Short to medium hairy plant with white latex when stem is broken. Flowers orangey red 3 to 7 cm only occasionally blotched at the base, anther violet. Flower stem with hairs pressed close to stem. Seed capsule long not rounded.

All other small red Papaver species, especially P lecoqii

Seed capsules long and narrow (more than twice as long as wide).  Flowers often lighter red than P rhoeas, but this is variable.  Flowers can be blotched at base. Sap or latex is white/cream when fresh - break stem to see this.  Anthers brownish to bluish-black

Photo of seed capsules and latex oozing from stem.  Cannot be identified with confidence from a photo just of the flower

Cultivated fields, bare and waste places, field boundaries and roadsides.

June to August.

Annual.

Found throughout Britain, but scarce in the north of Scotland.

Fairly common in Leicestershire and Rutland. The Flora of Leicestershire published in 1988 states that it occurred in 327 of the 617 tetrads.

Listed as Alien (archaeophyte) and Occasional in the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011)