Mojave Prickly Poppy (Argemone corymbosa)

(Fig. 01)

Picture Notes: I captured this picture (Fig. 01) on 05/03/2012 while hiking the old Spanish Trail route along Cottonwood Valley Road in Cottonwood Valley. The specimen in (Figs. 02 & 03) were capture on 06/18/2012 while hike around the ghost town of Delmar, Nevada. Again, my thanks to Kathy Pool for help with the identification.

Description: These pictures could be either Mojave Prickly Poppy (Argemone corymbosa), a.k.a. Prickly Poppy and Desert Prickly Poppy, or Flatbud Pricklypoppy (Argemone munita), a.k.a. Prickly Poppy, Prickly-poppy. I can't really figure out the difference between the two. Both are a perennial herbaceous flowering forb with similar characteristics in the family Papaveraceae native to the eastern Mojave Desert of the southwestern United States. The plant grows in sandy places and on dry slopes, generally in disturbed areas like washes and roadsides, between 1,300 and 3,500 feet. It grows to a height between 16-32 inches and 2-3 feet wide, with distinctive purplish orange latex in the stems. The leaves are 3.25 to 7 inches long, with prickly margins and veins, oblanceolate to ovate, toothed or deeply pinnately lobed. Its solitary, terminal flowers are 1.5 to 5 inches in diameter, with four (or 6) white petals and an orange-colored center, containing 100-120 stamens that produce a fragrant orange sap. It blooms between April and May. Along roadsides, the large, white flowers often look like small pieces of toilet paper blowing in the wind.

(Fig. 02)

(Fig. 03)