Field poppies (Papaver rhoeas), a weed of cultivation that has followed man's efforts to cultivate the land since the dawn over the millennia.

The mean number of seeds per capsule is 1,360. The average seed number per plant ranges from 10,000 to 60,000. An isolated plant may have more than 500,000 seeds.

In freshly shed seeds the embryos are underdeveloped and physiologically dormant. They require a period of burial in soil for several months to lose dormancy. Seed scarification does not improve germination but light promotes it so that dormant seeds often produce plants when the soil is turned over and so displays are seen on waste ground and fields left fallow after ploughing.

Sibillini, Umbria, June 2019