White Prickly Poppy
33 images Created 24 May 2015
White Prickly Poppy, Argemone albiflora
Tissue-thin flowers dancing in the wind are White Prickly Poppies. Growing on slender stalks from two to four feet tall, these beauties produce flowers three inches across. They survive in heavily grazed fields. With their bitter and toxic sap and prickly leaves, even starving cattle will leave them alone. With this defense, they can often cover large areas producing beautiful scenes of white flowers moving gracefully on the slightest breeze. Of course, this delicate flower offers a good challenge to the photographer.
White Prickly Poppies were quickly adopted in European gardens in the early 1830’s as an exotic New World plant. In Texas, they never achieved this popularity, in part because they were considered so common. They quickly wilt when cut, diminishing their value in flower arrangements. Poppies like rocky or sandy soils and roadsides. An annual flower, they bloom most intensely in early April and May.
Tissue-thin flowers dancing in the wind are White Prickly Poppies. Growing on slender stalks from two to four feet tall, these beauties produce flowers three inches across. They survive in heavily grazed fields. With their bitter and toxic sap and prickly leaves, even starving cattle will leave them alone. With this defense, they can often cover large areas producing beautiful scenes of white flowers moving gracefully on the slightest breeze. Of course, this delicate flower offers a good challenge to the photographer.
White Prickly Poppies were quickly adopted in European gardens in the early 1830’s as an exotic New World plant. In Texas, they never achieved this popularity, in part because they were considered so common. They quickly wilt when cut, diminishing their value in flower arrangements. Poppies like rocky or sandy soils and roadsides. An annual flower, they bloom most intensely in early April and May.
