Wild Red Poppies In Bloom In Northern Israel!

At long last, after a thankfully very very wet winter, the beloved red poppies are in full bloom! Truthfully, they are about a month or so late, and not nearly as prolific as usual, but lovely nonetheless. After a long walk in the area and only spotting sparse areas of poppies here and there, I came across a hillside, just a minute from my house, full of vibrant red poppies in bloom! Wow, so beautiful, and so of course I just had to take lots of photos to share with you!

These red poppies, are natives to Northern Israel, though it turns out that there are several species of red flowers that look very similar, and I’ll admit, even I’ve been confused, as everyone calls all the red flowers one name, poppies in English, and calanit in Hebrew. These species do not bloom coincidentially but sequentially, beginning with the Anemones, and followed by the tulips, Asiatic ranunculi, and poppies, spanning the spring months with red showy flowers, the floral glories in fact, of Israel. These flowers have a similar appearance in shape and color and from a distance they may easily be confused. Now that I’ve done a tiny bit of research to clarify, it turns out that the flowers here are poppies, though in the past I have certainly photographed red flowers that are anemones, and who, I now know, have a much larger black center with a  white ring around that center. Phew, that poppy/anemone issue has really been bugging me! Okay, lets take a closer look at the red dotted hillside, come along now……..

A pile of rocks indicate that something was once happening on this hill, maybe terraces of sorts or an old stone home.

Corn poppies, (Papaver rhoeas, Papaver subpiriforme) are annuals inhabiting disturbed ground, and their seeds are in capsules, unlike the anemone and ranunculus, which are perennials and have their seeds in separate nutlets. Ah hah! So while these red flowers are protected species and we are not to pick them, picking the poppies is the most harmful as then they can’t spread their seed. In any case, they don’t last at all once picked, (I can attest to that seeing kids emerging from the nature area nearby with very sad looking picked poppies) so don’t even consider it!
Generally, the purple thorns, seen at the top of the photo come at least a month of so after the poppies, but this year the fields are bit confused, so we have purple and red together.

Such a delicate flower, want to paint one?Lovely.
Of maybe you’d like to paint this one?

Hope you’ve enjoyed out little outing, lots more nature photos to come, as I’ve started taking daily walks, not generally with my camera, but I can always return to capture the special spots.