In the colourful world of flowers, where blue does not occur frequently, the Blue Poppy is a rare ornamental. It gorgeously decorates alpine medows and the rock debris of moraine with flowers that come in lovely shades of blue and purple, often luminescent against snowy background, and always pleasing. They are slender-pedicelled, usually 4-petalled and measure 5 to 11 cm. across. The numerous golden-yellow stamens contrast well with the blue petals. Leaves are deeply and irregularly lobed, sparsely bristly haired; lobes usually rounded-toothed and widely spaced. The prickly herbaceous perennial, of the Poppy family, has narcotic poisonous roots. It is found from Kumaon to Kashmir at elevations of 3,000 to 4,500 meters. A postal stamp was issued by the Indian Postal Department, to commemorate this flower.
