Poppy, Red (Papaver rhoeas)

NATIVE RANGE:

Europe & Central Asia

DESCRIPTION:

Cup shaped meadow flower, generally bright red with black stamens. They grow with delicate fern-like foliage on a long stems.

poppy, papaver rhoeas dreamstime_xxl_24647223.jpg

poppy, red ID 13286333 © Alin Dobrin | Dreamstime.com.jpg

REMEMBRANCE POPPY:

This flower was once seen as an annoying weed by European farmers. The only thing a plant needs to be labeled a weed is a fast growing cycle and to be in a space inconvenient to people. In much of Europe, this poppy was seen as a weed because it easily germinates on disturbed land. When farmers tilled their soil, the young crop they had sown would sprout next to bright blooming poppies.

During WWI, vast swaths of land in Europe were bombed from the air while soldiers trampled the ground. When poppies bloomed in barren fields and between trenches, they came to symbolize fallen soldiers and the blood of war, giving them another common name, the Remembrance Poppy.

poppy, red, papaver rhoeas ID 15057601 © Nailia Schwarz | Dreamstime.com.jpg