PlantFiles: Sea Poppy, Horned Poppy, Yellow Horned Poppy
Glaucium flavum

The right place for this plant: for me a very well drained, north facing slope, yields a great display. The substantial but brittle leaves are bright gray/white with a great rippled edges. The flowers are a poppy-like texture, clear orange in color. Very difficult to transplant, easily reseeds. Great addition. Looks striking with black mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus) - texture and color!

Grown primarily for its foliage, yellow horned poppy is native to the British Isles, the Mediterranean and North Africa. It can be found growing wild near the sea and on shingle beaches above the high tide mark from the Mediterranean to southern Scandinavia. It has been grown in America as early as the 17th century. Thomas Jefferson planted it at Monticello in 1807. It grows 2-3 feet tall with deeply lobed gray-green leaves and 2”-wide gold-yellow flowers. It gets its name from its long and narrow hornlike seed pods, which are popular for use in dried flower arrangements. Roots are poisonous and the plant has yellow sap. The plant contains glaucine, which lowers blood pressure and relieves coughs. The seeds yield an oil which has been used in lanterns. Glaucum flavum performs best in well-drained soil and grows well in the Northeast, on the West Coast, and wherever there is low rainfall. In some areas, it is a short-lived perennial and instead is treated as a biennial. Like many in the poppy family, Glaucium flavum does not transplant well; sow seeds directly in flower beds after all danger of frost is past or transplant seedlings when still very small. The genus name comes from the Greek word glaukos, which means gray-green.

Also called the Yellow Horned Poppy, and a native of the UK, this is a striking plant of coastal dunes and shingle banks, with large yellow flowers held above blue-green foliage. Its curved, horn-like fruits, unlike those of the cornfield poppies, split open lengthways leaving the seeds embedded in a middle wall.