Argemone ochroleuca Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard. 3: t. 242. 1829; Nair in Rec. Bot. Surv. India 21(1): 7 - 8. 1978.

Shrubs, annual or perennial, up to 1 m tall; young stems whitish purple or violaceous. Leaves oblanceolate, semi-amplexicaul, sessile at base, sinuate to pinnatifid, basal leaves deeply lobed; lobes oblong, glaucous. Flower buds oblong, 8 - 15 x 4 - 9 mm; flowers whitish or pale lemon yellow, 2.5 - 3.5 cm across, sessile, subtended by 2 - 3 foliaceous 2 - 5 cm long, ca 5 mm broad bracts. Sepals 3,8 - 12 x 5 - 7 mm. Petals 6, obcuneate-obovate, 28 - 30 x 16 - 19 mm. Stamens many, 8 - 10 mm long; filaments pale yellow; anthers oblong, recurved, dark yellow. Ovary 8 - 10 x ca 5 mm; stigmas 5-lobed, deeply dissected, dark red. Capsules ovoid or lanceolate-ovoid, 1 - 4 cm long excluding style, 4 - 17 mm thick, with 12 - 26 erecto-patent spines per valve, the largest spine up to to mm long; seeds 1.5 - 2 mm in diam., finely reticulate, black.

Fl. & Fr. Feb. - June.

Distrib. India. A common weed in cultivated fields and embankments. Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Native of Mexico.

Notes. Chromosome no. n = 14 (Ernst in Contr. Dudley Herb. 5,5: 137 - 139.1959); 2n = 28,56 (Ownbey, l.c. 1958).

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