Plants to 5 dm, hispid. Stems branching. Leaves to 10 cm. Inflorescences: peduncle appressed-hispid. Flowers: petals early caducous, red to purplish red, with dark basal spot, to 25 mm; anthers pale blue; ovaries setose; stigmas 4-8, disc convex and radially vaulted. Capsules sessile, obovoid-ellipsoid to subglobose, obscurely to distinctly ribbed, to 1.5 cm, densely and firmly setose, stigmatic disc often deciduous.

Flowering spring. Fields, vineyards, and disturbed sites; 0-700 m; introduced; Calif., N.C., Pa., S.C.; Eurasia; n Africa.

Papaver hybridum should be expected elsewhere in the flora. Some California collections of this crop weed have been misidentified as Papaver apulum Tenore var. micranthum (Boreau) Fedde, which is not known to occur in the flora.