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Common Poppy

(Papaver rhoeas)

Once considered a 'weed' of cornfields, the Common Poppy is now in decline due to intensive agricultural practices. It can be found in seeded areas, on roadside verges and waste ground, and in field margins.

Common poppy © Zsuzsanna Bird
Common poppy © Zsuzsanna Bird

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Overview

This familiar, showy flower is now most likely to occur as part of intentional wildflower seeding, or as the result of the disturbance of soil containing old seed banks.

Common Poppy strongholds remain on roadside verges, scrub, waste ground and farmland. They flower from June to August, often alongside other cornfield flowers such as Corn Chamomile and Corncockle.

Key Facts

  • With their big, saucer-shaped, scarlet blooms, Common Poppies are one of the most familiar of all our wild flowers. There are other similar species, which can be hard to tell apart.
  • Immortalised in poetry, the Common Poppy famously turned the battlefields of the Somme into a place of remembrance: the blood-red of the poppies mirroring the atrocities of war. But its association with blood and new life harks back to the Egyptians and Romans who made garlands of common poppies to celebrate the gods and ensure the fertility of their crops.
  • Height: up to 80cm

Status

Common.

Seasonality

June to August

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