The Papavaraceae A Homeopathic study of the Poppy family Dr. Julie Geraghty Dr. Jonathan Hardy Dr. Elizabeth Thompson

The Papavaraceae Botany Symbology Homeopathy: Family themes Vital Sensation Remedies Cases

Papavaraceae: 44 Genera 760 Species Most are herbaceous but the family includes some woody shrubs and a genus of small tropical trees. Many garden ornamentals and pharmaceutically important plants. Most species are found in the Northern Hemisphere.

All species of poppies are attractive and most are cultivated as ornamental plants.

California Poppy

Prickly Poppy

Symbolism Poppies have long been used as a symbol of both sleep and death: sleep because of the opium extracted from them, and death because of their (commonly) blood-red color.

In Persian literature, red poppies, especially red corn poppy flowers, are considered the flower of love. They are often called the eternal lover flower.

In Greco-Roman myths, poppies were used as offerings to the dead.

A second meaning for the depiction and use of poppies in Greco-Roman myths is the symbolism of the bright scarlet colour as signifying the promise of resurrection after death.

Argemone mexicana The “Prickly poppy”has a rich history in ritual and Shamanic practice. Known by the Aztecs as "nourishment of the dead”.

The poppy of wartime remembrance is Papaver rhoeas, the red flowered Corn poppy.

This poppy is a common weed in Europe and is found in many locations, including Flanders Fields, the setting for the famous poem by Canadian surgeon and soldier, John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields”.

The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in the disturbed earth of the battlefields and cemeteries where war casualties were buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day.