home

Papaver rhoeas - Field Poppy/Common Poppy

Phylum: Magnoliophyta - Class: Equisetopsida - Order: Ranunculales - Family: Papaveraceae

Common Poppies, southern France

Description

Common Poppy, also known as Corn Poppy or Field Poppy, is an annual and grows to a height of 50 to 75cm. The flowers, born singly on hairy stems, are 50 to 100mm across and have four red petals each with a black spot at the base.

Common Poppy

Distribution

Common throughout the central and eastern parts of Britain and Ireland, the Common Poppy is less plentiful in the north of England and in Scotland. This striking wildflower occurs throughout most of mainland Europe, northern Africa and much of Asia.

Closeup of the Poppy flower

Habitat

Popies love disturbed soil. There can be few lovelier sights than a cornfield with swathes of poppies... and sad to say few rarer sights in most parts of Britain nowadays. Poppies are still plentiful on some motorway cuttings, and they can spring up anywhere that light, sandy soil has been recently disturbed. In Europe (and in the Mediterranean region in particular) where less intensive farming regimes are used, it is still common to see fields full of poppies. The Common Poppy sprang up in profusion on the battlefields of World War II, most particularly in France and Belgium, and has great significance in remembrance of the fallen soldiers.

Poppies in Portugal

Blooming times

In Britain the Common Poppy usually produces flowers from June until August, but in southern Europe this wildflower can appear as early as February.

Etymology

The specific epithet rhoeas comes from the Greek word for red.

Poppies on disturbed ground, Portugal

The pictures shown on this page were taken in England and Wales during June, in France during May, and in southern Portugal during March.

Sue Parker's latest ebook is a revised and enlarged edition of Wild Orchids in The Burren. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...


Wildflowers in the Algarve, an introductory guide, by Sue Parker

Sue Parker's latest ebook is a revised and enlarged second edition of the acclaimed Wildflowers in the Algarve - an introductory guide. Full details here...

Buy it for just £3.95 on Amazon...

Sue Parker's new ebook is a comprehensive and fully revised edition of her acclaimed field guide to the Wild Orchids of Wales. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...

Sue Parker's 5-star acclaimed field guide to the Wild Orchids of the Algarve is now available as an ebook. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...


Please Help Us: If you have found this information interesting and useful, please consider helping to keep First Nature online by making a small donation towards the web hosting and internet costs.

Any donations over and above the essential running costs will help support the conservation work of Plantlife, the Rivers Trust and charitable botanic gardens - as do author royalties and publisher proceeds from books by Pat and Sue.

© 1995 - 2024 First Nature: a not-for-profit volunteer-run resource

Please help to keep this free resource online...

Terms of use - Privacy policy - Disable cookies - Links policy