'Not your average poppy': Illegal seeds removed from Botanical Gardens gift shop

The Royal Botanical Gardens of Tasmania (RTBG) extracted seeds from their store for growing poppies used in the production of potent painkillers after realizing they were selling a banned product.Key Points: The Royal Botanic Gardens of Tasmania have confirmed they are inadvertently selling banned poppy seeds They have now thrown away the seeds and are urging buyers to return them The seeds contain alkaloids used in serious painkillers such as morphine and coedin

Garden Manager David Reid confirmed that seeds of Papaver paeoniflorum or "Black Poppy" were previously sold in the RTBG gift shop.

The seeds were purchased by RTBG from a seed distributor, as part of a routine order.

The poppies, which look like a pretty flower of garden, contain co mposed alkaloids that can be refined into severe pain relievers like morphine and codeine, and can be toxic to humans if ingested.

The devil is in the details

It is believed that RTBG learned it had seeds for sale illegally after a horticulturist in Hobart was raided by officers from the Tasmanian Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Kate Dixon inadvertently planted two restricted species of poppy, Papaver somniferum and Papaver bracteatum, and sold them to retailers for wedding displays.

Kate Dixon was shocked to discover there was more in its poppies than it seems. (Supplied: Kate Dixon)

Fifty plants were taken from her property during the raid.

Ms Dixon said she was shocked and worried that others had accidentally fallen into a similar trap.

She did not know that RTBG had made a similar mistake by selling banned seeds to customers without mistrust.

The poppies can be returned

Ms Dixon and the Royal Botanic Gardens of Tasmania are believed to have purchased the seeds from the same local supplier in Tasmania.

In a statement, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said the seed supplier was investigating how it came to distribute the illegal packets of poppy seeds.

< figure class="HTQDr _8ohDw yvdCO IfoSG" role="group" data-print="inline-media" aria-labelledby="101745096" data-component="Figure" data- uri="corem edia://imageproxy/101745096">Department says removed about 50 of the restricted poppies plants.(Supplied: Kate Dixon)

Supplier is now working with the service to raise awareness and educate nurseries and retailers.

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