Description: Erect annual herbs with yellow latex.
Basal rosette formed when young, stem leaves alternate, usually light green mottled with white, lobed, the lobes with pungent tips.
Flowers solitary on short branches. Sepals 3, shed early. Petals 6. Stamens numerous. Ovary 1-locular; styles short; stigmatic branches 4–6.
Capsule spiny, opening at the top; seeds numerous.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 10 species, America. Australia: 2 species (naturalised), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., N.T., S.A.
Text by S.W.L. Jacobs
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Petals cream to pale yellow; seeds c. 1.5 mm diam.; capsule with numerous spines | Argemone ochroleuca |
| Petals butter-yellow; seeds c. 2 mm diam.; capsule with fewer and larger spines | Argemone subfusiformis |
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