Welsh Poppies

The birds, I assume, brought Welsh poppies into our yard. A couple of years ago, they began to appear in a zinc washtub that had up until that time been devoted to parsley and chives. By now, they have, through reseeding, eliminated the parsley and chives. And, in unknown ways, they have moved about twenty feet away, where they have set up housekeeping in an abandoned charcoal grill that was filled with dirt. Although the foliage does not look like a California poppy, the flower itself reminds me of one except that it is canary yellow instead of orange or reddish orange. It blooms and blooms throughout June and July and August, and each flower ends its days by putting up a spectacular seed pod.

In normal vision, it is somewhat less spectacular, but in this enlarged close-up, you can see how it works and how it packs hundreds and hundreds of tiny black seeds in the pod. (Click on the photo to see an even larger version.) This flower is a gift in many ways, and the pod is a wonder of design.