These were supposed to be a mix of all different colors and forms of
Papaver somniferum, but they've turned out to all be this pink. I'm slightly disappointed, but it is a lovely shade of pink. Especially when back-lit by the rising sun:
In their native habitat, I believe these are pollinated by beetles (I've heard it hypothesized that the dark spots at the base of many poppy flowers mimic the appearance of a beetle in the flower, so male beetles will visit in hopes of it being a female -- though I've not seen any research actually demonstrating that.) But here the hover flies are all over them.
I doubt the hover flies do a very good job pollinating -- they seem to just hang out on the stamens eating pollen. But there sure are a lot of them. And hover flies are cool, so I'm glad they're getting a good meal.
