Bluestem pricklypoppy

Argemone albiflora, the white or bluestem prickly poppy, is an annual or biennial herb in the poppy family (Papaveraceae), native to the south-eastern and south-central United States, where it grows in fields, roadsides, pastures and other open, disturbed ground. It forms an erect, branching, prickly, bluish-green to glaucous stem 30 to 100 centimetres tall that exudes a yellow latex when broken. The alternate, sessile, clasping leaves are lobed and coarsely toothed, with spiny margins and prickles along the veins. The showy flowers, borne singly at the branch tips, are 5 to 10 centimetres across with four to six crinkled, papery, pure white petals surrounding a dense central cluster of numerous yellow stamens and a dark purplish stigma. The fruit is a spiny, oblong capsule that splits at the top to release many small, rounded, dark seeds. All parts contain toxic isoquinoline alkaloids, and the seed oil is poisonous.