Scientific name: papaver somniferum
The opium poppy has been grown for hundreds of years as a decorative garden plant, like other poppies. The seeds of the opium poppy are used in baking, sold just as 'poppy seeds'. The sap (or latex) of the poppy's immature seed head contains the active ingredient that is used to make opiates that are widely used in medicine, the most well known being the painkillers morphine and codeine. Growing poppies for opium to be harvested for recreational use is widely illegal.