UK: The flower of the fields that marks Remembrance Day
11.11.10
The common poppy (Papaver rhoeas) has come to symbolise much more than being a common weed of agricultural fields for now it will always be remembered as the flower that marks some of the most important landscapes and events in European social history.
On 11 November (Remembrance Day) every year this humble flower is worn by millions of people to remember those who fell in the war. Immortalised in the poem In Flanders Fields written by Canadian surgeon and soldier John McCrae their blood red flowers have to come to mark the site of these famous battles as the dormant seeds were disturbed by the rugged footfall of thousands of soldiers.
Related links:
UK IN PICTURES: Conserving plants on the UK's most southerly tip
30.06.10
The coastal grasslands of the Lizard, Cornwall are some of the most diverse plant habitats in the country. Here, unusual geology combines with a mild climate and a remote and ancient agricultural landscape to foster many species that are found nowhere else.