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Last Updated: Friday, 10 November 2006, 13:30 GMT
Lost poppies 'sign of the times'
Poppy field
The poppy is the county flower of Norfolk
Many of the fields of poppies in Norfolk have been lost to farming, a survey has revealed.

The Norfolk Wildlife Trust discovered there are no longer any fields in an area known as "Poppyland" - the stretch of coast between Sheringham and Cromer.

The survey also found there are barely 50 poppy fields left in the county.

"It's a sign of the times, and of the way modern farming has changed the landscape in the past 50 years," said a trust spokesman.

"The poppies are still there. They grow in strips at the edge of the fields.

"Decades ago they grew among the crops with other weeds, but with herbicides and so on introduced after World War II, farmers now have the ability to eradicate weeds from fields of grain.

"But anyone who has lived in the county for a long time will tell you that there used to be many more poppies in Norfolk than there are now."

In the 1880s, writer Clement Scott dubbed the stretch of coast between Cromer and Overstrand "Poppyland".

Poppies flower from June through to late summer.

In a contest held by the plant conservation charity Plantlife, the poppy was voted Norfolk's county flower.


SEE ALSO
Poppy fields surveyed by trust
30 Jun 06 |  Norfolk
Rare tribute of blooming poppies
13 Nov 05 |  Norfolk

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