Seven significant facts about poppies

Millions of us wear poppies in November to remember those who gave their lives in war. But how much do we really know about these iconic red flowers?

1. Poppies grow easily in poor soil and disturbed land.

2. As the battlefields were churned up, poppies grew back where people once had died.

3. While most people know poppies for their association with WW1 and WW2, the flower has long been linked with young men dying too soon, especially in poems reflecting on war. In The Iliad, Homer described the death of a young Trojan prince as being like a "full-blown poppy, overcharg'd with rain", sinking to the ground.

4. Commemorative poppies were a direct response to a poem - In Flanders Fields - published in the Christmas 1915 issue of Punch magazine by the Canadian doctor and soldier, John MacCrae.

5. In 2014 crowds flocked to the Tower of London to see 888,246 ceramic poppies planted in the Tower's moat, each poppy representing a British military fatality during the war. The art installation, by Paul Cummins, with setting by stage designer Tom Piper, was called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red - the first line of a poem by an unknown war poet.

6. The popularity of the name Poppy for baby girls grew exponentially and peaked every November in the 1920s. But only 44 baby girls received the name during World War 2.

7. One of the most powerful and poignant uses of poppy symbolism occurs every year at the Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance in the Royal Albert Hall: thousands of poppy petals flutter down from the roof of the hall to signal the two minutes' silence in memory of the fallen.

Discover more facts about the poppy by listening to the new series of flower essays.

Fiona Stafford, professor of literature at Somerville College Oxford, explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises of five of the UK's most-loved flowers.