Common Poppy

Papaver rhoeas

I adore poppies of all kinds. I don’t know why, but I just have a thing for them, and when I see one across the fields, or a field full of them, I have to make tracks there immediately.

Also known as the ‘Corn Poppy’,  ‘Field Poppy’ or ‘Flanders Poppy’, amongst other names, this is a bright and splendid annual with vivid scarlet flowers which may form stunningly beautiful drifts of red across wild flower meadows or cultivated fields. The seeds can lay dormant for up to 80 years.

Flowers June to September. Found in disturbed ground of all kinds, arable land and meadows. Common and widespread throughout the British Isles.

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June 2010, local field, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2010.