods of application

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Content

1. Photos, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
2. Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
3. Botanical description, reference data, useful information, illustrations
4. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology
5. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing

Poppy, Papaver rhoeas. Photos of the plant, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism

Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism

Sort by: Papaver

Family: Papaveraceae (Poppy)

Origin: Not identified, presumably Central Asia or North Africa

Area: The poppy is distributed throughout the world in temperate climates.

Chemical composition: Poppy seed contains alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, tebein and papaverine, as well as other biologically active compounds.

Economic value: Poppy seed is used in pharmaceuticals to obtain alkaloids used for the production of narcotic and analgesic drugs. The plant is used in cooking to add to bread and cookies, as well as to prepare poppy seed filling for confectionery.

Legends, myths, symbolism: In the culture of the ancient Greeks, the poppy was associated with the goddess of sleep and dreams, Morpheus, as well as with the goddess of vegetation, Demeter. The poppy was said to come from the blood of Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar sent by Ares as punishment for falling in love with Aphrodite. Therefore, the poppy was considered a symbol of death, rebirth and eternal beauty. In Chinese culture, the poppy was associated with the goddess Hua He, who was the goddess of flowers and love. It was said that the poppy was her favorite flower, and it symbolized vitality, inspiration and sensuality. In Christian symbolism, the poppy was associated with sleep and oblivion, as well as with martyrdom and blood. In Iranian culture, the poppy was associated with female beauty and attractiveness. Symbolically, the poppy is associated with the concepts of death, rebirth, sleep, love, beauty and energy. It can also be used to express deep grief, sadness, and sadness.

Poppy, Papaver rhoeas. Description, illustrations of the plant

Poppy. Legends, myths, history

Tales of the poppy have their roots in deep antiquity.

However, the most common poppy legend is not connected with paganism, but with Christianity. After the creation of the world by God, everyone was happy: people, and animals, and plants, and the sky, and water. Only Night remained unhappy. She was very saddened by the fact that she had to hide natural beauty under her cover. She came up with various tricks - stars, fireflies, in order to somehow become brighter.

But it was all in vain. People also disliked the night, it frightened and evoked melancholy. God decided to take pity on the poor Night and created Dreams.

Since then, the Night has ceased to frighten, on the contrary, they began to wait for her, as a welcome guest. And on the primordial Earth, everything was calm and wonderful, until sin woke up in people. The man planned to kill his neighbor. Sleep tried to prevent this, but the sin was too strong and did not allow dreams to come to him. Then the Dream got angry and struck the ground with his rod, Night came to the rescue and breathed into him a stream of life. The wand took root, turned green, and, retaining its sleep-inducing power, became a poppy.

So the poppy appeared on our planet, which still retains its sleep-inducing power.

The poppy served as a symbol of fertility due to its great fertility. Therefore, it is a constant attribute of Hera (Juno) - the goddess of fertility and matrimony. The temple and the statue of the goddess of fertility and matrimony - Hera (Juno) on the island of Samos were decorated with poppy heads. With a poppy in her hand, the goddess of the harvest, Ceres (Demitra), has always been depicted. Wreaths were woven from poppy flowers and grain ears, which decorated her statues.

Often the goddess herself was called Mekona (from the Greek mecon, makon - poppy).

The ancient Greeks believed that this flower was created by the god of sleep, Hypnos for Demeter, when she was so tired in search of her missing daughter Persephone, who was stolen by Hades, the ruler of the underworld of the dead, that she could no longer ensure the growth of bread. Then Hypnos gave her a poppy to sleep and rest.

Persephone was sometimes depicted with a poppy - she was represented entwined with garlands of poppy flowers - as a symbol of peace descending to earth at this time. According to ancient Roman legend, it grew from the tears of Venus, which she shed when she learned about the death of the beautiful young man Adonis.

According to Buddhist legend, a poppy grew on the ground touched by the eyelashes of the sleeping Buddha.

A poppy is a mythopoetic image - a sign of sleep and death, and a blooming one - of unprecedented beauty, also a symbol of unfading youth and female charm. Symbol of the Great Mother, meaning Mother Virgin, night. Dedicated to all lunar and night deities. Symbolizes fertility, fertility, oblivion, idleness.

In China - retirement, relaxation, beauty, success. But as a source of opium - decay and evil.

In Christianity - sleep, ignorance, indifference. The blood-red poppy represents the suffering of Christ and the dream of death.

In Greco-Roman philosophy - the period of sleep and death of the plant world, the emblem of Demeter (Ceres), Persephone, Venus, Hypnos and Morpheus.

The poppy was an attribute of the god of death - Thanatos, so he was depicted as a young man with a wreath of poppies, but with black wings, in a black robe and extinguishing an overturned burning torch. The realm of Morpheus' sleep was planted with poppies.

Poppy is also considered the flower of angels, as it is used to decorate churches on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. On this day, small children dressed as angels walk in procession in front of the priest carrying the Holy Gifts and sprinkle the road in front of him with poppy flowers.

The sedative and analgesic properties of the poppy were well known in antiquity. Theophrastus, who is called the "father of botany", gave a very clear description of the poppy and its healing properties. In ancient medical writings, poppy juice is mentioned as a drink that puts a person to sleep during surgical operations.

Homer wrote that Helen the Beautiful relieved the suffering of soldiers wounded during the Trojan War with poppy juice. Virgil called the poppy "lathean" - "giving oblivion." Hippocrates said that poppy juice can serve as a nourishing and strengthening agent. Dioscorides warned that poppy juice could kill if drunk too much.

There is a belief in many places that the poppy always grows in abundance on the battlefields. The main basis of this popular belief was, of course, the red-bloody color of its flowers. But in fact, the abundance of poppies here is easily explained by the fact that cattle are usually not allowed to graze in these fields, as a result of which the poppy has more time to ripen and, scattering numerous seeds every year, in time almost completely covers these fields with its bright red flowers.

The people, however, are sure that these are not flowers, but the blood of the dead, which rises from the ground and, turning into bloody poppy flowers, asks the living to pray for the repose of the sinful souls of the dead.

Author: Martyanova L.M.

Poppy. Botanical description, plant history, legends and folk traditions, cultivation and use

The poppy (Papaver rhoeas), as this type of poppy is called in science, attracted the attention of man already in antiquity.

Already the ancient Greek girls fell in love with its bright flowers, cut off their satin petals and, putting them on the circle formed by the bent thumb and forefinger of the left hand, hit them with all their might with their palms. The blow was accompanied by a more or less loud noise, the petal was torn, and by the strength of the cod, the young Greek women determined how much their lover was in love with them.

They called this game the game of love, and the flower that betrayed, so to speak, the secret of the heart, was called dylephilon - a love spy.

From the ancient Greeks, this game first passed to the ancient Romans, and from them mainly to the Italians, among whom it still exists. I say “mainly” because echoes of it have also been preserved in Germany, where the poppy is therefore often called the firecracker rose (Klatschrose) and where this game is also practiced everywhere, but has only lost its divinatory meaning and serves only as fun for children.

This game has changed even more in France. Here, children play with poppy flowers, not so much using their petals as crackers, but making pupae out of them. To make such a chrysalis, poppy petals are folded down and tied with a blade of grass. Then the box (head) of the poppy is, as it were, the head and body of the chrysalis, and the folded petals are her dress. This doll is usually called enfant de choeur, that is, a boy serving at the Roman Catholics at mass in the church, since the dress of these boys is mostly red.

Poppy flowers in France have another use in children's amusements, even in a game called "cockerel or hen?", where you need to figure out whether a poppy bud that has not yet blossomed contains white or red petals. If the petals are white, it means a hen; if they are red, it means a cockerel. It is quite difficult to guess from / guess, because, for a reason not yet explained, the petals in these buds are for some reason sometimes white at first, although later they all turn equally red.

In addition to these children's amusements, poppy flowers in southwestern Catholic countries are used to decorate churches on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. This is especially practiced in many parts of Provence, where small children, dressed as angels, go in procession on this day in front of the priest carrying the Holy Gifts, and strew his path with poppy flowers. From this, probably, these flowers in Provence are also called the flowers of angels.

Here, in Russia, although poppy flowers do not have a special meaning in church festivities, church domes often bear the name of golden domes, and Moscow, for the large number of its churches, in the old days was even constantly accompanied by the folk epithet "golden domes".

Here, of course, the name of the domes refers more to the upper part of the head, which we usually call "crown, poppy"; nevertheless, some symbolism arising from the similarity of the poppy head with our head is also observed in many sayings and songs.

This symbolism existed among the ancient Greeks, who called the poppy - kodeion, and the human head - kodeia, and especially among the ancient Romans, in whom Numa, instead of human heads sacrificed to Jupiter in the past, began to bring poppy heads.

The same thing happened with the brutal propitiatory sacrifice of children's heads to the goddess Mania - a ghostly creature that seemed to have an influence on the lives of children. Junius Brutus replaced the children's heads here with garlic and poppy heads.

It is also impossible to pass over in silence the well-known story in the history of ancient Rome about the capture of the city of the Volscians - Gabiy.

(The Volsci are an ancient tribe in Central Italy; in the XNUMXth century BC, they were conquered by the Romans.)

This was in 515 BC. e., in the reign of Tarquinius the Proud. Being unable to take this city either by hunger or by attack, Tarquinius came up with a trick. His eldest son, Sextus, pretending that his father, angry, drove him away from himself, fled to the Gabias and promised to help them in the fight against his father. The good-natured and gullible Gabians not only believed this tale, but even had the imprudence to entrust him with command over all their troops. Then, having secured power, Sextus secretly sent his faithful slave to Tarquinius to find out: what should he do next, how to act?

When Sextus' messenger arrived, Tarquinius was in the garden. Instead of answering the questions put to him by Sextus, he began to quickly walk around the garden and knock down the tallest poppy heads with which some of the flower beds of his garden were planted with a cane in his hands.

Returning to Sextus without any answer, the slave told him only what he had seen. But that was enough for Sextus. He realized that his father, knocking off the tallest poppy heads, meant by this that Sextus should behead or kill all the chiefs of the Gabias. Sextus did so, and the city was taken.

Thus, here, too, poppy heads were a symbol of human heads.

(We meet the same image in M. Tsvetaeva: "In thoughts of something else, different, // And not found, like a treasure, // Step by step, poppy by poppy - // Beheaded the whole garden. // So, someday , in dry // Summer, fields on the edge, // Death with an absent-minded hand // Will take off my head - mine.)

We also point out that poppy flowers also played a certain role among the ancient Italic peoples (Etruscans, Pelasgians, etc.). According to Otto Brunfels, they prepared various drugs from the poppy and made a dress from its red petals for their god of hell - Dis, or Orcus, which is why the poppy even received a special Latin name "Orci tunica", that is, the clothes of Orcus.

(O. Brunfels (1489 - 1534) - one of the first German botanists, monk and naturalist, who published a book with beautiful drawings of plants. A greenhouse-room plant from the nightshade family - brunfelsia is named after him.)

Is it not from this, one wonders, the ancient custom that the custom of dressing the devil on stage, and behind him Mephistopheles in a bright red cloak, has been preserved?

In Ukrainian songs it is often a symbol of beauty and youth.

Such, in fact, in brief terms, is the meaning of the poppy as an adorning plant, but it has a much greater significance in folk beliefs and rituals as a plant that has a hypnotic effect.

Its very Latin name "papaver", which in translation into Russian means real (vera) children's porridge (papa), indicates the acquaintance of the ancients with this action, since in ancient times a custom was already practiced, which, unfortunately, is still practiced by the old nannies and some nurses - to lull restless little children, adding poppy seeds to milk and, in general, to their food.

There is no need to say how harmful this way of calming children is, and every loving mother should strictly monitor the nurse and nurse so that they do not dare to do this, since otherwise the child may turn into an idiot, or at least he may joint tremors or paralysis appear; and in England, in Sussex, there was even a case that a nurse, wanting to calm a child who did not let her sleep at night, gave him so much poppy syrup that the poor thing fell into such a sleep that he never woke up, despite all the efforts of doctors.

In the old days, of course, this harmful effect of poppy seeds was not suspected, but they saw in the poppy only a beneficent remedy sent down by Providence, which is most clearly seen from the following poetic legend that developed in the Middle Ages about the origin of the poppy.

“It was the first spring - that spring, when the Lord created both creatures and plants. At His beckon, a flower arose after a flower, creature after creature. The whole earth was already covered with them. Joy and harmony reigned everywhere. Animals and people lived with each other in complete peace, and from morning to evening only rejoicing was heard.

Only one creature did not share the universal joy, universal happiness, and sadly wandered the young earth - it was night. And therefore she wandered so sadly that every creature on earth had her girlfriend, and she alone remained lonely. In addition, she also felt that she was the only creature on earth to whom the rest approached with reluctance. For no matter how hard she tried to dispel her deep darkness with the help of stars, luminous bugs and other sources of light, she still hid too much of the beauties of nature from the enchanted eyes of the newly created creatures and thereby involuntarily repelled everyone from herself. And when the rising sun, illuminating with its wondrous rays, delighted everyone and aroused universal rejoicing, she felt her loneliness even harder, and her own existence was even harder for her.

Being by nature kind and loving, she looked for an answer to this love and, not meeting it, wrapped her head in a thick veil in order to shed bitter tears in solitude ...

The flowers finally noticed this grief and tried in every possible way to soften it and deliver it, to the best of their weak strength, as much joy as possible. But what could the poor things offer her as consolation, besides their wonderful colors and their intoxicating fragrance? And so many of them began to retain their smell during the day and emit it only at night. And although this consolation was, of course, insignificant, the night still felt somewhat less lonely: the wonderful smell that spread everywhere showed her that there were still beings who sympathized with her and wanted to console her in her heavy grief.

However, this consolation was not enough, and the night, in the end, out of itself with grief, rushed to the foot of the throne of the Most High and turned to Him with a prayer:

“Almighty God, You see how all the creatures You created are happy and how I alone wander without joy, alone and not loved by anyone on earth, not even having a creature to whom I could tell my grief. A bright day flees from me, as I I aspire to him with all my soul, and just like him, all other creatures turn away from me ... Have mercy on me, the unfortunate God, moderate my sorrow, create a comrade for me, give me a true friend and life partner ".

The Lord smiled when he heard the prayer of the night and, taking pity on her, created a dream and gave it to her as a comrade.

Night enthusiastically accepted this dear friend in her arms, and since then a new life began for her. Now she not only did not feel more lonely, but everywhere she was greeted with joy, since the beneficial sleep that constantly accompanies her is the favorite of all living beings on earth and is eagerly expected as calm and relaxation.

Soon, new cute creatures joined her: her and sleep children - dreams and dreams. Together with night and sleep, they scattered all over the earth and became everywhere the same welcome guests as their parents.

Not much time had passed, however, when the people, who at first were simple-hearted and sincere, changed. Passions awakened in them, and in their soul it became darker and darker. And since children easily deteriorate in bad society, the same thing happened here: some dreams, having come into close contact with evil people, became frivolous, deceptive and unfriendly.

Son noticed this change in his children and wanted to drive them away from himself, but the sisters and brothers interceded for them and began to ask him: “Leave us the guilty brothers and sisters, they are not so bad as they seem; we promise you to correct them as soon as they go astray."

The father answered the request of his kind children with consent, and heavy, gloomy dreams remained in their community, which, however, in a surprising way, as further experience showed, are almost always kept only by evil people who seem to attract them to themselves.

Meanwhile, mankind was getting worse and worse, and his life became harder and harder.

Once one of the completely spoiled people was lying in the middle of a wonderful night in a meadow fragrant with wonderful aromas. Sleep and dreams approached him, but his sins prevented them from approaching. A terrible thought arose in his soul - to kill his own brother. It was in vain that sleep sprinkled drops of calm on him with its magic wand, in vain they lulled him with their motley pictures of dreams - the unfortunate man more and more shied away from their beneficent influence. Then the dream called its children and said: "If so, then let's fly away from him, children - he is not worthy of our gifts!" - and they flew away.

However, such an unprecedented failure greatly irritated the dream, and, having flown a long distance from a person who did not submit to his influence, he could not calm down for a long time; especially, he did not want to forgive his magic wand for the impotence he had shown, and in anger, he finally stuck it in the ground. Meanwhile, the dreams whirling around him, playing, hung this wand with those light, airy, colorful images that they wanted to cast on the unfortunate person who pushed them away from him.

The night saw it all. She realized the error of the dream and, taking pity on the innocent wand, she breathed life into it so that it could take root. And the wand, retaining the sleep-inducing power, turned green and turned into a plant, and the gifts of dreams that covered it turned into beautiful, variously cut leaves. This plant was the poppy.

Otherwise, Paolo Mantegazza tells the legend about the origin of the poppy in his fairy tales. According to him, it went like this:

“Once the Lord descended to Earth to find out if she was satisfied with the life that He once planted on her, and were there any offended creatures living on her? The Earth met him with joy, but pointed out to Him several phenomena that depress all creatures and all plants: firstly, the need to eat each other, as a result of which the whole Earth is, as it were, a huge slaughterhouse, where herbivores devour plants, carnivores - herbivores, and man - everyone and everything, being in turn destroyed, as if in mockery, the smallest of all creatures - microbes; secondly, to death, ruthlessly destroying everything that is dear on Earth, destroying all the most wondrous plans and taking away the happiness of the highest of the creatures He created on Earth - a man who, despite the high reason, is equated with the lowest, stupidest and senseless creatures; and, finally, thirdly - to the most terrible - to those countless sufferings and to that terrible grief that are scattered everywhere on Earth.

For one cheerful and contented, - said the Earth, - there are hundreds of unfortunates; in response to one jubilation, hundreds of sobs are heard. In suffering, a man is born, and in suffering, surrounded by saddened and weeping, he dies. And even those few who can consider themselves happy, tasting the cup of joy, find hidden in it the fear of death, and fear is not the same suffering?

To the first two instructions, the Lord replied that the destruction of beings by each other and death are a necessary law of improvement and that the beings inhabiting the Earth are not able to comprehend them only because of their short-sightedness and the limitations of their mind.

For Me, - He added, - all the creatures of the world, from the smallest to the largest, from the weakest to the strongest, from the dumbest to the smartest, are only organs, only cells of one huge organism. They exchange juices and forces with each other, so that one helps the other, at the same time taking and giving. Death, on the other hand, is only the rest of the weary and weary, and the cradle of the newly arising life.

As for the third indication of the Earth, the Lord, having sighed heavily, thought deeply about it. However, he did not change His previous decision and only said: “Your truth, Earth, there is too much grief on you, but I put a spark of My omnipotence into a person, and in the course of those many millennia that he still has to exist, he will learn how this grief overcome it and how to recover from it. He wanted to be free, so now let him bear all the consequences of this desired freedom for him.

But, Lord, - then the Earth objected to Him, - before this distant day of healing comes, give a person at least some help; give him at least some means of soothing, so that the pain would not be so painful, prolonged and deadly!

Then the Lord thought a little more and gave the Earth tiny grains and ordered them to be scattered on cultivated fields and along the roads along which a person walks.

The earth scattered them - and our poppy has grown, which since then has been blooming its colorful, bright flowers among the grain fields, on the roads and in the meadows where people rest. Like a bright light, it shines among the yellow grain ears and green plants and invites a person to pick it and take advantage of its healing pain-relieving properties.

And so from now on this miraculous plant calms mental suffering, soothes bodily pains and makes life more tolerable ... "

These are the legends about the origin of the poppy, which arose in times closer to us. But, as we have seen, the ancient Greeks were also familiar with the hypnotic effect of poppy juice, and therefore they also had their own legend about the origin of the poppy, and they played an important role in their rituals and customs.

They believed that he grew out of the tears of Venus, which she shed upon learning of the death of her dear Adonis, and considered him a necessary attribute of the god of sleep - Hypnos and his brother, the god of death - Thanatos. As a result of this, they always depicted the god of sleep in the form of a lying or sitting young man or an angel with lowered wings, carrying poppy heads in his hands. Sometimes his head was also decorated with a wreath of poppy heads. The god of death was also portrayed as a young man with a wreath of poppies, but with black wings, in a black robe and extinguishing an overturned burning torch.

In the same way, the goddess of the night was always represented by the ancients entwined with garlands of poppy flowers - as a symbol of rest-rest descending to the earth at that time, as well as the god of dreams - Morpheus, even whose dwelling - the kingdom of sleep - seemed in their fantasy planted with poppy plants.

Ovid, in his charming Metamorphoses, describes this dwelling as follows:

"The entrance to the dwelling is planted with poppy flowers and many herbs that deliver sleepy juices at night, which she then spreads throughout the world immersed in darkness ... Here, around (Morpheus), in thousands of different types, light dreams rest here and there, just as numerous like the ears of grain fields, like the leaves in the forests, or like grains of sand that the sea throws ashore.

“When Morpheus,” the ancient Romans said, “wants to put someone to sleep or inspire pleasant dreams on him, he touches him only with a poppy flower.”

The poppy was also dedicated to the goddess of the harvest - Ceres, since he always grew up among the cereals, which she patronized in memory of the fact that Jupiter gave her poppy seeds to bring her sleep and peace of mind from mental suffering when she mourned her kidnapped god hell Pluto beloved daughter Proserpina. Wreaths were woven from its flowers, along with grain ears, with which her statues were then decorated; flowers were brought to her during sacrifices and ceremonial services, and the poppy was generally considered such a pleasant plant for this goddess that the goddess herself was often called "Mekonoy", from the Greek name for the poppy - mecon, makon. Hence, in all likelihood, its name "poppy" came from. On the statues, Ceres was always depicted with a poppy in her hand.

Finally, the goddess of the night sky, Persephone, was depicted with a poppy, spreading sleep over the whole earth.

In all these cases, with the possible exception of the goddess Ceres, the poppy was a symbol of sleeping pills and personified sleep, and sometimes even death ...

Who was the first to notice the hypnotic effect of the poppy, and who was the first to start extracting juice from this plant, is not known for certain. It is only known that the ancient Egyptians already had a sleeping potion prepared from poppies, who used it as a medicine and for this they cultivated even near the city of Thebes the same kind of poppy (Papaver somniferum), which we also cultivate; that the ancient Greeks got acquainted with its hypnotic effect only in 416 BC. e.; that among the ancient Romans the use of this poppy potion was already very common, and that this juice, finally, already in antiquity was divided into two varieties: opium (opos - in Greek juice) and meconium.

However, it was not difficult to notice the soporific effect of the poppy - every poppy, as you know, emits a rather strong stupefying smell, from which you can even fall asleep. As a result, in Germany there was a belief that one who fell asleep in a poppy field fell ill with sleeping sickness.

We find a story about this belief in a beautiful poem by the famous German poet Uhland:

"I was told as a warning that someone who fell asleep in a poppy field was brought home immersed in a deep, heavy sleep, and that, upon waking up, he retained traces of a kind of slight madness: he mistook relatives and friends for ghosts."

Another German poet, B. Sigismund, describes the smell emitted by poppies in this way.

"The fragrance of violets is sweet, the smell of roses is wonderful, the aroma of cloves is hot like spiced wine, but you emit a stupefying smell, like the waters of the Lethe River, destroying the memories of a life lived."

The ancient Greeks and Romans did not know the smoking value of opium and used it only, like our modern doctors, as an analgesic and sedative, and it often happened that the patient died from too large a dose of this medicine. But especially often began to use opium as a medicine in the Middle Ages.

At this time, Charlemagne in his capitularies even ordered that poppies be cultivated in every peasant garden and that when paying taxes from each household, a quarter of a poppy was brought in.

(Chetverik is an old Russian measure of loose bodies, 1/8 of a quarter; equal to approximately 26,24 liters.)

As a result, cases of poisoning became more frequent, and so much so that the famous medieval physician Tabernemontanus even found it necessary to write a whole book entitled "Magsamensaft" ("Juice of poppy seeds"), where he, pointing out the danger of excessive use of this drug, advised to use it only in extreme cases, and reproached the Jewish doctors for the fact that, being carried away by the quick healing of this remedy, they do not think about the terrible consequences that threaten their patients.

Opium continues to be used in medicine in our time, but more in the form of a chemical alkaloid obtained from it - morphine, discovered in 1804 by the Hanoverian pharmacist Serturner.

This morphine is injected under the skin, which achieves soothing of the most terrible, excruciating pains. But the excessive abuse of this drug leads, as is known, to no less disastrous consequences, like the abuse of opium. Carried away by its beneficial analgesic effect, patients begin to inject it so often that in the end they are no longer able to do without it, they are waiting for its injection, like bitter drunkards for vodka. Such people who are addicted to morphine are called morphine addicts.

The result is, of course, the most deplorable. Not to mention the gray-green complexion that these people are distinguished by, their body is covered with terrible boils, their mental faculties gradually weaken and darken, and they die, turning into half-idiots.

Nevertheless, the healing effect of this remedy in many terrible diseases of mankind is so miraculous, so beneficent, that it is impossible not to join the poet Sigismund, who glorified the poppy for this, and not to call him together with him the divine healer and calmer of all those who suffer in soul and body of the sick.

Opium has another useful property in some cases - to satisfy hunger, a practical application of this we find among Muslims during their strict fast, known as Ramadan.

Turning now to another use of opium - to smoking, it must be said that this custom also arose primarily in Muslim countries, and mainly in Arabia.

Here, smoking was like a substitute for the use of wine and any other alcoholic beverages, which is prohibited in these countries according to the law of Mohammed. And here we can rightly say that the devil was replaced by Beelzebub, since opium, nicknamed by the Mohammedans "Mash Allah" - the gift of the Lord, is actually many times worse than any wine in its disastrous consequences. Smoking it in a short time destroys health and turns millions of people into semi-idiots and slaves to their passion.

To understand the full horror of this terrible poison for the intellect, one must read the poems of two famous English poets - Coleridge and de Quince, who fell into the power of this demonic drug, read about the terrible struggle they waged to get rid of its power, and all those torments which they experienced from the gradual destruction of their health.

Initially, Turkey and partly Arabia were engaged in the preparation of opium for smoking, but then India became the main center for its manufacture, where commercial people, the British, realizing all the enormous benefits of trading this poison, began to breed it in huge quantities for export to the Mohammedan countries and especially to China, whose inhabitants, having tasted the sweetness of this smoking, were carried away by it almost without exception. It was not long before 1740, during the reign of President Weller and Colonel Watson, whose names may be "famous" in history for the introduction of this most infamous trade after that of slaves.

For the poor people, special censers are arranged here everywhere, called by the British opium shops. Willy-nilly, they were allowed by the Chinese government after the most shameful war declared against it by the British because, finding the smoking of opium disastrous for their people, they wanted to prohibit its import. The British won, and the Chinese had to submit.

A distinctive feature of such a censer is a yellow piece of paper pasted at its entrance, which serves to filter opium. This is both a sign and an invitation to come in. The inside of the censer has something repulsive.

"Imagine," says Rambosson, "a dark, gloomy, damp, almost underground shed, the doors of which are locked, and the windows closed with tightly closed shutters, and the only light of which is the faint flickering of opium lamps. Portable beds, covered with mats, are placed everywhere and rugs made of straw, designed to serve those smokers who need a horizontal position to indulge in their dreams. Entering here, you are suffocated by the acrid, throat-irritating smoke of opium."

In such a censer, you can always meet dozens of smokers with cups of tea standing in front of them. Some, with dull eyes and a wandering gaze, seem to live in a completely different world, others, on the contrary, are distinguished by amazing talkativeness and are, as it were, under the influence of terrible irritation.

Their faces are sickly, pale; eyes sunken, surrounded by bruises; the tongue is confused, the legs barely move and give way, like those of drunkards. Some lie, quenching their thirst with tea from time to time; others still somehow move, waving their arms and shouting.

If you stay for some time in such a censer, you can see how little by little everyone sinks into a deep sleep, lasting, depending on the amount of opium smoked and the nature of the smoker, from 2 to 12 hours and accompanied by various dreams, depending again on nature and smoker's mood.

Awakening from such a dream is usually very difficult: the head is like lead, the tongue is white and swollen, lack of appetite and pain all over the body.

And so, just as drunkards feel the need to get drunk, so opium smokers feel the need for a new excitation of the nerves by smoking opium. He lights his pipe again and does the same again. And so on without end, like an alcoholic who suffers from hard drinking.

In the end, either a delirium-like delirium takes possession of him, making him so dangerous that, for example, on the island of Java, the Dutch authorities had to issue a decree to kill such smokers dangerous to society, or he is struck by paralysis and, in general, all those the dire consequences that we reported about morphine addicts.

The Chinese government has constantly fought and is fighting against opium, although the income brought to the state by smoking is very large, since a tax is levied on every pipe in censers. The late bogdykhan and bogdykhansha took the most energetic measures to defeat this evil. The Chinese Progressives held public readings, wrote and staged plays for the people, where they depicted in gloomy colors the harm of opium and the miserable end of those people who are addicted to opium.

And meanwhile, how beautiful, how charming the flowering field of this poison looks! Especially in China.

“I could not take my eyes off,” says one traveler who saw such a field, “from a sea of ​​\uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbwonderful flowers, bright as points of fire, pale pink, pale purple, pale white.

Never in Russia have I seen such a variety of shades in poppy flowers, and never have these flowers been so large and magnificent. I looked, and it seemed to me that each flower breathes, lives, laughs. A hot breeze came up - the flowers became agitated and straightened up again.

And when, fascinated by such a spectacle, he continued to look at this lovely field, he suddenly presented himself with another sight - the unsightly atmosphere of a Chinese folk censer with wide benches and poorly dressed, almost in rags, people lying on them ...

All of the above, however, is not limited to the role of the poppy in human life. The ancient peoples paid attention to its extraordinary fertility, and therefore it even served them as a symbol of fertility.

(It is known that in each poppy head (box) the number of seeds exceeds 30.000)

It is a constant attribute of Hera (Juno), the goddess of fertility and matrimony, whose temple and statue on the island of Samos were always decorated with poppy heads; and the harvest goddess Ceres. In addition, Mercury was depicted with a poppy, who always held it in his left hand.

Sometimes also the number of grains in the poppy head served as the personification of the whole city, that is, the fertility of the poppy was a symbol of the city, which, we note, may have contributed a lot to the very shape of the poppy box, the cutouts of which at the top bear some resemblance to battlements of ancient cities.

I don’t know if such a symbolic meaning of fertility was preserved for poppies in the Middle Ages, but in our time in many places in Germany there is a custom that is in some way its echo - this is the custom of pouring poppy seeds into the shoes of a newlywed as a wish that she would not be childless .

In addition, the poppy, or rather, the poppy seed, is also a symbol of everything smallest, insignificant, and picking up poppies seems to be a symbol of the impossibility of doing something, or even a huge difficulty.

So, for example, a hungry person, wanting to show the degree of hunger, says: “I haven’t had a poppy dew in my mouth since morning,” and, wanting to express something impossible, which is difficult even to count, says: “It’s like poppy seeds” ( dotted), or "Poppy poppy" (finely, often, thickly).

The ancient Greeks used to sacrifice to their gods such animals and such plants, the name of which was in consonance with the name or nickname of the gods, or in general had something to do with them.

(Catherine corresponds to another Greek nickname for Aphrodite - aiderinus - infernal Erinnia.)

Turning now to Western Europe, we must say that here, in addition to the custom already mentioned, to put poppy seeds in the bride's shoes, there are many other customs and beliefs associated with poppy seeds.

So, in Germany they say: if at midnight on Christmas Eve you stand at the crossroads of two roads with a mortar, into which you pour poppy seeds, and hit it three times with a pestle, then in the muffled sounds you can hear about the events of the coming year. And in Poznań, on Christmas Eve, they make dumplings from poppy seeds, milk and breadcrumbs and eat them, as there is a belief that this brings happiness to the household for a whole year.

This custom is so widespread among the local peasants that on this evening there is no village house where this dish is not served along with roast goose and pork. In Niederseydlitz, there was even a saying about this: "How many dumplings, so many goslings" (it is understood that it will be next year).

Poppy is in Germany also a means for a spell, and in Thuringia there is a legend that thanks to such a spell with poppy, the well-known once rich gold placers flourishing there died.

This legend says that the mother of one miner of these placers, who was innocently accused of stealing gold and executed for this, filled half a mug with poppy seeds and, going to the richest place in gold, poured out these seeds. Pouring them out, she wished with a curse that all the placers would perish and remain untreated for as many years as there were poppy seeds in the vessel. And immediately, says the legend, mountain streams flooded the whole area, and the mining industry that had flourished for so long perished forever.

In conclusion, let us also point out an interesting belief that exists in many parts of Germany, that the poppy always grows in abundance on the battlefields.

The main basis of this popular belief was, of course, the red-bloody color of its flowers. But in fact, the abundance of poppies here is easily explained by the fact that cattle are usually not allowed to graze in these fields, as a result of which the poppy has more time to ripen and, scattering numerous seeds every year, in time almost completely covers these fields with its bright red flowers.

The people, however, say: "These are not flowers, these are the blood of the slain, which rises to us from the earth and, turning into bloody poppy flowers, asks us to pray for the repose of their sinful souls."

From this, perhaps, also comes the intimidation of children, widespread in Flanders and Brabant: not to go to poppy fields, since its flowers suck out blood, and on the other hand, the name given to them here "sprokelloem" - "ghost flowers".

We meet something similar in the following interesting Caucasian tradition.

It happened, as the locals say, back in that good old time, when the prophet Mohammed was faithful, instructing them on the path of truth and goodness.

“A brother and sister lived in the same sakla in Kabarda. The brother is lively, cheerful, and the sister is thoughtful, sad.

And the brother, having fallen in love with a beauty who lived in a neighboring village, decided to marry. He took her out of there and brought her home.

Her sister greeted her kindly and affectionately, and they began to live together, but did not get along in character. The beautiful sister soon began to hate her, began to shed tears for whole days, and finally announced to her husband that she could not live with her in the world.

"Kill me, I beg you," she added.

The brother tried in every possible way to settle the matter, convinced his wife that her sister was a sweet, good person, that she sincerely loved her, but all in vain.

The beauty kept saying: "Kill me or her. I hate her while she lives, I can't breathe freely..."

Brother loved sister, but love for his wife was stronger.

He suffered, suffered, thought, thought, and finally, waking up his sister one night, he took her to the edge of the forest and killed her.

The poor woman fell with a groan, pouring blood on the ground, without uttering a word of resentment.

It was only then that my brother realized what he had done.

His soul woke up, horror seized him, with a cry he rushed into the forest and began to rush about like crazy.

He ran and ran, and finally, overwhelmed by fatigue, exhausted, he fell face down on the ground.

For a long time he lay there, not knowing whether it was day or night, when some holy elder appeared before him.

Seeing the holy man, the murderer confessed to him his terrible sin and, falling at his feet, begged for help to free his soul from severe suffering.

The elder, thinking, said: "Your sin is great, the torments are unbearable, and one thing can atone for them - this is fiery suffering. Go and do what I command you."

The overjoyed brother understood and hurried to fulfill the order.

He collected dry leaves, moss, twigs, tree fragments, carried them to one place, built a fire, climbed on it, set it on fire and burned to the ground in it. Only burnt bones remain...

Autumn passed, winter passed, warm time came, and when the whole earth was covered with a bright carpet of greenery and flowers, a long stalk of hemp grew in place of the fire, as if stretching leaves to the sky, and at the edge of the forest, on the ground moistened with the blood of a sister, large beautiful poppy.

And since then, in the local dialect, poppy has been called "kyzlana-kan" - girl's blood, and hemp "ja shlaga-kan" - the blood of a young man.

Is this legend true or not, say the Kabardians, of course, only God knows, but most likely it is true!..

Author: Zolotnitsky N.

Poppy. Botanical description, plant history, legends and folk traditions, cultivation and use

Papaver somniferum

Poppy - the most ancient plant. Its seeds were found in the remains of the dwellings of primitive man. Oriental poppy is considered the most beautiful, and sleeping pills poppy is the most common.

Legends say that when the first people appeared on earth, nature made sure that they not only hunted, hunted and worked well, but also rested quietly.

For rest, she gave people the night. Night hid beauty and prey from people so that people would not see anything and therefore do nothing. However, despite this, people continued to stay awake at night.

Night, feeling powerless, wrapped her head in fog and slowly wept, and dew formed on the ground from her tears. Seeing the sad night, nature took pity on her and sent a dream to her husbands: together with her husband, nature thought, nights would be easier to calm people and make them sleep ...

And it is true that night and sleep became easier to cope with people, but not everyone obeyed them. Then nature made sure that night and sleep had children - dreams that could distract people and make them forget.

And yet, neither night, nor sleep, nor dreams could ever lull a preoccupied person to sleep. He lay in the middle of the night in a fragrant meadow and could not sleep at all. No matter how the night soothed him, no matter how the dreams lulled him, no matter how sleep closed his eyelids, the man continued to be awake.

Sleep, exhausted, became angry at his own weakness, angrily stuck the royal rod into the ground and flew away.

Dreams enveloped the wand in aerial dreams, the night breathed life into it, and the wand took root, turned green and opened with beautiful flowers. So the poppy appeared on earth.

In ancient Greece, this flower was dedicated to the god of sleep Hypnos and the god of dreams Morpheus. The cult of the goddess of fertility and agriculture, Demeter, is associated with this plant. Her Statues were decorated either with flowering mahi, or with wreaths of grain ears and poppies, and the ancient Greeks depicted the goddess herself with a poppy in her hand. The Romans identified Demeter with Ceres.

According to legend, Ceres wandered the earth, not finding peace and rest. Then the alarmed gods began to grow poppy flowers. One day Ceres was picking a bouquet and fell asleep. When I woke up, I came to an indescribable joy from the harvest ringing around. Since then, the abundance of poppy blossoms has been associated with the view of the harvest.

Many rituals are associated with poppy among the Slavic peoples.

So, in the rites of causing rain during a drought in the Belarusian Polissya, poppy seeds, consecrated on the day of the poppy, were "sown" in the well, beaten or stirred the water with kiechki (club), saying: "Makarka, son, get out of the water, pour tears over the holy land , - at the same time they showered the hut and bread with poppy seeds.

Until now, the wedding ceremony of distributing porridge from millet and poppy seeds has been preserved in Belarus, as bringing happiness.

In the Balkans, the poppy is called the butterfly. So, in Albania, poppy - paparuna, in Bulgaria - paporuna, in Macedonia - pepperud, in Ukraine this flower is considered a symbol of beauty and youth, among the Germans it is considered a symbol of fertility.

The Poles have a sad custom to cook dumplings with poppy seeds on New Year's Eve.

All these traditions are not only echoes of the Old Testament cults and pagan beliefs, but also a tribute to one of the most beautiful plants.

But not all peoples poppy is a symbol of well-being, happiness. So, for example, in China, poppy is associated with unkind beliefs, perhaps because people learned from poppy not only to extract a valuable medicine - morphine, but also to use it for evil. It is not without reason that the poppy is the progenitor of the "flowers of evil" among symbolist artists, although the poppy itself is the flower of the soul wide open.

Many people think of the poppy as a fluttering scarlet or white flower. However, few people know about the existence of the blue poppy, a native of the distant Himalayan mountains, which blooms for three weeks.

According to French traveler Michel Pessel, these flowers are "the envy of any botanist." By all indications, its petals and leaves are identical to the red poppy of our meadows, with the only difference being that the corollas of this one burn with a bright blue color and, in some light, give purple highlights; and the stamens and pistils are not black, but yellow.

Author: Krasikov S.

Poppy-seed, Papaver rhoeas L. Description, habitats, nutritional value, use in cooking

Poppy-seed is an annual herbaceous plant from the poppy family with regular oblong-lobed pinnately divided gray-green leaves.

Stem erect, moderately branched, 30 to 100 cm high.

The flowers are red, with many stamens and four petals, with black spots at the base. Fruits in the form of round boxes with partitions inside. The seeds are numerous, round, of various colors (from light gray to dark brown) and contain up to 60% fatty oil.

Poppy can be found in crops, along roadsides, in meadows and along the edges of forest belts.

In total, there are more than 100 types of different poppies. According to the method of use, they can be divided into two large groups: oil and opium poppies. Opium poppies are cultivated as a medicinal plant. Oil-bearing varieties of poppy are cultivated for food purposes. The seeds of these varieties are used in bakery and confectionery production, as well as to obtain fatty drying oil.

Poppies are also grown for decorative purposes for decorating gardens, parks, lawns, squares, home gardens and yards. Oriental poppy (rorientalis) is often used as an ornamental, characterized by a bright color of flowers and pubescence of leaves and stem.

In recent years, many cultivated high-yielding varieties have been bred for food purposes.

Author: Koshcheev A.K.

Poppy. The history of growing a plant, economic importance, cultivation, use in cooking

What is a poppy plant? What a poppy looks like, everyone imagines. But not everyone knows that these magnificent flowers, decoration of gardens and fields, belong to several species, mostly inedible. And for food and medical purposes, mankind has been cultivating one species since time immemorial - the sleepy poppy Papaver somniferum. Previously, it was planted in vegetable gardens, and since the century before last, entire fields have been sown with it.

Poppy is grown for its pod fruits. The boxes are stuffed with tiny seeds, 6-11 thousand grains weigh about 3-5 g. In wild species, ripe seeds are poured out through special holes, but sleepy poppy has not been found in the wild for a long time, and the box does not open in cultivated varieties. This, of course, is very convenient for pickers, but it makes the poppy dependent on humans: without his help, the plant is not able to disperse seeds. However, people are interested not only in the contents of the poppy box, but also in its green walls - opium is obtained from them.

Where does opium come from? The word "opium" comes from the Greek "opos" - "juice". All green parts of the plant contain alkaloids: narcotine, codeine, morphine, papaverine and others, more than 20 in total. They are formed 14 days after poppy germination, their number first increases, but decreases as the seeds ripen. Actually, opium is an air-dried milky juice that is released from cuts on immature poppy pods. The juice from the leaves and stems of the plant, which also contains alkaloids, is called meconium. There are no alkaloids in the seeds.

From time immemorial, poppy selection has gone in two directions: oilseed and medicinal (opium). The juice of opium varieties contains more alkaloids, the walls of the capsules are thick, with an extensive network of lactifers; in oilseed varieties, the vascular system is much less developed. Since poppies need bright sunshine for the synthesis of alkaloids, opium varieties are bred mainly in Asia, and in Europe they specialize in oilseeds.

For the industrial production of opium, immature pods are harvested. Both opium itself and its alkaloids relieve pain and put you to sleep. Based on them, the analgesics omnopon (a mixture of hydrochlorides of all alkaloids) and morphine hydrochloride are produced. Papaverine and narcein are used as antispasmodics. Codeine and codeine phosphate reduce the excitability of the cough center and are part of other cough medicines.

What is a poppy seed good for? In our northern region, poppy is a food plant, primarily oilseed. Its ripe seeds contain from 46 to 56% fat, as well as about 20% protein, vitamins C, B, D and E and trace elements - potassium, phosphorus and calcium. When the word "poppy" comes to mind, first of all, dryers sprinkled with black grains, or buns with filling, come to mind. In fact, the color of poppy seeds depends on the variety: they are bluish, light yellow and even white. And they are used not only in confectionery and bakery production.

Poppy can be mixed with breadcrumbs or cornmeal, roll fish, chops or cabbage schnitzels in this mixture and fry. Toasted poppy seeds are added to spaghetti and salads with herbs along with pine nuts and seeds. In India, powdered poppy seeds are added to sauces, yoghurts and spice mixtures as a thickening agent, and in France they are added to mushroom dishes. Pounded poppy seeds with olive oil make a delicious sweet sauce. The taste of poppy depends on the method of preparation. In fresh grains, it is light grassy, ​​in steamed and mashed grains it is creamy, in toasted grains it is nutty.

In Italy, not only poppy seeds are eaten, but even flowers and stems. The petals are added to salads and soups, and the stems are prepared in recipes suitable for spinach. Of course, non-opium varieties are used for this purpose.

In Rus', poppy seeds were added to hot honey and mead, and wheat porridge boiled with poppy seeds was a traditional treat at weddings. Fried fish was served under poppy broth, crushed steamed seeds, and caviar was boiled with poppy milk.

What is poppy milk? Poppy milk is an emulsion obtained from steamed and pounded seeds soaked in hot water. Before you cook it, the poppy should be carefully sorted out from the litter and washed. If it is last year's, scald it with boiling water so that the bitterness goes away. Sometimes poppy seeds are pre-soaked for several hours, which makes the drink more palatable.

Prepared grains are crushed until whitened in a wooden mortar, passed through a meat grinder with a fine grate or ground in a coffee grinder. Crushed poppy should be put in a ceramic or enamel bowl and pour an equal volume of hot water. Sometimes washed poppy is first poured with water and then whipped in a blender. The resulting mash is allowed to settle and the resulting milk is squeezed through the tissue. Cake can be used for stuffing.

The milk is thick. Previously, they even drank it instead of cow, the composition is almost milky: proteins, fatty acids and a lot of calcium. And cottage cheese was made from this milk - boiled with salt and a small amount of onion, and it curdled. They are seasoned with lean soups and cereals, and if you add sugar, vanilla or honey to poppy milk, you get a sweet mass into which it is good to dip pancakes.

Unfortunately, poppy milk does not stand for a long time - it settles, so it is better to do it immediately before use.

What are the benefits of poppy seed oil? Only cold-pressed oil is used for food, and its best varieties are obtained from white grains. Hot-pressed oil is used for technical needs; paints for painting are prepared on its basis.

The color of poppy seed oil is yellowish, and the smell is nutty. It tolerates heat well, so you can fry on it, dress salads with it, and use it in the confectionery industry. Poppy oil emphasizes and perfectly preserves the taste of bread, vegetables, meat and fish, and since it does not go bitter for a long time, it was previously used as a preservative.

Poppy seed oil is rich in vitamin E, which does everything: it slows down the aging of cells and improves their nutrition, prevents the formation of blood clots and promotes their resorption, strengthens the walls of blood vessels and promotes the supply of oxygen to the blood. In addition, it contains an extremely small amount of alkaloids - morphine, papaverine, codeine. Alkaloids get into the oil along with the remains of boxes, stems and leaves. The mass of grains intended for pressing is difficult to completely clean from plant debris.

Thanks to this composition, poppy oil serves as a good prophylactic and tonic for spasms of blood vessels, relieves chronic fatigue syndrome, has a calming, hypnotic and analgesic effect, therefore it is indispensable for people suffering from insomnia, irritability or subject to severe physical and emotional stress. It is taken one teaspoon in the afternoon. The tool is absolutely safe.

In addition, poppy oil improves the condition of the skin, hair and nails, so it is added to shampoos, balms and hair conditioners, skin care products, lip balm and soap.

How to cook poppy seed filling? Not so tasty are dry poppy seeds stuck in the teeth. Poppy intended for the filling must first be softened. To do this, it is thoroughly steamed or even boiled for several minutes, sometimes with milk and honey. For greater softness, poppy seeds prepared in this way can be ground in a mortar or passed through a meat grinder several times. The resulting poppy gruel is refined with honey, butter, milk, sugar, sometimes nuts or a raw egg.

Recipe for poppy seed filling from William Pokhlebkin. Pour a glass of poppy seeds into boiling water, let it boil for five minutes, put it on a sieve to make the water glass. Then grind the poppy in a mortar or pass through a meat grinder three times. Add 150 g of honey, 2 tablespoons of water and 100 g of crushed nuts to the mashed poppy.

Are there any benefits from poppy petals? Of course I have. Do you remember, the Italians add them to the soup. But poppy petals are an excellent medicine, and not only sleepy poppy, but also the usual self-seed poppy in the fields will fit here. The petals contain fiber, proteins, gum, anthocyanins, microelements, readic acid and the alkaloid readin, almost insoluble in water, which has a weak stimulating effect.

Poppy petals are harvested exclusively in dry weather and quickly dried in the shade and in a draft. An infusion is made from them, which is taken with a strong cough and pain in the chest and gargled with it. Syrup is also boiled from poppy petals, it is drunk for coughing, but is more often used in confectionery as a coloring matter.

Author: Ruchkina N.

Poppy. Legends, the birthplace of the plant, the history of distribution

Beautiful poppy field. Large flowers, towering on long stems, resemble frozen bright butterflies.

When the petals fall, a round box will appear in their place. It is full of small grains - seeds. The box has holes at the top. The wind will blow - it will pump the poppy stalk left and right. And from the holes of the box, like from a pepper shaker, seeds will fall. So poppy without outside help produces sowing-self-sowing.

You are well acquainted with poppy seeds - you constantly meet them when you eat a bagel or a poppy seed roll baked by your grandmother.

This plant has other "professions". Before eating, you wash your hands with toilet soap, which is probably made from poppyseed oil - at any rate, the highest grades of toilet soap are made with this oil.

You went on an excursion to a museum or an art gallery, but, of course, you didn’t guess that the paints with which the artists painted pictures were prepared with poppy oil. It gives the paints the desired viscosity, and after the picture is painted, it dries without leaving a trace. This is especially important for white paint - whitewash. But, perhaps, poppy is most needed by doctors. They have a long friendship with this plant.

The ancient Greeks told a legend about the god of dreams, Morpheus. Around his dwelling grew poppies, in the flowers of which rested pleasant light dreams.

When night fell, Morpheus plucked one of the flowers and flew around the earth, lulling people who were tired during the day to sleep. It is not by chance that the legend mentions the poppy, and not another plant. Later, scientists confirmed: the poppy really has the ability to lull. And when people learned to make medicine from unripe poppy pods, it was named after the god of dreams - morphine.

Morphine not only helps people suffering from insomnia, it also relieves pain, improves heart function.

Mainly for "medical abilities" poppies are grown in the fields.

Author: Osipov N.F.

Poppies on the rooftops. Featured article

Poppies seem to be made for the North. The gloomy black and white Arctic is instantly transformed when the yellow corollas of poppies bloom. Ice Spitsbergen. 80 degrees latitude. Even the pole is within easy reach. And the poppies are blooming! Farther away is Franz Josef Land. 82nd degree. Last glimpses of life. And the poppies are blooming! Huge frozen Greenland. And here are scatterings of yellow corollas of different shades.

Mac is not rare. Our usual, golostebelny. Abroad, it is called Icelandic. In Iceland, he is also a local resident.

With the same success it could be called the Arctic Ocean or Sayan. Because it also grows in the Sayans: on the tops of the mountains near the rocks and below, in the warm valleys near Krasnoyarsk, where their steep slopes are strewn with a blue stone - a serpentine.

What different places - the Arctic, wastelands of mountain peaks, bald patches of warm valleys. Different and at the same time similar. What they have in common is an open circle of plants. Mac does not tolerate the slightest embarrassment. It does not require oily soil. He should have fewer neighbors.

The arrival of a man turned out to be very useful for the poppy. Arable lands, vegetable gardens, wheat fields were flooded with a scarlet self-seed. And he so seduced the ancient farmers with his appearance that they did not drive him out of the crops (as modern grain growers do). On the contrary, they considered it essential for the flourishing of the cereals. And even sacrificed its seeds during religious ceremonies.

From the deserts, our handsome men migrated to the cities. And although asphalt and concrete have driven them out of the noisy streets, they still hold on to quiet streets and especially richly inhabit the clay roofs of houses and sheds, as well as clay fences.

How the poppy gets on the roofs is still a mystery. Maybe birds or ants are involved in this?

How is it in the wild? Fading, poppy gives a lot of small seeds. They lie in a round dry box, similar to a pepper shaker.

And like a pepper pot, in the box there are a lot of holes all around. It is worth shaking the stem, as blue poppy seeds will fall through the holes with a rustle (the cultural poppy has no holes). The duty of shaking the dry stems rests with the quadrupeds. An animal runs past, touches a straw. She will bend, spring and throw the seeds out of the box like a catapult. According to the laws of ballistics.

If the stem is high, they fly a meter and a half or two. On the tops of the mountains, where there are always a lot of mice, poppies use their services. Rodents climb the stems, cut off ripe boxes. Then they gnaw holes in the ground. Select seeds. In Kyrgyzstan, mice were caught red-handed. Their stomachs were filled to overflowing with bluish seeds. The rodents carry the box to the warehouse, along the way some of the grains are shaken out. New specimens grow along mouse paths.

When poppy fields ripen in Kyrgyzstan, all kinds of animals come running: red-cheeked ground squirrels, jerboas, forest dormouse, hamsters and mole voles. Everyone loves Mac. True, they do not do much damage. One out of a hundred plants is eaten. But with their help, the resettlement of the plant goes quickly and smoothly.

There is little information about the connections of the poppy with birds. The only thing known is that in the tundra these beauties owe their existence to wild geese and white partridges. Huge placers of bird droppings - nitrogen fertilizers - remain at the places of nesting and gatherings. In the cold North, the poppy chooses precisely these manured places. He cannot live in the North without birds.

The indescribable beauty of the poppy has placed it in an advantageous position in rural gardens. Before the war, we lived in the summer in the village of Bazaikhe near Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei. Bazais kept their gardens in perfect cleanliness. Only one weed, poppy, was not expelled from them. Red, purple, white poppies shone among the carrots and onions, adorned even rows of potatoes and beets. Even during the war years, the Bazais sacrificed an extra carrot or cucumber, but gave way to their multi-colored wards.

Of course, not only the Bazaans worshiped the poppies. By 1800 BC, this glorious family was recognized as decorative excellence. Along with rose and lotus.

And yet, despite the solid experience, the most beautiful poppies hid from man for many millennia. Only at the beginning of the 1701th century was the most beautiful poppy in the genus, the oriental poppy, discovered in Armenia. The chronicle of those events is as follows. In XNUMX, by order of the king, the professor of the Paris Botanical Garden I. Tournefort went on a long journey to Erzerum in search of new plants.

Arriving with two companions at their destination, the scientist immediately set off to collect the herbarium. Before the botanists had time to look around, a detachment of Kurds with spears at the ready surrounded the travelers.

Trembling with fear, Tournefort told the soldiers about the goals of his work. The Kurds were surprised, but fed the travelers with cheese and invited them to visit their tents. The professor became even more frightened, suspecting a trap. However, there was no way out. How he later thanked fate for this invitation! The Kurds not only treated the Parisians, but gave them a poppy that Europe did not know - the oriental poppy. Its stem reached a meter in height, and its flowers were the size of a dessert plate. Their petals glowed with a shade of dark pink, like slices of overripe watermelon.

The find was immediately transported to Tiflis, and from there to Paris. From Paris to London. From London to The Hague. All of Europe was in awe. What an unusual color! What sizes! Plus, it's incredibly easy to grow. And longevity...

Alas, when the first enthusiasm subsided, gardeners began to remember the Erzurum novelty less often. And then they completely forgot about it. Even poets, observant and enthusiastic people, passed by. They continued to chant in every way all the other poppies.

Glorified sleeping pills. They even wrote about the self-seed that filled the wheat fields. Nobody was going to write about oriental poppy.

This went on for two hundred years. The 1902th century has arrived. And then the gardener M. Perry decided to return the tournefort find from oblivion. In XNUMX, he developed the Mistress Marsh variety. It was an exact copy of the plant that the Kurds gave to Tournefort. All that was missing was a large black spot at the base of the petals. It turned out that it was precisely because of this black spot that the ill-fated appearance lay under a bushel for two centuries. What prevented the stain from gardeners? What didn't you like?

They still can't understand. There are also inexplicable situations. In any case, the same spots in tree peonies are considered the height of grace and a sign of superior dignity.

In 1906, Perry developed a new cultivar of pale pink color. For six years he sent seeds to all parts of the world.

Then new varieties emerged. However, times change and so do fashion. In our time, cultivated poppies are again forgotten. They were eclipsed by aristocratic gladioli, stylized tulips, shaggy, tousled asters. You will not see poppies in the flower rows. The fault this time was not the ill-fated black spot, but the one and only weakness of the poppy. He won't last even a day. Carnations and gladioli stand for weeks. This sealed the fate of the incomparable creature.

And there was a free poppy in nature. The forgotten creature could be of great benefit to people if they did not turn away from him with contempt.

Gardeners who did not expel poppies from their possessions were generously rewarded for this. It was they who managed to read the pages from the life of the poppy tribe.

Here are some facts. It is known that the biggest grief for the gardener is pests. Especially insects. A very nasty bear. This monster often harms gardens and orchards. No matter what the gardener from Primorsko-Akhtarsk A. Shinf did to protect the stems of tomatoes and gladiolus bulbs, no matter what she sprayed cucumbers and tulips, nothing helped. Rescued the case. Suddenly poppies popped up among the vegetables and flowers.

It grew and bloomed different - terry and simple. The hostess took pity, did not weed and did not throw out the stranger. And soon she noticed that the pressure of the bear began to weaken, and soon she disappeared from the territory completely. But it still raged on the neighboring ridges, where there were no poppies.

I anticipate objections. Are there many cases? Maybe some other circumstance was at work in the poppy garden and the poppy intervened along the way? Agree. It could be so. Moreover, A. Shinf herself offers to check her observations in other places. Checked. And more than once.

At the gardener A. Meshcheryakov, valuable lilies suddenly began to wither. Their bulbs were undermined by the larvae of either the May beetle or wireworms. There was no poppy at hand. Meshcheryakov replaced him with his closest relative, the celandine. Chopped finely, like cabbage, four bushes. Filled with a bucket of water.

The liquid turned brown, like tincture of iodine. Watered the lilies. The success exceeded all expectations. Nobody ever touched the lily again. Since then, I always watered as soon as insects appeared on the site. The celandine drove them out cleanly. There were not even wormy apples in the garden! Celandine bushes grew everywhere, and harvesting them was a matter of minutes.

Observing the truth, I will clarify: does not our celandine act just as detrimental to useful small fry? On ants - the defenders of the forest and garden?

The answer is quite definite: no, it does not work. On the contrary, very often anthills are surrounded by a solid fence of celandine. As if they are seating him there, like a fortress wall. No, they don’t plant them on purpose, of course, but they are the ones to blame for this weed growing around.

Ants are very fond of celandine seeds for their fleshy, tasty appendages. They eat them, and the seeds themselves are thrown. So a living fence grows around the anthill.

Now I am very annoyed that earlier, when there was a garden, I did not hear about such outstanding qualities of the poppy family. there were many battles with pests, and we did not always win them. And sometimes I remembered my Bazai acquaintances and thought: why didn’t they have any evil spirits in their garden?

Why did they never have to protect onions, carrots, or other vegetables? Now it seems to me that their garden was protected by poppies, which they did not weed out even in the difficult years of the war. Perhaps, among the ancient farmers, poppies saved grain fields? In vain, or what, they left them in the crops? And even in rituals used.

Of the hundred species of poppy, half grows in Eurasia. The rarest blue poppies grow in the Himalayas. They are sometimes isolated in a special genus mekonopsis. The most beautiful of the blue poppies lives in Sikkim - the big poppy, mekonopsis grandis. The radiance of its satin, iridescent blue flowers is a completely exceptional phenomenon in the surrounding rough plant world.

He is also famous for the fact that he stands in a vase not for half a day, like other poppies, but ... for three weeks. And the blue meconopsis would have spread all over the world for a long time, if not for two very important circumstances. First, it produces few seeds. Secondly, blueness is very unstable. It was taken out of the Himalayas more than once. planted in botanical gardens. And he turned from blue to yellow, like a lemon.

In another garden - white. And in the third - gray-brown-crimson. And only very rarely, if you're lucky, the owner of meconopsis will receive a blue flower in the garden, as in the Himalayas. They think that the matter is in the soil, in the sun and moisture. They are not the same in the Himalayas as in the gardens. There, the height is 5000 meters, a little higher or a little lower.

Author: Smirnov A.

Poppy. Interesting plant facts

One of the first medicinal plants to be cultivated in the fields is the opium poppy. Bright red poppy flowers and a capsule fruit filled with small tasty seeds are well known to everyone. Tasty pies and buns with crushed poppy seeds. Poppy grows in gardens, fields and gardens. The poppy is often spread by self-seeding. The common poppy is cultivated for human consumption and for the production of poppy oil. Quick-drying poppy oil is used in oil paints for artists.

It is not the ordinary poppy that has medicinal value, but the opium poppy cultivated in India, China, Iran and Kyrgyzstan.

From the cuts made on the still green poppy pods, milky juice flows out, which hardens in the air. It's opium. The next day, after scraping off the cuts, opium is combined into cakes or balls, which are handed over to the drug factory.

Opium is of great use. This is the best remedy for intestinal diseases. Papaverine, used for heart disease, caffeine and morphine, is obtained from it. Morphine is injected under the skin to relieve pain. Opium is also a sleeping pill. Sleep is essential for every person. During sleep, a person restores his strength; the fatigue of the body and brain disappears.

The great Russian scientist, Academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, treated the nervously ill with sleep. After a long, for several days, sleep, the patients recovered. People suffering from insomnia experience headaches, fatigue, irritability. They need good sleep. This dream comes to the patient from a medicine - opium, obtained from the poppy.

Poppy has a botanical name - papaver somniferum (Papaver somniferum), which comes from the words "rara" - "baby porridge", "verum" - "real", "somniferum" - "sleeping pills". Thus, poppy is a real sleeping pill for children. This name is reminiscent of how, in the old days, the poor gave poppy seed porridge to small children so that they could sleep better and not interfere with work.

Author: Verzilin N.

Poppy. Useful information

Beautiful poppy field. Large flowers, towering on long stems, resemble frozen bright butterflies.

When the petals fall, a round box will appear in their place. It is full of small grains - seeds. The box has holes at the top. The wind will blow - it will pump the poppy stalk left and right. And from the holes of the box, like from a pepper shaker, seeds will fall. So poppy without outside help produces sowing-self-sowing.

You are well acquainted with poppy seeds - you constantly meet them when you eat a bagel or a poppy seed roll baked by your grandmother.

This plant has other "professions". Before eating, you wash your hands with toilet soap, which is probably made from poppyseed oil - at any rate, the highest grades of toilet soap are made with this oil.

You went on a tour of a museum or an art gallery, but.

Of course, I did not guess that the paints with which the artists painted pictures were prepared with poppy oil. It gives the paints the desired viscosity, and after the picture is painted, it dries without leaving a trace. This is especially important for white paint - whitewash.

But, perhaps, poppy is most needed by doctors. They have a long friendship with this plant.

The ancient Greeks told a legend about the god of dreams, Morpheus. Around his dwelling grew poppies, in the flowers of which rested pleasant light dreams.

When night fell, Morpheus plucked one of the flowers and flew around the earth, lulling people who were tired during the day to sleep.

It is not by chance that the legend mentions the poppy, and not another plant. Later, scientists confirmed: the poppy really has the ability to lull. And when people learned to make medicine from unripe poppy pods, it was named after the god of dreams - morphine.

Morphine not only helps people suffering from insomnia, it also relieves pain, improves heart function.

Mainly for "medical abilities" poppies are grown in the fields.

Author: Osipov N.

Poppy. reference Information

Widely known wild and cultivated plants with beautiful large bright flowers. If the stem, leaves or capsule is damaged, white milky juice appears. The Latin name comes from the word "papa" - "bread", more precisely - "baby porridge" and "verum" - "real". Previously, milky poppy juice was mixed with infants in food so that they slept better and did not interfere with work. This juice in moderate doses is not poisonous, has a bitter taste and an unpleasant odor. Wild poppy species grow throughout Eastern Europe, found in fields, crops, wastelands, along roads, fallows, steppe areas, and on mountain slopes. In Ukraine, the self-seed poppy is the most famous, and the dubious poppy comes across just as often. Sleeping pill poppy is cultivated almost everywhere.

Poppy seeds were used as food by primitive people. Archaeologists find poppies during excavations of Neolithic settlements in Switzerland, near Savoy and Milan in Italy. Cultivated poppies have been grown as long as agriculture has existed. He was known in Babylon and Syria, Ancient Greece and Rome, Egypt. Arab merchants exported poppy seeds to India and China in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries. Currently, poppy is cultivated in all countries of the world. Most poppy is sown in Central Europe, France, Holland, Belgium.

Initially, poppy was used as a remedy. Now it serves as a rather expensive food product. Dry mature seeds contain 42-59% oil, 18-20% nitrogenous substances, 16-20% sugars, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, vitamin B, provitamin D and vitamin E, butyric, stearic, isolinoleic and other fatty acids. In one poppy head, several thousand seeds are formed, and on one plant - 50-70 thousand seeds.

Poppy seed oil is obtained by hot pressing. It has a light yellow color, a pleasant smell and taste, and is well absorbed by the body. Poppy seed oil is considered one of the best vegetable edible oils.

Poppy seeds are indispensable for the preparation of various confectionery products, cookies and pastry. In cooking, poppy replaces nuts. At home, grandmothers, puddings, and pie fillings are prepared from poppy seeds. Before use, poppy seeds are washed several times in warm water, soaked for 3-4 hours and passed through a meat grinder several times. The resulting puree is used for filling pies, cooking various dishes, roasting, etc.

As a medicinal plant, poppy is bred to obtain opium, on the basis of which 60% of all sleeping pills are made. Morphine, codeine, papaverine, narcotine are prepared from opium. All opium alkaloids are poisonous. Thebaine is considered the most poisonous, which in its action is similar to strychnine.

In southern countries, special varieties of hypnotic poppy are bred for the mass production of opium. Opium smoking is widespread in eastern Asia. During smoking, intoxication sets in very quickly, accompanied by fantastic visions, hallucinations, body cramps, and involuntary salivation. Opium smoking destroys the body, causes mental disorders and, as a rule, ends in premature death.

Opium production, according to the UN, is approximately 6000 tons. The main exporters are Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, China, which produce heroin and similar drugs. The annual need for opium for medical purposes for all mankind is estimated at 600 tons.

Author: Reva M.L.

Poppy, Papaver rhoeas. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology

Ethnoscience:

• Tea from poppy seeds: Pour 1 tablespoon of dried poppy flowers with 1 cup of boiling water, leave for 10-15 minutes, strain and drink 1 cup a day. Seed poppy tea relieves nervous tension and improves mood.
• Poppy Syrup: mix 100 g of sugar and 1 glass of water, bring to a boil, add 2 tablespoons of dried poppy flowers, simmer for 10-15 minutes. Strain the syrup and take 1 tablespoon 2-3 times a day to treat coughs and bronchitis.
• Ointment from poppy seeds: crush fresh poppy flowers, mix with vegetable oil and apply to sore spots to relieve pain.

Cosmetology:

• Poppy seed is not widely used in cosmetology due to the fact that its extracts can be toxic to the skin and can cause irritation. However, some cosmetic manufacturers may use cumin extract in their products to give them a natural color or fragrance.

Attention! Before use, consult with a specialist!

Poppy, Papaver rhoeas. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing

The poppy seed (Papaver rhoeas) is a plant known for its beautiful red flowers and its use as a seed source for making poppy seed filling.

Tips for growing, harvesting and storing poppy seeds:

Cultivation:

• The self-seeding poppy is an annual plant that is best sown outdoors in the spring.
• The plant prefers sunny positions and well-drained soils.
• It is necessary to water the plant regularly during the period of dryness.

Workpiece:

• Seeds of the self-seeded poppy are harvested during the maturation of the boxes.
• Dry seed pods are collected in bags or containers and stored in a cool, dry and dark place until use.

Storage:

• Seeds of self-sowing poppy can be stored in bags or containers, protected from light and moisture.
• Before using the seeds, it is recommended to check for germination to ensure that they are not rotten.

The self-seeded poppy is a beautiful plant that can be grown in your garden or yard. The seeds of this plant are used to make poppy seeds and other dishes.

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