Today, around 800 yellow horned poppies are in bloom or about to bloom on Skagerrakstrand on Jomfruland.
They grow on the pebble beach on the lower embankment below Skaddenveien and are easy to see from a distance. In between the mature plants, there are several thousand younger plants that may flower next year.
Horned poppies are 20-50 cm tall and have yellow petals that flutter in the wind. Photo: Morten Johannessen
Yellow horned poppy is rare and grows along the Oslo fjord in Østfold, Vestfold and Telemark.
They spread with seeds from land further south that arrive with the ocean currents. They grow on sand, gravel and rocky beaches mixed with seaweed and kelp.
The occurrence on Skagerrakstrand is probably the largest in the country, but it is a recent phenomenon.
Around 2015 there was a yellow horned poppy on Stråholmen, but none on Jomfruland.
In 2019, biologists found 69 horned poppies on Skagerrakstrand in the same place where they are today.
Almost like a field of yellow horned poppies. Photo: Morten Johannessen
Yellow horned poppy has previously been assessed as critically endangered on the Norwegian Red List, but was downgraded to vulnerable in 2021, which is the lowest category for endangered species.
The name horned poppy comes from the fact that it develops long, curved shoulders after flowering, in which the seeds lie.
Lots of younger plants that can flower next year (the plants will be three years old). Photo: Morten Johannessen
