Field of Burbank's Rosy Crimson Escholtzia, April 13, 1908

California legislators named Eschscholzia californica (the California poppy) as the state flower in 1903. Luther Burbank, an American horticulturalist who gained a reputation for his commercially successful plant creations, believed he could improve on the state flower. He selectively bred the native plant and introduced The Burbank (1909), a consistently crimson poppy, though the postcard text misspelled the genus.