Favorite Plant this week: Eschscholzia

My favorite plant this week started out as a self-sown "weed"

before the flowers opened - obviously Eschscholzia californica

I was very excited that a california poppy had decided to self-seed in my garden. They are very common here (the CA poppy reserve is fairly close) but none had ever decided to grace my garden before.

And then the flowers opened:

um - poppies around here are yellow or orange. not both.

A bit of research reveals this is likely Eschscholzia californica ssp. maritima - the coastal form of California poppies. It has bluer, more compact foliage that the species, and a distinct yellow flower with orange center. As best I can tell, my "weed" matches all those characteristics.

It decided to grow in the middle of all the purple flowers, one of the "shadier" beds in the garden

it didn't start blooming until early June - way later than all the natural poppies at the reserve or in the mountains

I'm not sure how a coastal poppy ended up in my desert garden, when there are so many more "normal" orange poppies around. But I'm happy it did! I'm planning to plant some of the standard species next fall, but i hope this one comes back too!

I'm joining Loree at Danger Garden for her favorite plant meme - although I'm sure I won't be posting weekly! Her favorite plant is always worth a look, and the comments at her blog have more awesome plants to look at here.