Why are poppies associated with WWI?

[thussain]

My daughters have come up with 2 theories:

1. poppies take a long time to germinate & the troop movement on the battlefields disturbed dormant seeds so when the troops left the fields were covered in poppies

2. soldiers used to send poppies home to their loved ones

Are either theories correct? Does anyone have any other ideas?

[shaneystar2]

Long known as the corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) because it flourishes as a weed in grain fields, the Flanders poppy as it is now usually called, grew profusely in the trenches and craters of the war zone. Artillery shells and shrapnel stirred up the earth and exposed the seeds to the light they needed to germinate.

http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/poppy .html

[Keeprockin]

I would say "1" is on the right lines. Pinched the following from BBC website

Scarlet 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 the First World War raged through Europe's heart.

The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem In Flanders Fields. The poppy came to represent the immeasurable sacrifice made by his comrades and quickly became a lasting memorial to those who died in the First World War and later conflicts.

The White Poppy
The white poppy was first introduced by the Women's Co-operative Guild in 1933 and was intended as a lasting symbol for peace and an end to all wars.

Worn on Armistice Day, now Remembrance Sunday, the white poppy was produced by the Co-operative Wholesale Society as the Royal British Legion had refused to be associated with its manufacture. While the white poppy was never intended to offend the memory of those who died in the Great war, many veterans felt that its significance undermined their contribution and the lasting meaning of the red poppy. Such was the seriousness of this issue that some women lost their jobs in the 1930s for wearing white poppies.

[sddsddean]

I thought it was just that the poppy was the first flower to flower on all the fields in Flanders after the war and so it was adopted as the flower of remembrance for WW1 and latterly all other conflicts.

[falloutgirl]

'In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.'

That's the poem 'In Flanders Field' by John McCrae, and it was the reason why the poppy became a symbol of remembrance.

xx falloutgirl xx

[prospector]

keeprockin - �worn on Armistice Day, now Remembrance Sunday?�

Armistice Day is the 11th November

Remembrance Sunday - is the second Sunday in November (which is usually the nearest Sunday to the 11th)

[zimzam]

If you consider a poppy is a type of weed then any weed that is disturbed will thow out its seeds to germinate and propogate. WW1 was a totally new type of war (thinking Flanders and the Somme) that was never repeated again in WW2 as, unfortunately, the ways of fighting a war had evolved during the twenty one year gap. I guess red also signifies blood.
Poppies, like any weed, do not take long to germinate but it would be easy to use a poppy as a psychological impact in saying that a poppy also reflects the blood shed on the soil which became its nutriment instead of rainwater and the fact that a poppy (like the human spirit) will still continue to thrive amidst chaos and destruction.

I am so pleased (considering that a poppy is classified as a weed) that England's green and pleasant land never was ever the site for WW1 with Flanders or the Somme being in the South of this land or else we would all probably be proudly wearing dandelions on our lapels every year.

[Steelie2006]

you are all correct. the flanders' field poem makes me cry. hehe :)