A woman in Luoding, Guangdong province, has been detained by police for illegally planting poppies, Guangzhou Daily reported on Wednesday.

Surnamed Chen, 58, the villager in the city's Taiping township, planted 2,250 poppy plants on her farm and told police she did so from August 2012 to treat her husband's backache. The poppies were cut down on March 14 by police after they received a report from local farmers, and Chen was detained.

The case is under further investigation and police said planting poppies is illegal, no matter what purpose they are to be used.