Like a wildflower
you bloom wherever
you're planted.
...Author Unknown
Here is the California golden poppy growing wild. With its cheerful orange hue and delicate form, the golden poppy embodies the spirit of California.
Before civilization dotted the West with villages, homesteads and orchards, California poppies formed a blanket of gold that stretched from the foothills to the sea. It is said that Spanish sailors, seeing the land glowing so brilliantly, named it the "Land of Fire." When they later discovered that the brightness was the sun glow on orange-gold poppies, they called the flowers "cups of gold."
In 1903, the California poppy became the official state flower of California. The bright orange flowers are an unmatched symbol of the Golden State, perhaps viewed as a floral representation of the "fields of gold" sought during the gold rush.
Ian