How the Golden Poppy Became California’s State Flower

There is perhaps no better symbol of California than the glorious, golden poppy.

The flower’s satiny yellow-orange blooms evoke the state’s abundant sunshine, orange groves and the gold rush that made it famous. It’s hard not to be hypnotized by the bobbing beacons of golden light that glisten from roadway medians and that carpet entire valleys each spring, especially during this year’s “super bloom.”

Walking through a state park, “your eyes immediately go to the poppy, even though there are all these lovely plants,” said Char Miller, professor of environmental history at Pomona College. “I think it’s the color, I think it’s the almost joyousness with which it tosses its head — it’s seductive.”

The golden poppy has been the official state flower for 120 years, the second state symbol California ever adopted. So how did it achieve such esteemed status?

Golden poppies grow wild all over California, with a natural range that stretches across the West from sea level to 6,500 feet in altitude. Native people prized the flowers for food and medicine, boiling the plants to eat them or applying them as treatments for illnesses.

The poppies’ botanical name came in 1816, when the Prussian explorer Adelbert von Chamisso docked in the San Francisco Bay and spotted the golden blossoms blanketing hillsides around the Presidio of San Francisco. He gave them the Latin name Eschscholzia californica.

The poppies were elevated further in 1890 when the California State Floral Society held an election to choose a state flower. At the time, states across the country, some of which had only recently been admitted to the Union, were adopting emblems to promote state pride.

The society chose among the Matilija poppy, which resembles a giant sunny-side-up egg; the striking white mariposa lily; and, of course, the buttery gold California poppy, which smashed the competition in what was apparently an expected landslide: The San Francisco Call reported that the society’s secretary already had a “handsome watercolor” of the flower ready to present to the group immediately after the vote.

Lawmakers needed to sign off on the choice, however, for it to officially become the state flower. Getting them to do so took more than a decade of hard work and campaigning by Sara Plummer Lemmon, an amateur botanist and a “relentlessly curious, determined” person, said Wynne Brown, a science journalist who wrote “The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon’s Life of Science and Art.”

Lemmon, who established the first library in Santa Barbara, was the first woman allowed to speak at the California Academy of Sciences. And as chairwoman of the California State Committee of the National Floral Emblem Society, she became the golden poppy’s greatest champion. “She was somebody who really didn’t like being told ‘no,’” Brown told me.

In 1903, Gov. George Pardee approved legislation making the poppy the state flower and, in recognition of Lemmon’s efforts, gave her the bald-eagle quill he used to sign the bill, Brown said.

Ever since, the California poppy has mesmerized those of us who live beside it. For me, the flower’s magic comes from its velvety texture and impossible-to-describe hue. In “East of Eden,” John Steinbeck describes the poppies as “not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.” (Early Spanish settlers called the poppies “copa de oro,” or cup of gold.)

Miller thinks the flower’s appeal comes from its hardiness and ability to survive in an often drought-stricken region. The California poppy is a spot of beauty in a harsh landscape, he said.

“Endurance is partly what draws people to it,” Miller told me. “The poppy just rears up and goes, ‘Look at me, I am gorgeous.’”

Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Barton Lynch, who recommends Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego:

“Historic and national sites here allow for a full day of learning for the whole family. I was particularly dazzled by the lively tide pools. All I could think the whole time was, ‘This is what kids in California get to see for their field trips!’ Educational rangers were around to tell us what we were seeing and how to safely enjoy them. Be on the lookout for octopus!”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

And before you go, some good news

Though Southern California is saturated with small, local doughnut chains and independent shops, new ones continue to pop up and some still find cult followings, the New York Times critic Tejal Rao writes. The ubiquity of doughnut vendors in Los Angeles feels magical, she says: “The real beauty of doughnuts in Los Angeles is that the second you want one, wherever you are in the city, an open shop seems to appear.”

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.

Briana Scalia, Johnna Margalotti and Camille Baker contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.