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Herbs, annual, biennial, or perennial, usually stout, mostly branched, spiny, bitter yellow lactiferous. Stems mostly erect. Leaves pinnate, lobes repand dentate, teeth apically spiny. Flowers solitary, terminal or arranged in cyme, trimerous; receptacles narrowly conical. Flower buds erect. Sepals (2 or)3, caducous, apex with horned appendices. Petals (4-)6, in 2 whorls, contorted or imbricate in bud, orange, yellow, yellow-white, or white, occasionally pink or mauve. Stamens many, free; filaments filiform or slightly ampliate below middle, apically subulate; anthers linear, nearly basal, bifid, extrorse, curved after dehiscence. Ovary ovoid, conical-ovoid, or nearly elliptic; carpels (3 or)4-6, united; ovules many; styles very short or absent; stigmas as many as carpels, actinomorphic. Capsule spiny, rarely not spiny, apex divided for a short distance into 3-6 valves, rarely parting nearly to base. Seeds many, spheroidal; caruncle very small or absent, seed coat tessellate.
Erect, mostly annual, glaucous herbs, rarely shrubby or woody at the base; milk yellow, fetid. Leaves pinnatifid-dentate (cnicoid or ilicoid), mostly prickly (rarely hispid). Flowers terminal, solitary, surrounded by c. 3 foliaceous bracts, in old plants often in a large, leafy inflorescence, 3-merous. Flowers white, rarely yellow or rose, erect in bud; receptacle narrow-conical. Sepals 3, valvate, vaulted, horned below the apex, caducous in anthesis, falling off together. Petals 6, strongly plicate in bud, patent during anthesis. Filaments filiform; anthers basifixed, extrorse, twisted after flowering. Ovary ovate to oblong; placentas 3-7, each ∞-ovulate; style very short, stigma 3-7-lobed, lobes opposite the placentas. Capsule oblong, valves dehiscing from the apex to about ⅓ (rarely to the base) loosening from the placentas, replum mitre-shaped, attached to the style-base. Seeds ∞, globular, reticulate-ribbed; raphe cristate; endosperm oily.
Annual or perennial herbs or (not in Australia) subshrubs, 0.3–1.6 m tall, with taproot, glaucous, smooth, prickly or hispid; latex pale to bright yellow to orange. Stems erect or ascending, leafy, branching; axes determinate. Leaves alternate, sessile, often clasping; lamina usually lobed, dentate, prickly on margin, often mottled over veins. Inflorescence cymose, bracteate, few-flowered. Flowers conspicuous, without hypanthium. Sepals 3, distinct, imbricate, each with a subterminal saccate process (horn). Petals 6 in 2 whorls, usually yellow or (not in Australia) white or lavender. Stamens numerous. Pistil: ovary unilocular, usually 3–5-carpellate; ovules numerous; style short; stigmas 1 per carpel, without a stigmatic disc. Capsule erect, prickly or spinose, dehiscing apically by valves. Seeds subspherical, numerous, minutely pitted; aril present.
Herbs or rarely shrubs, usually glaucous and 'armed with prickles, the juice or sap yellowish; leaves alternate, sessile, pinnatifid to repand-lobate, the lobes spinulose-dentate and rigidly spined terminally; flowers large, solitary, terminal, or terminal on short axillary branches and thus appearing somewhat racemose or cymose, usually yellow or cream, rarely in some species red or purple; buds erect; sepals 2 or 3, usually bearing prickles, early caducous; petals 4-6, large and showy; stamens many; ovary ovoid to obovoid, many-ovulate, with 3-6 parietal placentae, usually armed; style short; stigma depressed, the lobes radiating from the center; capsule usually oblong, spiny, opening by 3-6 valves at the top; seeds crested, scrobiculate.
Annual or biennial herbs, sometimes perennial and shrubby. Stems glaucous, erect to 1.5 m. high, unarmed to prickly. Leaves glaucous, sessile, pinnately lobed or incised with a dentate prickly margin, and often the surface prickly. Flowers large, terminal or cymose. Sepals (2–)3(–6) with a subterminal terete horn ; outer surface usually sparsely prickly. Petals 6, normally in 2 whorls of 3, usually white or yellow. Anthers basifixed ; filaments filiform. Carpels (3–)4–6(–7) ; stigmatic lobes same number as carpels and opposite the placentas. Capsule opening by means of valves. Seeds brown-black, up to 3 mm. in diameter ; embryo larger than in other genera, i.e. about 2/3 seed-length.
Annual herbs with yellow latex. Lvs pinnatifid, spiny, usually glaucous, toothed. Fls solitary or in lax leafy cymes, with 2-3 bracts. Sepals 2-3, entire, free, falling as fl. opens, horned. Petals 4-6, crumpled in bud, usually white, cream or yellow. Stigma 4-lobed; style usually short, rarely almost 0. Capsule ovoid, spiny, opening from above by usually 4 valves. Seeds globose, with thin arillar crest.
Stems, lvs, and sep spiny; sep generally 3; pet generally 6; ovary unilocular, with 4–6 parietal placentas; style short or none; stigma dilated, 4–6-radiate; capsule spiny, the upper third opening by valves; coarse herbs with thistle-like foliage and large fls terminating the branches; juice in our spp. yellow. 20, New World.
Carpels 3 (4–6); stigmas the same number as the carpels and alternating with the placentas.
Annual or biennial herbs (rarely perennial and somewhat shrubby) with yellow latex.
Leaves pinnate-lobed or incised, usually spiny.
Capsule opening by valves at the top
Sepals 3, horned at the apex.
Ovary with 4–7 placentas
Capsule usually spiny.
Petals 4–6, yellow
Stamens numerous.
Stigmas radiating
Stamens numerous
Seeds pitted.
Sepals 2–3
Petals 6.
