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Natural Histories examines our fascination with poppies, exploring what they meant to us at different points in history and how they ended up as a symbol of heroic sacrifice.

You may wear a poppy each November, but here are some interesting facts about the figurative flower that may come as a surprise.

1. They grew on battlefields because of rubble

You probably know that poppies sprung up in their thousands on Flanders fields after the fighting had ceased in World War I, but you might not know this was because of the rubble left behind after artillery bombardments. The lime in the fragmented masonry was a great fertiliser for poppies. After a few years, when all the lime had been absorbed by the plants, the poppies largely disappeared.

2. Remembrance poppies were designed to be made with one hand

In 1922, Major George Howson set up the Poppy Factory in Richmond to employ disabled ex-servicemen. Assembling the poppy required only one hand, allowing veterans who had lost an arm to work on the production line. This factory still employs disabled veterans, and they make approximately 36 million poppies each year.

3. Scottish remembrance poppies look different from the rest of the UK

The Scottish poppy (top) looks different to poppies worn elsewhere in the UK

Scottish poppies are made exclusively in Lady Haig Poppy Factory in Edinburgh. When it was established in 1926, this factory used a different design of four petals and no leaf, and they still use it to this day.

4. The first British poppy crop was destroyed by hares

In the 19th Century, British horticulturalists who were incentivised by the booming opium trade attempted to establish an opium poppy crop in the UK. Unfortunately for them, it was eaten by a plague of hares.

5. Poppies are needed to make morphine

Morphine is created from the milky latex in the seed head of the opium poppy. For this reason, the poppy is featured on the Royal College of Anaesthetists coat of arms.

6. Poppy seeds are banned in China, Taiwan and Singapore

Because of the opiate traces that can be found in poppy seeds, and because of the potential for the seeds to be used to grow opium poppies, they are banned as food a food ingredient in China, Taiwan and Singapore. These trace amounts of opiate also mean that eating even a small amount of food containing poppy seed can lead to a false positive on drugs tests.

7. There were poppies in Tutankhamun’s tomb

King Tutankhamun was entombed in 1325 BC with ceremonial clothing made partly from the poppy plant and with illustrations of poppies on his jewellery and furniture. In Ancient Egypt the poppy was emblematic of Osiris, the god of death.

8. They were a symbol for remembrance before WWI

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.