Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Prickly Poppy
Argemone polyanthemos
Poppy/Dicentra family (Papaveraceae)

This is a plains and foothills species. Flowers are large, brilliant white, delicate, and flutter in a slight breeze and form quite a contrast to the rest of the plant which is adorned with prickles on stem, leaf, and seed pods. Leaves are blue-green, smooth, and with on the veins. can be up to 1/2" long and very sharp. "Argemone" is a referred to by the Greeks thousands of years ago and "polyanthemos" means "many flowers." Linnaeus named this in 1753. This species is slowly spreading westward across Colorado.


©2005 Al Schneider

Description

(maybe ) to 4' tall with orange or white sap and stout, erect, shiny stems that have scattered prickles. Leaves especially prickly on the veins below, leaves deeply or cleft. more or less spiny tipped by a horn with more prickles. Petals 1-2" long, white. a spiny, prickly to 2 inches long.

Field Marks

Tall, very prickly, spiny plant with large, delicate, white flowers.

© Al Schneider

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

spine -- a stiff, sharp structure formed by the modification of a plant organ that contains vascular tissue. A spine can be formed by a latteral branch, a modified leaf or a thorn.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seed, within one year, and then dies.

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

capsule -- a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. In most cases the capsule splits apart to release seeds.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

pinnate -- A compound leaf with two rows of leaflets.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.