Poppy at Sea Palling by Elizabeth Dack 1/7
Poppy field by Elizabeth Dack 2/7
Common poppy by Kevin Murphy 3/7
Poppy flowers and seed heads by Peter Bibby 4/7
Common poppies, Itteringham, David North 5/7
Common poppy field, Castle Acre, John Wernham 6/7
Common poppy, Norfolk, Frank Mitchell 7/7

Common Poppy Papaver rhoeas

The common poppy is a hardy plant, and widespread throughout the Norfolk countryside. The scarlet petals are instantly recognisable and best seen in the summer months.

Conservation status

Not threatened. To see a whole wheat or barley field stained red with poppies is no longer a common sight in Norfolk. Two factors explain this decline. Firstly, the more efficient cleaning of cereal seed prior to sowing means that poppies are no longer dispersed with the seed corn. Secondly, the development and use of powerful herbicides to increase yields have enabled farmers to have largely weed free cereal fields, a breaking of the ancient link between cereal farming and poppy growth. However, poppies remain a common plant on disturbed ground and along roadside verges.

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Details

Did you know?

The Norfolk coast between Sheringham, Cromer and Overstrand is known as Poppyland, a name first given to this area by the writer Clement Scott in the 1880s. Today, the common poppy has been voted the county flower for Norfolk.

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