White Prickly Poppy

Related to the Matilija Poppy, this cousin looks very similar although it's smaller in size.  It also has sharp, prickly spines on the leaves, stalks and buds.  It grows at an elevation of 1,500 - 8,000 feet in most of the Southwest.  The plant is distasteful to livestock and tends to increase in heavily grazed rangeland.  The plant is also poisonous but the yellow sap has been used to treat some skin diseases and the plants were also boiled for baths in the treating rheumatism.

"White Prickly Poppy"     © Kathy Dunham 2011