Classification System: APG IV
Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Ordo: Ranunculales
Familia: Papaveraceae
Subfamilia: Papaveroideae
Tribus: Papavereae
Genus: Argemone
Species: A. aenea – A. albiflora – A. arida – A. arizonica – A. aurantiaca – A. brevicornuta – A. burkartii – A. chisosensis – A. corymbosa – A. crassifolia – A. echinata – A. fruticosa – A. glabrata – A. glauca – A. grandiflora – A. hispida – A. hunnemannii – A. mexicana – A. munita – A. ochroleuca – A. parva – A. pinnatisecta – A. platyceras – A. pleiacantha – A. polyanthemos – A. rosea – A. sanguinea – A. squarrosa – A. subalpina – A. subfusiformis – A. subinermis – A. subintegrifolia – A. superba – A. turnerae
Nothospecies: A. × hybrida
Name
Argemone L., Sp. Pl. 1: 503 (1753).
Type species: Argemone mexicana L.
Note:
The name Argemone intermedia Sweet (Hort. Brit. ed. 2, 1830) is encountered in several regional and local floras but is of uncertain application.
Distribution
Native distribution areas:
Continental: America
Alabama, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Argentina South, Arizona, Belize, Bolivia, California, Chile Central, Chile North, Colorado, Ecuador, El Salvador, Florida, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Hawaii, Honduras, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Nicaragua, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Paraguay, Peru, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Uruguay, Utah, Wyoming
Introduced into:
Angola, Arkansas, Aruba, Ascension, Assam, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Benin, Bermuda, Botswana, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Cayman Is., China Southeast, Colombia, Comoros, Connecticut, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, East Himalaya, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Free State, French Guiana, Galápagos, Gambia, Ghana, Great Britain, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Gulf States, Guyana, Illinois, India, Indiana, Iran, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jawa, Kentucky, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Laccadive Is., Lebanon-Syria, Leeward Is., Lesotho, Lesser Sunda Is., Liberia, Madeira, Malawi, Malaya, Maldives, Mali, Maluku, Marianas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mauritania, Mauritius, Michigan, Missouri, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New Jersey, New South Wales, New York, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Nicobar Is., Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Is., Northern Provinces, Northern Territory, Oman, Ontario, Pakistan, Palestine, Pennsylvania, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Queensland, Rodrigues, Rwanda, Réunion, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Socotra, Somalia, South Australia, Southwest Caribbean, Sri Lanka, St.Helena, Sudan, Sulawesi, Suriname, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tasmania, Tennessee, Togo, Transcaucasus, Trinidad-Tobago, Turks-Caicos Is., Uganda, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Vermont, Victoria, Vietnam, Virginia, West Himalaya, Western Australia, Windward Is., Wisconsin, Yemen, Zaïre, Zimbabwe
References: Brummitt, R.K. 2001. TDWG – World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, 2nd Edition
References
Primary references
Linnaeus, C. 1753. Species Plantarum. Tomus I: 503. Reference page.
Additional references
Ownbey, G.B. (1958) Monograph of the genus Argemone for North America and the West Indies. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club 21(1): 1–159.
Ownbey, G.B in
eFloras 2008. Argemone in Flora of North America. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
Schwarzbach, A.E. and J.W. Kadereit (1999) Phylogeny of prickly poppies, Argemone (Papaveraceae), and the evolution of morphological and alkaloid characters based on ITS rDNA sequence variation. Plant Systematics and Evolution 218: 257–279.
Links
Govaerts, R. et al. 2025. Argemone in Kew Science Plants of the World Online. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2025 February 13. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2025. 13. Published online. Accessed: February 2025. Reference page.
Hassler, M. 2025. World Plants. Synonymic Checklist and Distribution of the World Flora. . Argemone. Accessed: 13 February 2025.
Tropicos.org 2025. Argemone. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published online. Accessed: 13 February 2025.
Vernacular names
Deutsch: Stachelmohn
English: Prickly poppies
suomi: Piikkiunikot
polski: Argemon
русский: Аргемона
svenska: Taggvallmosläktet
中文: 刺罂粟属
Argemone is a genus of flowering plants in the family Papaveraceae commonly known as prickly poppies.[2] There are about 32 species native to the Americas and Hawaii.[3] The generic name originated as ἀργεμώνη in Greek and was applied by Dioscorides to a poppy-like plant used to treat cataracts.[4][5]
Selected species
Argemone aenea G.B. Ownbey – golden prickly poppy
Argemone albiflora Hornem – bluestem prickly poppy
Argemone albiflora subsp. albiflora
Argemone albiflora subsp. texana G.B.Ownbey
Argemone arizonica G.B.Ownbey – Arizona prickly poppy
Argemone aurantiaca G.B.Ownbey – Texas prickly poppy
Argemone chisosensis G.B.Ownbey – Chisos Mountain prickly poppy
Argemone corymbosa Greene – Mojave prickly poppy
Argemone corymbosa subsp. arenicola
Argemone corymbosa subsp. corymbosa
Argemone glauca (Nutt. ex Prain) Pope – pua kala (Hawaii)[6]
Argemone glauca var. decipiens G.B.Ownbey
Argemone glauca var. glauca (Nutt. ex Prain) Pope
Argemone gracilenta Greene – Sonoran prickly poppy
Argemone hispida A.Gray – rough prickly poppy
Argemone mexicana L. – Mexican prickly poppy
Argemone munita Durand & Hilg. – flat-bud prickly poppy
Argemone ochroleuca Sweet – pale Mexican prickly poppy
Argemone pinnatisecta (G.B.Ownbey) S.D.Cerv. & C.D.Bailey
Argemone platyceras Link & Otto – chicalote
Argemone pleiacantha Greene – southwestern prickly poppy
Argemone pleiacantha subsp. ambigua G.B.Ownbey
Argemone pleiacantha subsp. pleiacantha
Argemone polyanthemos (Fedde) G.B.Ownbey – crested prickly poppy
Argemone sanguinea Greene – red prickly poppy
Argemone squarrosa Greene – hedgehog prickly poppy
Argemone squarrosa subsp. glabrata
Argemone squarrosa subsp. squarrosa
Argemone subfusiformis G.B.Ownbey[2][7]
Formerly placed here
Papaver armeniacum (L.) DC. (as A. armeniaca L.)[7]
References
"Genus: Argemone L." Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2001-11-28. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
"Argemone". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
Argemone. Flora of North America.
Gledhill, D. (2008). The Names of Plants (4 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-521-86645-3.
ἄργεμον (argemon) means "cataract" in Greek. See Quattrocchi, Umberto (2000). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names. Vol. I: A-C. CRC Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-8493-2675-2.
"pua kala, kala, naule, pokalakala". Hawaii Ethnobotany Online Database. Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Archived from the original on 2007-07-02. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
"GRIN Species Records of Argemone". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2010-10-28.
External links
Jepson Manual Treatment
Further reading
Pink, A. (2004). Gardening for the Million. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
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