Introduction to The Plantlife Poppy Survey

In the summer of 2004, are poppy fields a thing of the past?

The poppy, one of Britain’s favourite flowers, was once a familiar sight in the countryside. Vast swathes of red would be splashed through our cornfields in high summer, colouring the countryside for weeks on end.

But the fields in which poppies grow are the farmers’ livelihood, and the demands of modern agriculture now require the production of clean, weed-free crops. Over the last 50 years, economic pressures have forced farmers to use fertilizers and herbicides in increasing quantities. Unfortunately, this has led to a decline in poppies and other plants that grow in arable fields.

In order to understand exactly how our poppies have been affected, we need to know where they are growing and how frequent they are in the countryside. In fact, there are five different types of redflowered poppy that grow in our fields, and we would like you to record any of these that you find in your area this summer.

The survey is simple and enjoyable to do. You will discover a lot about your local countryside as you do it – and not just about the poppies. But most important of all, you will be helping to protect the richness and variety of wildlife in the UK.

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