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Argemone mexicana
Also called Prickly poppy, Mexican poppy, Mexican Prickly Poppy, Yellow Thistle, Bermuda Thistle, Mexican Thistle, Thistle
Argemone mexicana is a hardy, drought-tolerant annual poppy from Mexico, now widely naturalized in many warm regions. It thrives in poor, dry soil and full sun, and is best kept out of gardens where people or grazing animals can reach it.
Argemone mexicana, also known by the common names Mexican poppy, Mexican prickly poppy, flowering thistle, cardo, and cardosanto, is a species of poppy found in Mexico and now widely naturalized in many parts of the world. An extremely hardy pioneer plant, it is tolerant of drought and poor soil, often being the only cover on new road cuttings or verges. It has bright yellow latex. It is poisonous to grazing animals, and it is rarely eaten, but it has been used medicinally by many peoples, including those in its native area, as well as the indigenous peoples of the western United States, parts of Mexico, and many parts of India. In India, during the colorful festival Holika Dahan, adults and children worship by offering flowers, and this species is in its maximum flowering phase during March when the Holi festival is celebrated.
The seeds resemble the seeds of Brassica nigra (mustard). As a result, mustard can be adulterated by argemone seeds, rendering it poisonous. Several significant instances of katkar poisoning have been reported in India, Fiji, South Africa and other countries. The last major outbreak in India occurred in 1998. 1% adulteration of mustard oil by argemone oil has been shown to cause clinical disease. In India, Argemone oil is mixed with sunflower oil and sesame oil to increase the quantity, but this adulteration causes health disorders and renowned brands display "no argemone oil" to qualify purity.
Katkar oil poisoning causes epidemic dropsy, with symptoms including extreme swelling, particularly of the legs. All parts of plants are poisonous. Ingestion of them can cause perianal itching, pneumonia myocarditis and congestive cardiac failure, ascites, sarcoid-like skin changes, alopecia, hepatomegaly
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Argemone mexicana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
