The Shirley poppy is the name of a group of annual ornamental varieties from the Papaver rhoeas (European wild poppy). The specific epithet rhoeas comes from a Latin name for red, referring to the flower color of the species, although there are many cultivars in other colors.
There are more than 120 species[1] of poppies in the genus Papaver of the Papaveraceae family. The Shirley Poppy was first produced in 1880 by Reverend William Wilks, pastor of the Shirley parish in England.
