Free Vintage Pictures Of Poppies To Download

Poppies as a symbol

With remembrance day next month, I thought I would add to my collection of vintage flower illustrations with these free pictures of poppies to download.

The poppy sellers are out in full force at the moment raising money for veterans. Poppies become a symbol of remembrance of fallen soldiers following the trench warfare in the poppy fields of Flanders, Belgium during World War I.

I remember in 2014 being moved by the ceramic poppies art installation at the Tower of London.

The major art installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London, marked one hundred years since the first full day of Britain’s involvement in the First World War. Created by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, 888,246 ceramic poppies progressively filled the Tower’s famous moat. Each poppy represented a British military fatality during the war.

Poppies The Flower

Poppies are often grown for their colourful flowers. Some species of poppies have narcotic properties, such as the opium poppy. The edible poppy seeds are harvested to be used in the baking of bread and cakes.

Poppies can reach up to a meter in height with flowers up to 15 centimeters across and they tend to have 4 to 6 petals.

The petals are showy and come in a variety of colours and some are variegated. In the temperate zones, poppies bloom from spring into early summer.

The Free Pictures of Poppies to Download

These vintage poppy pictures are copyright free, just click on the title of the picture of the poppy you want to download. The downloads will be of a higher resolution.

1. 1900 Poppies Illustration

These poppy pictures are from the book “Birds And Nature” published in 1900.

The text appearing before this wonderful illustration is as follows

There are a number of forms or varieties of the cultivated poppy. The red poppy, corn poppy, or rose poppy (Papaver R/ioeas) is very abundant in southern and central Europe and in western Asia. It has deep red or scarlet petals and is a very show) plant. The long-headed poppy(P. dubmm) has smaller flowers of a lighter red color and elongated capsules, hence the name. The Oriental poppy (P. orientate^ has very large, deep red flowers on a tall flower-stalk. Various plants belonging to other genera of the poppy-family (Papave-racece) are designated as poppy. California poppy i^EschscJioltzia Californica) is a very common garden plant. It has showy yellow flowers and much-divided leaves. Horn poppy (Glaii-cium luteuni) is a rather small seaside plant, with long curved pods and solitary yellow flowers. The Mexican prickly poppy (Argemone Mexicana) is widely distributed. The pods and leaves are prickly, flowers yellow or white; the seeds yield an oil which is used as a cathartic.

2. Burbank Poppies

This wonderful picture of poppies to download is from the Burbank seed book.

3. Long Prickly-Headed Poppy

This long prickly-headed poppy picture is from the 1857 book “Wild Flowers” by Anne Pratt.

4. The Great Scarlet Poppy

This species of the poppy is grown to produce thebaine, which is commercially converted to codeine and semi-synthetic opiates.

A beautiful poppies picture to download from the 1821 ” Collectanea botanica or, figures and botanical illustrations of rare and curious exotic plants“, by John Lindley.

5. Iceland Poppy

An illustration of an Iceland Poppy from the 1826 book ” Flora conspicua“,  by William Clark and Richard Morris.

6. Opium Poppy

Vintage pictures of poppies to download: Opium Poppy. From the 1910 book ” Die Giftpflanzen Deutschlands ” (The poisonous plants of Germany) by Peter Esser.

7. The Common Poppy

This is the poppy variety that is used as the symbol for remembrance. It is from the Familiar wild flowers figured and described by F. Edward Hulme (1878).

8. 1911 Common Poppy

This is the poppy you often see growing wild along the road side. From a German botanical atlas dated 1911.

9. Oriental Poppy

Vintage pictures of poppies, oriental poppy. A William Curtis illustration from the Botanical Magazine 1788.

Poppies are one of my favourite flowers, I even painted my shed in a poppy inspired design.

If you like these pictures of poppies then you might want to check out some of these other flower posts, such as these bluebell illustrations and wonderful vintage lily prints.

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