Plant Name
Scientific Name: Argemone pleiacantha
Common Names: Southwestern Pricklypoppy, Bluestem Pricklepoppy, Prickly Poppy
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland, Mountain. It is most common in grassland and upland areas, especially in disturbed areas like roadsides.
Flower Color: White
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall. It mainly blooms in the summertime with the summer monsoon rains.
Height: To 3 feet (91 cm) tall
Description: The flowers are up to 5 inches (13 cm) across and have 6, large, tissue-paper-like petals. From a distance, the flowers look like fried eggs. The horns on the flower bud sepals are covered with numerous spines. The similar A. gracilenta has fewer, but longer spines and sepal horns with only 0 to 2 spines. The leaves are pinnately lobed and have very spiny toothed margins and angular lobe tips. The stems are brittle and covered in spines. The foliage will ooze yellow sap if broken.
Special Characteristics
Poisonous – All parts of the plant are poisonous and contain toxic isoquinoline alkaloids like papaverine.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Magnoliidae
Order: Papaverales
Family: Papaveraceae – Poppy family
Genus: Argemone L. – pricklypoppy
Species: Argemone pleiacantha Greene – southwestern pricklypoppy
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