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Corn poppy
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Papaver rhoeas is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae. It has a variety of common names, including the Corn Poppy, Field Poppy, Flanders Poppy, or Red Poppy, one of the many species and genera named poppy. The four petals are vivid red, most commonly with a black spot at their base. It is a variable annual plant, forming a long-lived soil seed bank that can germinate when the soil is disturbed.
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Papaver rhoeas is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae. It has a variety of common names, including the Corn Poppy, Field Poppy, Flanders Poppy, or Red Poppy, one of the many species and genera named poppy. The four petals are vivid red, most commonly with a black spot at their base. It is a variable annual plant, forming a long-lived soil seed bank that can germinate when the soil is disturbed. In the northern hemisphere it generally flowers in late spring, but if the weather is warm enough other flowers frequently appear at the beginning of autumn. Like many other species of its genus, it exudes a white latex when the tissues are broken.
It is known to have been associated with agriculture in the Old World since early times. It has most of the characteristics of a successful weed of agriculture. These include an annual lifecycle that fits into that of most cereals, a tolerance of simple weed control methods, the ability to flower and seed itself before the crop is harvested. Like many such weeds, it also shows the tendency to become a crop in its own right; its seed is a moderately useful commodity, used in bread dough, for example, and to decorate bread. The red petals are used to make syrups and alcoholic/non-alcoholic drinks. Red poppy syrup is a traditional beverage of Mediterranean regions like Bozcaada.
The leaves and latex have an acrid taste and are mildly poisonous to grazing animals. The commonly grown decorative Shirley Poppy is a cultivar of this plant.
Its origin is not known for certain. As with many such plants, the area of origin is often ascribed by Americans to Europe, and by northern Europeans to southern Europe. The European Garden Flora suggests that it is ‘Eurasia and North Africa’; in other words, the lands where agriculture has been practiced since the earliest times. It has had an old symbolism and association with agricultural fertility.
The corn poppy has become associated with wartime remembrance in the 20th century, especially during Remembrance Day in Commonwealth countries. As poppies bloomed in much of the western front in World War I, they have become a symbol of military veterans, especially of that war, immortalized in the poem In Flander's Fields by Canadian poet John McCrae. Since the poppy symbol is largely associated with Remembrance Day in Canada, the Canadian Mint has released a series of quarters into circulation that have the poppy imprinted on them in the center of the coin.
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