Poppies symbolise remembrance because they often cover battlefields once the guns fall silent. But why? Poppy seeds only germinate in freshly dug soil. All those squaddies’ bootprints, shell holes and tank tracks churn up the ground forcing any poppy seeds buried in soil up to the surface where the warmth of the sun encourages germination.
A single poppy plant can produce more than half a million seeds. Buried in the ground these seeds can last over 50 years. Vast tracts of land throughout Europe and beyond contain these miniature floral time bombs. Waiting patiently for the day when the soil is freshly turned and they can once again turn their faces to the sun.
Poppies are classed as horticultural ‘early adopters’ which is why you get them in bare soils with few competing plants. And why they disappear once other plants start to establish. They’ve not gone. They’re just waiting for the time when they can once again take centre stage in their best outfits. Just like those we remember on Remembrance Day, in their finest hour waiting for us to join them at the ultimate reunion.
Comments
The whole area is littered with military graveyards showing what a pointless waste of life WW1 was.
Visit the Menin Gate, any day, and read the names, wasted by dodgy, two-bit generals, sending thousands of men "over the top", in a pointless war.