Archival plate of Eschscholzia californica, from Curtis's Botanical Magazine, plate 3495, 1836

The Moss Herbal Database

Eschscholzia californica
Fam. Papaveraceae
Parts: Whole flowering plant, root included

Plate: Curtis's Botanical Magazine, plate 3495, 1836 ↗

California poppy

Eschscholzia californica

Also: Golden poppy, Copa de oro, Cup of gold

CoolingDryingRelaxing

For the pain and spasm that keep you up at night.

Blue-green, finely cut leaves and silky orange cups that close at night and on cloudy days. California poppy relaxes spasm and dulls pain enough to let sleep come, without the narcotic alkaloids of the opium poppy.

Energetics: Cooling, drying, relaxing
Taste: Bitter
Family: Papaveraceae (poppy family)
Parts used: Whole flowering plant, root included

Medicinal uses 5

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Trouble sleepingTLC
For nights when an aching back or cramping legs won't let you drift off.
Aches & painTLC
Dulls the throb of a pulled muscle or a tight, aching head.
Muscle tension & spasmTLC
Relaxes cramping legs and tight backs.
Anxiety & stressTLC
Settles nervous tension, usually in formulas with other calming herbs.
Dry coughTLC
Stirred into a bedtime cough syrup, it settles the cough enough for sleep.

Preparations

Bedtime tincture, tea, and sleep blends.

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Cautions

Can deepen the effect of sedatives, sleep medicines, and alcohol; don't drive after a full dose.
A few people taking hormone therapy feel stimulated rather than calmed by it.
Pain from an injury is a signal to rest the injury. Use it to sleep, not to push through.

Medication interactions

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyAvoid

Safety research in pregnancy is very thin and its alkaloids act on the nervous system, so it waits until after birth.

BreastfeedingAvoid

Its sedative action could reach a nursing baby.

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Folklore

Spanish sailors are said to have seen whole hillsides of orange from the sea, and Californians still call the flower copa de oro, cup of gold, with a legend that the petals drop gold into the soil. The German poet and naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso named the genus for his friend Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, the ship's doctor on their 1816 Russian expedition. California made it the state flower in 1903 and keeps California Poppy Day each April 6.

How to grow

An easy annual or short-lived perennial for full sun and lean, sandy soil. Sow where it will grow in fall or early spring, since the taproot resents transplanting. It self-sows. Harvest the whole plant in flower and dry it, root and all.

In the wild

Grasslands, coastal bluffs, and roadsides of California and southern Oregon, naturalized in dry, open ground in many temperate regions.

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