Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CLV · Topic 24: Summer and fall garden flowers
155. The poppy
Goal: Your child watches a poppy shed its sepals, studies its pollen-loving bee visitors, and finds how the seed-box works like a pepper-shaker.
You'll need
- Nature notebook, pencil and colored pencils
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- Poppies in a garden, with buds, flowers and seed-pods
What's in the book
A Teacher's Story about garden poppies, with a drawing and a sketch of the seed “shaker,” and the lesson: Leading thought, Method and eleven questions.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Garden poppies (corn, Shirley, Iceland and Oriental poppies) bloom in late spring and summer. Comstock says to study them in the garden if you can. Bees will be busy on these flowers: watch quietly from a little distance and don't swat.
The leading thought
The poppies shed their sepals when the flowers expand; they offer quantities of pollen to the bees, which are very fond of it. The seed-capsule develops holes around the top, through which the seeds are shaken, a few at a time.
Bud and stem
Look at the bud of the poppy; how is it covered? How many sepals? Can you see where they unite? Is the stem bent because the bud is heavy? What happens to this crook in the stem when the flower opens?
Describe how the poppy sheds its sepals. At what time of day do the poppies usually open?
Bees in the pollen
Watch the bees working on the poppies, and note if they are after nectar or pollen.
Comstock describes one bee:
I have often seen a honey-bee seize a bunch of the anthers and rub them against the under side of her body, meanwhile standing on her head in an attitude of delirious joy.
The seed shaker
Note the development of the holes beneath the edge of the disk of the poppy capsule. How are they made? What are they for? How are the seeds shaken from these holes?
Look at a seed through a lens, and describe its form and decoration.
Shake a dry pod over white paper.
A word about poppy juice
Comstock asks children to taste the juice and talks about opium, a harmful drug made from one kind of poppy. We skip the tasting: Never taste any part of a wild plant, berry or seed. For young children it's enough to say that some plants hold strong drugs that can make people very sick.
Nature notebook
Sketch, as Comstock suggests, the poppy opened and in bud, then a petal, a stamen and the pistil in separate small drawings.
Afterwards
Save a few dry pods and sow the seeds next spring (corn or Shirley poppies grow easily from seed).