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Plants annual or short-lived perennial. Stems branching distally, 3-10 dm, sparingly prickly. Leaf blades: abaxial surface sparingly prickly on veins, adaxial surface usually unarmed; proximal deeply lobed nearly to midrib; distal more shallowly lobed, usually clasping. Inflorescences: buds oblong, body 8-18 × 4-11 mm, with 4-10 prickles per sepal; sepal horns terete, 5-12 mm, unarmed. Flowers 3-7 cm broad, closely subtended by 1-2 foliaceous bracts; petals lemon yellow or rarely darker yellow; stamens 20-75; filaments yellow; pistil 3-6-carpellate. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid to oblong, 20-50 × 10-18 mm (including stigma and excluding prickles), longest prickles 8-12 mm. Seeds 1.5-2 mm. 2 n = 56.
Same as for A. mexicana with the following distinguishing characters: Flowers: buds more oblong, with longer sepal horns; typically larger, with very pale yellow petals. Fruit a capsule, typically longer and more spindle-shaped; spines generally longer, more widely spaced and coarser.
Spiny annual, up to 0.9 m tall. Leaves grey or bluish green, fringed with straw-coloured spines. Flowers solitary in leaf axils, pale yellow or creamy white. Fruit a spiny capsule, oblong in outline.
For taxon occurring in Australia see Argemone ochroleuca Sweet subsp. ochroleuca.
