Argemone
L.
Herbs, erect, prickly or often glabrous, annual or perennial, with yellowish juice.
Leaves sessile, pinnatifid or sinuate-lobulate, glaucous; middle and upper ones elliptic-oblong; lower obovate or oblanceolate, toothed along margins, each tooth ending in a
prickle. Flowers solitary, terminal or axillary, pedunculate, white, yellow or orange;
flower-buds spherical, elliptic or oblong. Sepals 3, caducous, bearing a horn below apex.
Petals 6 in 2 whorls, obovate. Stamens many, 2-loculed; filaments filiform; anthers linear,
basifixed. Ovary ovate-oblong or subfusiform, unilocular; placentae 3 - 5, parietal;
ovules numerous; styles very short or obsolete; stigmas sessile, radiating, 3 - 7-lobed;
lobes opposite to placental strands. Capsules ellipsoid to oblong, 4 -
6-ribbed, prickly
or not, dehiscing along sutures by 3 - 6 short valves in upper part; seeds numerous,
subspherical or spherical, pitted.
American genus; ca 22 species, 3 species in India, introduced as weeds.
Literature. KSHETRAPAL, S., JAIN, U. & T. C. TANWAR (1984) Anatomical studies in the genus Argemone. Bull. Bot. Surv. India 26: 164 - 166. LAYKA, S. (1976) Le polymorphisme pollinique dans le genre Argemone (Papaveraceae). Pollen et Spores 18(3): 351 - 375. MARY, T. N., GROVER, I. S. & C. P. MALICK (1974) The genus Argemone: 3. Cytological studies in some autotetraploids. Chromosome Inform. Serv. No. 16: 11 - 12. OWNBEY, G. B. (1958) Monograph of the genus Argemone for North America and the West Indies. Mem. Torrey Bot. Club 21(1): 1 - 149.
American genus; ca 22 species, 3 species in India, introduced as weeds.
Literature. KSHETRAPAL, S., JAIN, U. & T. C. TANWAR (1984) Anatomical studies in the genus Argemone. Bull. Bot. Surv. India 26: 164 - 166. LAYKA, S. (1976) Le polymorphisme pollinique dans le genre Argemone (Papaveraceae). Pollen et Spores 18(3): 351 - 375. MARY, T. N., GROVER, I. S. & C. P. MALICK (1974) The genus Argemone: 3. Cytological studies in some autotetraploids. Chromosome Inform. Serv. No. 16: 11 - 12. OWNBEY, G. B. (1958) Monograph of the genus Argemone for North America and the West Indies. Mem. Torrey Bot. Club 21(1): 1 - 149.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
| 1a. Flowers bright yellow; stigmatic lobes closely crowded together and appressed to styles at anthesis; styles inconspicuous. up to 1 mm long in fruit | 1. Argemone mexicana |
| b. Flowers white, turning to pale yellowish with age; stigmatic lobes divergent and not appressed; styles conspicuous in fruits. 1 - 3 mm long | 2 |
| 2a. Capsules lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate; sepal horns 6 - 8 mm long; leaves whitish green with prominent whitish tinge along midribs and veins | 2. Argemone ochroleuca |
| b. Capsules subellipsoid to subfusiform; sepal horns 10 - 14 mm long; leaves pale green | 3. Argemone subfusiformis |
