Imagine, if you will, a street median that stretches unbroken for seven blocks in a north-south orientation. Further imagine the median sits between two 2-lane streets. Finally, imagine that the elevation of one street is ten feet below that of the other street. This means the soil surface of the median is pitched at approximately a 40 degree angle above horizontal. Finally... the median is a weed patch... not a lawn... and that the weed patch has recently been reduced to stubble by city crews,
Now then... it was mid-summer and I was driving up one of those streets when I saw... standing regally and majestically in the middle of this absolutely barren median ... a single plant standing about two feet high. On close inspection it turned out to have silver-gray, thistle-like foliage and the most beautiful blooms. They were snow white with 4-6 crumpled petals that looked as though they had been cut from crepe paper. These petals surrounded a dense globular collection of golden yellow stamens.
It might have been its unusual circumstance, but I like to think it was its singular beauty that drew me to my first view of Argemone albiflora... the White Prickly Poppy.

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Bluestem Prickly Poppy is an annual or biennial plant whose native range here in Florida is the central and northern parts of the state. Bluestem Prickly Poppy grows from 1 to 4 feet in height and has large 3 to 4 1/2 inch white flowers with a yellowish orange throat. The bluish-green, spiny leaves are 3 to 8 inches in length and attached to a thick, erect thorny stem. Bluestem Prickly Poppy grows in sandy soil or gravely areas and forms colonies in dry disturbed sites, old fields and pastures, and along roadsides. Plant contains a yellow latex sap and all parts of the plant are toxic.

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