Flower and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Flowering plant. Photographer Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Flower, fruiting bodies, and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Carnarvon Station Bush Heritage Reserve, via Augathella, Qld

Common Name

Mexican Poppy

Family

Papaveraceae

Notes

Introduced annual forb to 1.5m tall.  Spiny leaves, flowers, stem, and fruiting bodies.  Basal leaves soon withering. Stem leaves alternating up the stems, stem clasping, 7-20cm long, 30-100mm wide, hairless, lobed and toothed, with spines at the ends of the lobes and teeth.  Flowers cream to pale yellow, with 4-6 petals, solitary and stalkless at the ends of the stems.  Fruiting bodies hairless, with many spines. Regarded as an environmental weed in NSW.  The similar Argemone mexicana (which has bright yellow flowers) is a noxious weed throughout NSW.

The Australian Plant Name Index, the NSW Department of Primary Industries, and the Weeds of Australia Biosecurity Queensland Edition database, all  regard Argemone mexicana and Argemone ochroleuca ssp. ochroleuca as different species. PlantNET and eFloraSA regard them as the same species.

Description and photo of flowering plant in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales pages 312-313

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=in&name=Argemone~ochroleuca~subsp.+ochroleuca

Weeds of Australia Biosecurity Queensland Edition description:  http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/03030800-0b07-490a-8d04-0605030c0f01/media/Html/Argemone_ochroleuca_subsp._ochroleuca.htm