Common Poppy

Natural History

Few sights in the British countryside are as arresting as a field of Common Poppies in full bloom, their tissue-paper petals of the most vivid scarlet trembling in the summer breeze. An arable weed of ancient association, the poppy thrives in disturbed ground and has followed human cultivation for millennia. Its seeds can lie dormant in the soil for decades — even centuries — germinating only when the ground is disturbed. This is why poppies bloomed so prolifically on the battlefields of Flanders, leading to their adoption as the symbol of remembrance. Each flower lasts only a single day, but a plant produces many blooms in succession throughout summer. The four petals often have a dark blotch at the base, forming a distinctive cross.