Argemone mexicana |
Papaveraceae |
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Mexican poppy, Mexican prickly-poppy, yellow pricklypoppy |
poppy family |
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Habit | Plants annual. | Herbs or subshrubs, shrubs, or small trees, annual, biennial, or perennial, scapose or caulescent, usually from taproots, sometimes from rhizomes; sap clear, white, or colored, often sticky. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | often branching from base, 2.5-8 dm, unarmed or sparingly prickly. |
leafy or naked, erect, spreading, or decumbent, simple or branching. |
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Leaves | blades: surfaces unarmed or sparingly prickly on veins; proximal lobed 1/2 or more distance to midrib; distal more shallowly lobed, mostly clasping. |
basal and/or cauline, alternate to opposite or whorled, simple, without stipules, petiolate or sessile; blade unlobed or with 1-3 odd-pinnate, subpalmate, or palmate orders of lobes. |
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Inflorescences | buds subglobose, body 10-15 × 9-13 mm, unarmed or sparingly prickly; sepal horns terete, 5-10 mm, unarmed. |
axillary or terminal, unifloral or else multifloral and cymiform, racemose, umbelliform, corybiform, or paniculate, pedunculate or subsessile; bracts usually present. |
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Flowers | 4-7 cm broad, subtended by 1-2 foliaceous bracts; petals bright yellow or rarely pale lemon yellow; stamens 30-50; filaments yellow; pistil 4-6-carpellate. |
radially symmetric, pedicellate or sessile; receptacle sometimes expanded and forming cup or ring beneath calyx (only in Eschscholzia, Meconella, and Platystemon); perianth and androecium sometimes perigynous; sepals caducous, 2 or 3, distinct or connate, usually obovate; petals distinct, usually obovate, mostly 2 times number of sepals, sometimes more or absent; stamens many or 4-15 (only in Meconella and Canbya); anthers 2-locular; pistil 1, 2-18[-22]-carpellate; ovary 1-2-locular or incompletely to completely multilocular by placental intrusion; placentas 2 or more, parietal; style 1 or absent; stigmas or stigma lobes 2-many. |
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Fruits | capsular, dehiscence valvate, poricidal, or transverse, or carpels dissociating and breaking transversely into 1-seeded segments (only in Platystemon). |
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Capsules | oblong to broadly ellipsoid, 25-45 × 12-20 mm (including stigma and excluding prickles when present), unarmed or prickly, longest prickles 6-10 mm. |
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Seeds | 1.6-2 mm. |
usually many, small, sometimes arillate or carunculate. |
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2n | = 28. |
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Argemone mexicana |
Papaveraceae |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall, or throughout year in tropics. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Waste places, often a weed of roadsides, dooryards, fallow fields | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0-1500 m [0-4900 ft] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; CT; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; LA; MA; MD; MI; MO; NC; NE; NJ; NY; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; ON; Mexico; Central America; West Indies
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Worldwide; mainly Northern Hemisphere |
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Discussion | Argemone mexicana is probably native to southern Florida as well as the Caribbean islands and has been introduced along the coast of the United States from New England to Texas and, more infrequently, inland. Although it has been reported from Mississippi, no specimens are known. It is widespread in temperate and tropical regions around the world by introduction. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 25-30 (17 genera, 63 species in the flora). According to W. R. Ernst (1962b), Papaveraceae "may be divided conveniently into four subfamilies." His scheme is followed here, but with the subfamilies taken up in alphabetic order; they seem to be natural groups, but their phylogenetic interrelationships are not yet clear. Similarly, the evolutionary relationships within the subfamilies remain ambiguous, and the genera in each are listed alphabetically. Subfamily Chelidonioideae Ernst includes genera 1-5; subf. Eschscholzioideae Ernst, genera 6-7; subf. Papavaroideae Ernst, genera 8-14; and subf. Platostamenoideae Ernst, genera 15-17. Hunnemannia fumariifolia Sweet, native to the highlands of Mexico, is occasionally found in California as a garden escape. A glabrous perennial with glaucous, blue-gray stem and leaves, and glossy, yellow petals, it bears an overall resemblance to Eschscholzia but has distinct sepals, no receptacular cup, and a peltate stigma. Below, it would key out as Arctomecon. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3, p. 300. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | A. leiocarpa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 508. (1753) | A. L. Jussieu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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