What to Know About Opium Poppy Plants

Quick Facts

• Scientific name: Papaver somniferum, Latin for “sleep-bringing”
• Appearance: Cup-shaped flowers with five papery petals, up to four inches across, in red, pink, purple, white, or bi-color. Green seed capsules grow to the size of a golf ball and turn brown as they dry.
• Legal status: Growing it is against federal law. The DEA classes the plant, except the seeds, as opium, a Schedule II substance.

As the American opioid crisis continues to grab headlines and impact a large subset of the population, people are becoming more interested in the origins of opioids. Although many of the most popular painkillers like hydrocodone and oxycodone are partially human-made, they also derive partly from opium. 

Opium has a long and complicated history, and it all traces back to one flowering plant. Here, we cover what the opium poppy is, how to spot it, where the law stands, and why it matters for people in recovery.

Is It Legal to Grow Opium Poppies?

No. Growing Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, is illegal in the U.S. The DEA classifies the entire plant, except the seeds, as opium and lists it as a Schedule II substance.

You may have seen poppies growing in someone’s yard and wondered if they were legal. Plenty of poppy varieties are safe to plant in a garden. The seeds of this one can be bought legally, but growing the plants is where the law draws the line. Other varieties of poppy, like Prickly Poppy and California Poppy, don’t fall under this definition.

Few people try to grow opium poppies illegally. The plants are tall and easy to spot, the work is labor-intensive, and the payoff rarely justifies the risk. Still, a handful of cases have made headlines.

What Is an Opium Poppy?

“Opium poppies” is the name given to the flowering plant species Papaver somniferum. The flower is native to Western Asia and Southeastern Europe. 

Countries such as India and Turkey grow opium poppies for legal medicine, while Myanmar is now the world’s main source of illicit opium. However, farmers also grow poppies for ornamental purposes, as well as their edible seeds: the same ones you get on a bagel or in your morning muffin.

Do All Poppy Plants Have Opium?

The difference between your average poppy plant and an opium poppy is their level of alkaloids. Alkaloids are naturally occurring compounds in plants that have an undeniable physiological effect on humans. The fewer alkaloids present, the less of a narcotic effect the plant provides.

People usually choose poppy varieties for their looks or for seed production. Some barely have any alkaloids, and others have the same alkaloid content as plants grown for opium.

A 2018 study found that two genes fused into one more than 7.8 million years ago. This “mega-gene” creates an enzyme that lets the plant make painkilling compounds. The gene codes the enzymes to work on a particular molecule in the poppy, which eventually changes into codeine or morphine. 

Without that gene, the precursor molecule would get converted into a compound called noscapine, and the poppy would contain no painkilling properties.

What Do Opium Poppy Plants Look Like?

If you’ve seen The Wizard of Oz, you can picture opium poppies. During their long, difficult journey, Dorothy and her companions get lulled to sleep while crossing a vast field of red poppies. These flowers can also come in shades of pink, purple, white, and bi-colors. 

Poppies have five papery petals, and some varietals called “doubles” have many more petals. The petals form the shape of a cup, with the flowers reaching up to four inches in diameter on large plants. 

A few days after blooming, petals of the opium poppy fall away, leaving their seed capsule behind. The green seed capsules grow up to the size of a golf ball, gradually turning brown over time. The capsules contain hundreds of seeds each, which the capsule releases through vents.

A History of Opium

It may come as a surprise that the opium poppy is an ordinary plant almost anyone can grow where it’s legal to do so. That ease is a big part of why people have cultivated and used it for thousands of years.

Let’s take a look at some of the critical points in the long history of opium.

• 3400 BCE: Sumerians grow the opium poppy and refer to it as “Hul Gil,” the “joy plant.”
• 1300 BCE: Egyptians begin cultivating opium poppies, and the first opium trade war takes root.
• 460 BCE: Hippocrates, commonly known as “the father of medicine,” pivots the view of opium from a plant with magical origins to one with medicinal properties.
• 400 CE: Egyptian opium poppies make their way to China.
• 1300s: Opium disappears from the European record for about 200 years.
• 1527: Paracelsus reintroduces opium to European medicine under the name laudanum.
• 1750: Britain’s East India Company begins to dominate the trade of opium between India and China.
• 1799: China’s emperor bans opium trade and cultivation of poppies completely.
• 1803: Friedrich Sertürner discovers opium’s active ingredient, thus inventing morphine.
• 1827: Merck starts manufacturing morphine commercially.
• 1841: Britain defeats China in the First Opium War, winning Hong Kong in the process.
• 1890: The United States Congress levies taxes on opium and morphine, and William Randolph Hearst begins a racially based propagandist campaign designed to link opium with “The Yellow Peril” of Chinese people.
• 1898: Bayer begins selling heroin, a modified form of morphine it believed avoided morphine’s common side effects.
• 1909: After heroin dependence rises sharply in the early 1900s, Congress bans the importation of opium.
• 1925: New York’s Chinatown becomes the scene of a flourishing opium black market.
• 1950s: In an attempt to contain Asian Communism, the U.S. and France team up with warlords and tribes located in opium-rich areas, which opens the floodgates for heroin to flow into the United States.
• 1973: President Richard Nixon creates the Drug Enforcement Administration.
• 1975: After the Vietnam War ends, opium producers look for new sources of raw materials and settle on Mexico’s Sierra Madre.
• 1978: The U.S. and Mexico team up to eliminate opium poppy fields with Agent Orange. In response, producers turn to the “Golden Crescent” of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, which supplied a large share of the world’s opium for decades.
• 1982: Actor and comedian John Belushi dies from a “speedball” overdose involving both heroin and cocaine, bringing heroin into the public consciousness.
• 1992: Colombia becomes known for introducing the United States to a new, high-grade type of heroin.
• 1995: The “Golden Triangle,” including Burma, Laos, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam, produces the most opium poppies at 2,500 tons each year.
• 2000s: The opioid crisis begins to pick up speed. Between 1991 and 2009, the number of prescriptions for opioids increased by 300%.

Opium poppies have undergone a drastic shift throughout their history, from a plant seen as healing and magical to an ingredient in some of the deadliest drugs in the world. 

Since the 2000s, American society has viewed opium solely through the lens of the drugs it produces: prescription painkillers and street drugs. The wars fought over this plant and its derivatives demonstrate the potent potential locked away in these average-looking flowers.

How the Poppy Plant Connects to Opioid Use Disorder

Opium, morphine, and heroin all come from the opium poppy, and all three act on the same opioid receptors in the brain. That is why they carry such a high risk of dependence and overdose.

Street drugs made from the poppy are never predictable. Heroin is often mixed with other substances, including fentanyl, so any use can be deadly, even for someone who has used before.

Opioid use disorder is a medical condition, not a personal failing. With medication-assisted treatment, methadone eases cravings and withdrawal so recovery can begin safely.

A Big Opium Poppy Bust

In 2017, one of the most notable opium busts of the last few decades happened in North Carolina. The grower, Cody Xiong, led investigators directly to his massive poppy crop entirely by accident.

According to The Washington Post, authorities arrived at Xiong’s door to conduct a “knock and talk” and didn’t even have a warrant to search the place. Investigators were there after receiving a tip about a completely unrelated matter, but Xiong opened the door and blurted, “I guess you are here for the opium.”

The stunned authorities later discovered about 2,000 pounds of poppies, an amount worth an estimated $500 million. Xiong had planted them in tidy rows and hidden them from view with a ring of trees on the property. 

Police charged Xiong with trafficking in opium and manufacturing a Schedule II drug. Prosecutors never took the case to a grand jury, though, and the charges were formally dismissed in January 2019.

He thought nobody would travel all the way down his dead-end road in the foothills, and he might have been right had he not immediately confessed to the crime of growing poppies.

FAQs

What Is the Scientific Name of the Opium Poppy?

The opium poppy is Papaver somniferum, which means “sleep-bringing” in Latin.

Is It Legal to Grow Opium Poppies?

No. In the U.S., the DEA classifies the entire plant, except the seeds, as opium, a Schedule II substance. Other poppies, like Prickly Poppy and California Poppy, are not covered.

Do All Poppy Plants Contain Opium?

No. A poppy’s narcotic effect depends on its alkaloid level. Many varieties grown for gardens or seeds have few alkaloids, while others match the levels of plants grown for opium.

What Does an Opium Poppy Look Like?

It has five papery petals that form a cup up to four inches across, in red, pink, purple, white, or bi-color. After the petals fall, a green seed capsule grows to about the size of a golf ball and turns brown.

Where Do Opium Poppies Grow?

The plant is native to Western Asia and Southeastern Europe. Legal medical crops are grown in countries such as India and Turkey, and Myanmar is now the main source of illicit opium.

How Are Opium Poppies Connected to Opioid Use Disorder?

Opium is the source of morphine and heroin, and drugs like hydrocodone and oxycodone also derive partly from it. Opioid use disorder is treatable, and methadone-based medication-assisted treatment can reduce cravings and withdrawal.

Learn More About Opium, Methadone, and Other Opioids

Opium and other drugs derived from the poppy plant are complex and worthy of investigation. Even if opioids haven’t touched your life or the life of someone you know, it helps to understand these powerful drugs.

To learn more about opioids, their origins, and their effects on everyday lives, visit the MedMark blog. We work hard to answer the questions you have about opioids and opioid use disorder.

If you or someone you know is living with opioid use disorder, we invite you to learn more about MedMark’s treatment programs. We are proud to provide individuals with the gold standard of medication-assisted treatment, using the proven power of methadone to reduce cravings and withdrawals so you or your loved one can begin recovery safely.

To learn more about our programs and what they offer, contact MedMark today. We look forward to helping you start your recovery on the right note.

Sources and Citations

• Nemo, L. (2018) How Did Opium Poppies Get Their Painkilling Properties? Live Science. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/63471-opium-poppy-painkiller-genome.html (Accessed October 15, 2026).
• FRONTLINE (1998) Opium Throughout History. In: The Opium Kings. PBS/WGBH. Available at: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/history.html (Accessed October 15, 2026).
• Lyapustina, T. and Alexander, G.C. (2015) The prescription opioid addiction and abuse epidemic: how it happened and what we can do about it. The Pharmaceutical Journal, 294(7866). Available at: https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/opinion/the-prescription-opioid-addiction-and-abuse-epidemic-how-it-happened-and-what-we-can-do-about-it (Accessed October 15, 2026).
• Wootson, C.R. Jr. (2017) ‘I guess you are here for the opium’: Investigator stumbles across $500 million in poppy plants. The Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/05/25/i-guess-you-are-here-for-the-opium-investigator-stumbles-across-500-million-in-poppy-plants/ (Accessed October 15, 2026).
• DEA (n.d.) Unwashed Poppy Seed. Available at: https://deaecom.gov/drug_chem_info/unwashed_poppy_seed.pdf (Accessed October 15, 2026).
• WCNC (2019) Charges dropped in historic opium poppy bust. Available at: https://wcnc.com/article/news/charges-dropped-in-historic-opium-poppy-bust/275-21a727a6-d1f1-4af6-833c-0fe7a2203c8a (Accessed October 15, 2026).
• UNODC (2025) Myanmar Opium Survey 2025: Cultivation, Production and Implications. Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-opium-survey-2025-cultivation-production-and-implications (Accessed October 15, 2026).