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Around my home there are a lot of normal wild poppies (papaver rhoeas) and opium poppies (papaver somniferum).

I have a few rhoeas in my garden but I'm a bit concerned about crossbreeding. Could that really happen? I don't want to end with opium in my backyard.

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Note: an hybrid will not be "opium".

I cannot find such hybrid easily, so if it exists (and probably it exists), it is not a "good" hybrid: I would bet it will not produce seeds (as many hybrids), and possibly also no flowers.

But you may get opium poppies from seeds (flowers are different so you may remove them). I would not worry too much: just do not eat the seeds. If you have opium poppies nearby, nobody should be alarmed if some individuals will growth outside the "designed" fields.

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  • Thank you. when I said "opium in my backyard" I didn't mean the poppy variety but the substance itself :)
    – raven
    Jun 1 at 15:16
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I have only found papers referring to crosses with P orientale, P pseudo-orientale, and P bracteatum.

Haven’t found any crosses with P rheoa.

Search for “Papaver somniferum x”

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