Russian Lady faces jail for growing flowers
This news item UPI dateline Moscow caught my eyes :: IRINA faces jail for growing flowers.
After a tip off the authorities raided the country home of 50 year old biologist, Irina Baturina, and confiscated more than 500 poppy plants growing in her garden. The authorities claimed that she was cultivating a large amount of illegal plants and that she will face charges.
Irina said she had no idea she was growing anything illegal, and the poppies had grown simply because she fell ill and was not able to take care of the garden. She also said that the seeds from the plants were used in making pies.
Her lawyer said the plants growing on her property are oil poppies, not opium poppies, and therefore are not illegal.
This got me interested in finding more about the poppy plants, all i can recall about poppy flowers is the paper variety which were to be found on Poppy Day aka Remembrance Day, which looks something like this picture on the right, but not as nice or good looking. On Poppy Day, by making a small contribution, one gets one of those imitation poppy flower to wear on one's dress or shirt for many a day. The poppy's association with wartime remembrance, especially in English speaking countries, dates back to World War 1. As poppies bloomed in much of the western front in that World War, poppies are a symbol of military veterans, especially of that war. We now call the day, Hari Pahlawan, if i am not wrong.
Poppies come in many varities and the one that is illegal to plant or grow is the papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. A picture of the seed containing pod is shown on the left. To know more about the poppy go here and here. Poppy seeds are widely used in baking and you can click here for 395 Poppy Seed Chicken recipes.
So it looks like Irina won't have to go to jail if the poppy plants in her garden were not papaver somniferum.
After a tip off the authorities raided the country home of 50 year old biologist, Irina Baturina, and confiscated more than 500 poppy plants growing in her garden. The authorities claimed that she was cultivating a large amount of illegal plants and that she will face charges.
Irina said she had no idea she was growing anything illegal, and the poppies had grown simply because she fell ill and was not able to take care of the garden. She also said that the seeds from the plants were used in making pies.
Her lawyer said the plants growing on her property are oil poppies, not opium poppies, and therefore are not illegal.
This got me interested in finding more about the poppy plants, all i can recall about poppy flowers is the paper variety which were to be found on Poppy Day aka Remembrance Day, which looks something like this picture on the right, but not as nice or good looking. On Poppy Day, by making a small contribution, one gets one of those imitation poppy flower to wear on one's dress or shirt for many a day. The poppy's association with wartime remembrance, especially in English speaking countries, dates back to World War 1. As poppies bloomed in much of the western front in that World War, poppies are a symbol of military veterans, especially of that war. We now call the day, Hari Pahlawan, if i am not wrong.Poppies come in many varities and the one that is illegal to plant or grow is the papaver somniferum, the opium poppy. A picture of the seed containing pod is shown on the left. To know more about the poppy go here and here. Poppy seeds are widely used in baking and you can click here for 395 Poppy Seed Chicken recipes.So it looks like Irina won't have to go to jail if the poppy plants in her garden were not papaver somniferum.
posted by Lone @ 11/17/2004 12:57:00 PM
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