Celebrating the California State Flower on Poppy Day

"In 1817, when the Rurik ended up in the San Francisco Bay area, the ship's botanist Adelbert von Chamisso ("Sha-ME-So") discovered the California poppy, which he named Eschscholzia californica after his friend Johanns Friedrich Von Eschscholz."

Every year since 2010, April 6th is California Poppy Day, celebrating the California State Flower.

Poppy Day is celebrated in California schools, where activities showcase the flowers and other native plants.

In 1903, the botanist Sara Allen Plummer Lemmon created legislation that nominated the golden poppy (Eschscholzia californica) as the state flower of California.

The poppy's botanical name honors Johann Friedrich Von Eschscholz, who served as a doctor and surgeon onboard the Rurik World Expedition in 1815.

In 1817, when the Rurik ended up in the San Francisco Bay area, the ship's botanist Adelbert von Chamisso ("Sha-ME-So") discovered the California poppy, which he named Eschscholzia californica after his friend Johanns Friedrich Von Eschscholz.

Finally, in an article in the San Francisco Call on May 15, 1898, called The Prettiest Wild Flowers, Ettie C. Alexander shared her magnificent experiences collecting wildflowers around San Francisco before the turn of the century.

The article said that Ettie's wildflower collection was the best in California.

Ettie had teamed up with a neighbor who was a chemist, and together, they had worked to refine a process – a preservative – that would help her fresh-picked wildflowers retain their fresh-picked, original color.

Ettie's process worked remarkably well. Yet, she could never find a method to preserve the brilliant orange color of the poppy.


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Eschscholzia californica
Eschscholzia californica
A field of California Poppy in bloom
A field of California Poppy in bloom

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