Calle Amapola

The poppy gives its name to this short street in Vallehermoso. It is one of the most recognizable flowers of the Spanish countryside: the one with crumpled red petals that sprouts among the wheat and along the roadsides, and that falls apart almost as soon as it is cut. That fragility has earned it a reputation as a fleeting flower. No record survives of the exact reason for the dedication. It fits a Madrid custom of naming the expanding districts after plants when there was no specific tribute to give. The plant carries a story less innocent than its looks. Opium comes from a relative of hers, the opium poppy, which is why the common poppy is sometimes confused with it. The field poppy barely sedates: it was traditionally used as a mild infusion for sleep. Red against the green of the sown fields, it still dots the plains of Castile each May.