Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 506 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Long prickly-headed (or pale) poppy.

Description:
Diffuse rosette with the erect inflorescence often much branched so that the plant becomes a shrublet to 40 cm high, covered with more or less spreading fine hairs; basal leaves with a petiole 2-5 mm long (about half as long as the leaf), 4-12 cm long, with the blade oblanceolate, bipinnatisect with narrowly linear lobes; cauline leaves petiolate to sessile, with the blade lanceolate to ovate, 2-8 cm long, usually bipinnatisect.

Pedicels covered with erect to appressed fine hairs; sepals with few fine hairs; petals red, usually with a dark spot at the base.

Capsule narrowly obconical and about three times longer than broad, with the few bristles towards the apex appressed at first but later more or less spreading; seed pale-brown, with a reticulate pattern in rows.

	Papaver argemone
Image source: fig 204b in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Hegi (1913) Illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa 4, 1:t. 123.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR.   Native of southern Europe but now widespread on that continent as a weed of cultivation. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: mid — Oct.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available