The Poppy

For Remembrance Sunday I thought I'd blip my Tower of London ceramic poppy (and give it a bit of a clean!).  Whilst I knew a bit about why the British Legion use the poppy as its symbol, I thought I'd find out more.  This is an extract of what the BBC says:

'Scarlet corn poppies (popaver rhoeas) grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. The destruction brought by the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th Century transformed bare land into fields of blood red poppies, growing around the bodies of the fallen soldiers.

In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again ripped open as World War One raged through Europe's heart. Once the conflict was over the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the otherwise barren battlefields.'