The striking example of deviation from a wild type under artificial selection provided by the Shirley poppy attracted the attention of pioneer geneticists and biometricians. The biometrician Karl Pearson used the Shirley poppy to study his ideas of homotyposis, which he defined as “the quantitative degree of resemblance to be found on the average between the like parts of organisms”. However Pearson's work on Shirley poppy was ridiculed by the pioneer geneticist William Bateson for ignoring the recently discovered analytical methods of Mendelian genetics.
The Shirley poppy, which exhibited notable deviation from a wild type under artificial selection, attracted the interest of geneticists and biometricians. Karl Pearson used this example to investigate homotyposis, defined as "the average quantitative resemblance between corresponding parts of organisms." However, Pearson's research on the Shirley poppy was ridiculed by Bateson for neglecting Mendelian genetics' analytical methods.