Poppy

I drew the poppy for its petals, which are red, thin as paper and gone within a day or two. Few flowers are so frail, and few carry so much meaning. In this poppy print the red flower sits against a light ground with green leaves, so the colour does the work. A poppy has no great height to boast of. It has a saucer of four crumpled petals, a dark centre and a bud that holds its head down until the morning it opens. That brief performance is worth a closer look.

In shortPapaver somniferum is an annual poppy of Mediterranean origin, grown since the Neolithic for its seeds. Its papery petals last a day or two and leave a large seed capsule behind. The plate shows a red poppy in flower with green leaves.

Key Facts

Why do poppy petals look like tissue paper?

Poppy petals look like tissue paper because they are extremely thin and crumpled in the bud. A poppy flower has four petals, held in a shallow saucer shape. Packed tightly inside the bud, the petals are folded and creased. When the bud opens they spread out and the creases stay, which gives the surface its silken, rumpled look.

The petals are also fragile. A poppy flower is short-lived, and in many species a single bloom lasts a day or two before the petals drop. Sunlight passes through the thin tissue, so a red poppy against the light seems to glow. The plant makes up for the brevity of each flower by producing many buds in succession, so a patch of poppies keeps flowering for weeks.

What is inside a poppy seed capsule?

A poppy seed capsule holds a large number of very small seeds. After the petals fall, the ovary at the centre swells into a smooth, urn-shaped capsule on a firm stem. A flat cap sits on the top, and small pores open beneath its edge as the capsule dries.

The capsule works like a pepper pot. The seeds stay inside until the stem sways in the wind, and then a few are shaken out through the pores and thrown a short distance. Botanists call this a poricidal capsule. The method spreads seed gradually across several weeks and several places. A dry capsule, still standing after the petals are long gone, is one of the best-known shapes in the garden in late summer. Gardeners and flower arrangers often cut the stems for that shape alone, and use them dried indoors.

What kind of poppy is Papaver somniferum?

Papaver somniferum is a tall annual poppy, up to about a metre high, with grey-green, waxy leaves that clasp the stem. Its flowers are large and come in white, pink, red or purple, often with a dark blotch at the base of each petal. The Royal Horticultural Society describes the flowers across the genus as short-lived, saucer-shaped and four-petalled, and this species fits that pattern.

It is one of the oldest crop plants, grown since the Neolithic. Its seeds are the poppy seeds of bread and cakes. The same plant is also the source of opium and of medicines such as morphine, so its cultivation is regulated in many countries. In gardens it is grown as an ornamental annual, sown in spring, and many forms have frilled or double flowers. It self-seeds freely wherever soil is turned over.

Why is the red poppy a symbol of remembrance?

The poppy of remembrance is the corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas, a smaller relative of the plant on the plate. It became a symbol because it grew on battlefields in Belgium and France during the First World War. In 1915 the Canadian doctor John McCrae wrote the poem “In Flanders Fields”, which describes poppies growing between the graves. In 1918 the American Moina Michael began wearing a poppy in memory of the fallen, and in 1921 the first Poppy Day in Britain was held on 11 November. Red poppies are still worn across the Commonwealth each November. The flower was chosen because it was the one that came up in the churned ground around the graves, a plain red flower in a bare place. The studio’s poppy symbolism article follows the longer story.

Drawing the poppy

The plate shows a red poppy in flower, with green leaves on a light ground. The red reads at once, because the light ground gives it nothing to compete with. A dark centre sits in the heart of the bloom, and the green of the leaves sets off the scarlet without softening it.

A photograph of a poppy is a snapshot of a flower that will not last the day. A drawing holds one moment of the bloom steady, with the thin petals open and their folds visible. Red is the hardest colour to hold in print, because it can shift toward orange or flatten into a single block. In this hand-drawn digital illustration, the petals keep their shading and their folds, so the thinness of the tissue stays visible. The leaves are drawn separately from the bloom, which lets the flower stand clear of them.

Where does a poppy print work on a wall?

A red flower on a light ground gives a room a single point of colour, so the plate suits a hallway, a dining area, a country kitchen or a reading corner. White, black or natural wood frames all work; the red carries the picture. It belongs to The Garden collection, the studio’s group of flowers from field and border. In the photograph below, a red poppy plate hangs on a white shiplap wall above a wooden bench with patterned cushions. The room is plain and pale, and the poppy supplies the colour. The wider range is gathered under botanical art prints.

Fine-art print →

Frequently Asked Questions

How many petals does a poppy have?

Most poppies have four petals, arranged in two pairs in a shallow saucer. Some garden forms are double and carry many more, because extra petals have formed from the stamens. The plain wild form has four petals.

How long does a poppy flower last?

A single poppy flower lasts a day or two, and its petals then fall. The plant keeps flowering because new buds open one after another. A patch of poppies can stay in colour for several weeks, even though each bloom is brief.

Why do poppies grow in disturbed ground?

Many annual poppies make seed that waits in the soil until the ground is turned over. Light and bare earth trigger germination. That is why poppies appear along new roadsides, in ploughed fields and on building sites, often in large numbers.

What does the red poppy mean?

In Britain and the Commonwealth, the red poppy stands for remembrance of those who died in war. It is worn in the weeks before 11 November. Poppies have older meanings as well, including sleep and rest in classical tradition. The plate’s species records that meaning in its name: somniferum means sleep-bringing.

How is this print made, and how does it reach me?

There are two formats. The digital download is a high-resolution file that you print yourself, at home or at a print shop; no physical item is shipped. The fine-art print is printed to order on archival paper or canvas, framed or unframed, in sizes from small prints to over 150 cm (60 inches), and delivered to your door.