How to tell poppy, corn poppy and tsaoko apart? Mistaking one for another may be illegal
In our country, the poppy is an illegal plant, but people often confuse the poppy with the corn poppy and tsaoko. So what exactly are the differences between the poppy and them? They all have emerald green leaves, colorful flowers, slender upright stems, and seed pods held high, but the juice extracted from the seed pods is completely different. The poppy's juice can be processed into opium, morphine and heroin. Therefore, the opium poppy has become an important source of drugs in the world, and this beautiful plant, the poppy, can be called the flower of evil.
1. Poppy
Poppy can refer generally to the nearly 180 species of plants in the genus Papaver, or, according to the Flora of China, specifically to the opium poppy.
The poppy is an annual herb. The stem is 30-80 cm tall, branched, with spreading bristles. The leaves are alternate, pinnately parted, the lobes lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, with bristles on both surfaces. The flower buds are ovoid, on long stalks, drooping before opening; the sepals are green and fall off after the flower opens; there are 4 petals, purple-red, and cultivated poppies have many flower forms and colors. The base often has dark purple spots, broadly obovate or nearly round, the anthers yellow; the pistil is obovoid, the stigma radiate. The flowering and fruiting period is March to November.
The poppy is the main raw material for making opium, and its extracts are also the source of various sedatives, such as morphine, thebaine, codeine, papaverine and narcotine.
The unripe fruit contains a milky white sap, which when dried becomes opium, and both it and the fruit shell contain various alkaloids such as morphine, codeine and papaverine. Processed into medicine, it has the effects of astringing the lungs, checking diarrhea, relieving cough, relieving pain and inducing sleep, and treats chronic cough, chronic diarrhea, chronic dysentery, rectal prolapse, and pains of the heart, abdomen, tendons and bones; the seeds can be pressed for oil for food.
2. Tsaoko
Tsaoko is a perennial herb of the ginger family, genus Amomum. The stems are clustered, up to 3 m tall, and the whole plant has a pungent aroma. The leaves are long-elliptic or oblong, acuminate at the apex, narrowed at the base, dry-membranous at the margin, smooth and hairless on both surfaces, the ligule entire, obtuse at the apex. The spike is unbranched, with up to 30 flowers per inflorescence; the peduncle is covered with dense scales, the scales oblong or long-elliptic, the bracts lanceolate, acuminate at the apex; the bracteoles are tubular, the calyx tube about as long as the bracteoles, with three obtuse teeth at the apex; the corolla is red, the lobes oblong, the lip elliptic. The capsules are densely clustered, red when ripe, the seeds angular, with a rich fragrance. It flowers from April to June and fruits from September to December.
It is distributed in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and other provinces and regions of China, cultivated or wild under open forests, at an altitude of 1100-1800 m.
Tsaoko is one of the major varieties of Chinese medicinal materials used both as medicine and food. Tsaoko is used as a flavoring spice; the whole plant can be used to extract aromatic oil. The fruit is used as medicine and has the functions of drying dampness and strengthening the spleen, and removing phlegm and checking malaria. It mainly treats abdominal distension and fullness, nausea and vomiting, food stagnation and malaria, and other conditions. Many Chinese patent medicines cannot do without it in their formulas, such as Tougu Soufeng Wan, Yishen Wan, Kaiyu Shugan Wan, Kuanxiong Lige Wan, Jiebai Wan, and so on.
3. Corn poppy
The corn poppy is an annual herb, the whole plant covered with spreading bristles, rarely hairless. The stem is erect, 25-90 cm tall, branched. The leaf outline is lanceolate or narrowly ovate, pinnately parted, the lobes lanceolate. The flowers are solitary at the top of the stem and branches, the buds oblong-obovoid, drooping; there are 2 sepals, broadly elliptic; there are 4 petals, round, transversely broadly elliptic or broadly obovate, 2.5-4.5 cm long, entire, rarely crenate or notched at the apex, purple-red, usually with dark purple spots at the base. The capsule is broadly obovoid, 1-2.2 cm long, hairless, with inconspicuous ribs. The seeds are numerous, kidney-shaped and oblong, about 1 mm long. The flowering and fruiting period is March to August. Native to Europe, it is commonly cultivated throughout China as an ornamental plant. The flowers and the whole plant are used as medicine, containing various alkaloids, and have the effects of relieving cough, checking diarrhea, relieving pain and calming; the seeds contain more than 40% oil.
4. Main differences
(1) Poppy and corn poppy:
Overall. The corn poppy has downy bristles all over its leaves and stems, while the poppy's leaves and stems rarely have bristles and are relatively smooth overall.
In terms of plant height. The whole corn poppy plant is about 30-100 cm tall, and the whole plant is relatively slender and weak. The poppy is about 30-150 cm tall, slightly taller than the corn poppy, and relatively sturdy overall.
In terms of petals. The corn poppy usually has 4 petals, and the colors vary, with red, purple and also white, and the edges of the flowers are relatively smooth and not split. The poppy has double-flowered forms, mainly red in color, and the edges of the flowers split.
In terms of leaves. The corn poppy's leaves are divided, and the whole leaf surface is narrow. The poppy's leaves are irregular, and the leaf edges are serrated and not divided.
In terms of stems. The corn poppy's stem is relatively thin, mainly green, with down around it, and the tip bends somewhat. The poppy's stem is slightly thicker than the corn poppy's, also pinkish-green, hairless and smooth.
In terms of fruit. The corn poppy's fruit is relatively small, about 1 cm long, and has down on it, and the fruit droops; the poppy's fruit is relatively long, about 4-7 cm, and the surface of the fruit is relatively smooth, and the fruit is upright.
(2) Poppy and tsaoko:
The top of the poppy shell has a radially arranged, disc-shaped residual stigma, and the base has a short stalk;
The top of the tsaoko has no obvious radially arranged, disc-shaped residual stigma, and the texture of the fruit shell also has conspicuous longitudinal grooves and ridged lines, and is not as smooth as the surface of the poppy shell.
5. Relevant laws
The laws of our country contain the following provisions
(1) Growing more than 500 poppy plants constitutes the crime of illegally cultivating narcotic plants, punished under Article 351 of the Criminal Law:
Article 351: Whoever illegally cultivates poppy, cannabis or other narcotic plants shall be forcibly eradicated without exception. Under any of the following circumstances, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention or control, and shall also be fined: cultivating 500 or more but fewer than 3000 poppy plants, or a relatively large number of other narcotic plants; cultivating again after being dealt with by the public security organ; resisting eradication.
Whoever illegally cultivates 3000 or more poppy plants or a large number of other narcotic plants shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years, and shall also be fined or have property confiscated.
Whoever illegally cultivates poppy or other narcotic plants and voluntarily eradicates them before harvest may be exempted from punishment. Cultivating fewer than 500 poppy plants is punished under Article 71 of the Law on Public Security Administration Punishments:
(2) Article 71: Whoever commits any of the following acts shall be detained for not less than ten days but not more than fifteen days, and may also be fined not more than 3000 yuan; if the circumstances are relatively minor, the offender shall be detained for not more than five days or fined not more than 500 yuan: illegally cultivating fewer than 500 poppy plants or a small amount of other narcotic plants; illegally buying, selling, transporting, carrying or possessing a small amount of seeds or seedlings of poppy or other narcotic plants that have not been killed; illegally transporting, buying, selling, storing or using a small amount of poppy shells.
Whoever commits the act in item 1 of the preceding paragraph and voluntarily eradicates the plants before they mature shall not be punished.
6. Related claims
The claim that poppy shells can enhance flavor does not hold up in theory. Because most poppy shells themselves are tasteless, experts say that the main purpose of restaurant operators using poppy shells in hot pot is to make people addicted.
The poppy shell is the fruit shell left after the poppy is dried. Although the “morphine” in the poppy shell is not high in content or purity, and the excitement is not as obvious as smoking opium, some people are naturally highly sensitive to dependence-forming drugs, and long-term consumption will inevitably lead to chronic poisoning and eventually addiction. The poppy shell is jujube-pit shaped in appearance, about the size of a pigeon egg, pointed at one end, with a 6-14-lobed crown-like structure at the other end. Its shell often bears multiple artificial knife cuts.
Eating a large amount of food containing poppy shells will make people feel more or less euphoric. Physiologically, some people may have slightly red faces, some may have a faster heartbeat, some may easily doze off, and some may find it hard to fall asleep.
Therefore, if you find a plant suspected to be a poppy in your life, be sure to identify it carefully. Once it is confirmed to be a poppy, please call the police immediately.
Note: The accompanying images are all poppies.