Citation: Ownbey, Brittonta 13:97, figs 12-14 (1961) subsp. subfusiformis.

Synonymy: A. mexicana L., Sp. Pl. 508 (1753), partly; A. mexicana L. var. ochroleuca sensu J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 366 (1948), non (Sweet)Lindley.

Common name: Mexican poppy, prickly poppy.

Description:
Dense rosette expanding into an ultimately much-branched shrub to 60 cm high, covered with scattered spinescent bristles; basal leaves with a petiole to 4 cm long, 7-18 cm long, with blade lanceolate, pinnatisect with spreading lobes each irregularly lobed or toothed and each tipped with a spiny bristle; cauline leaves shortly petiolate to sessile and clasping below the flowers, lanceolate to ovate, deeply but irregularly dissected and with teeth each ending in a spiny bristle.

Pedicel rarely more than 1 cm long; sepals each with a long terminal spine and several spiny bristles; petals cream to pale-yellow.

Capsule slender-fusiform (ellipsoid), to 4.5 cm long, with up to 18 spines per carpel; seeds globose, black, c. 2 mm diam., with a reticulate pattern in rows.

Published illustration: Beadle (1977) Student's flora of north-eastern New South Wales 2:fig. 57B.

Distribution:    N.S.W.; Vic. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: June — Jan.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: At present only A. subfusiformis is known from S.Aust. but being a rather variable species not all specimens am easily distinguished from the tetraploid A. mexicana var. ochroleuca, or A. ochroleuca, from which it is said to differ by its slender-fusiform capsule and seeds c. 2 mm diam. as opposed to c. 1.5 mm in the latter.

Author: Not yet available