Argemone - Prickly Poppy Argemone mexicana

This plant is very popular among those seeking a "legal high" and the mildly narcotic seeds are often mixed with tobacco or other herbs in smoking mixtures. However, most content themselves to growing the plant for its attractive flowers in native habitat gardens. Like other members of the poppy family, the prickly poppy has a long history as a traditional medicine.

“ The use of the oil of the seeds, the leaves, and the petals of this species has been quite prominent among native peoples of all tropical countries where the plant grows. Among the ancient Greeks the juice was supposed curative of cataract. In Mexico the latex juice of the plant was mixed with water for skin diseases, and the flowers used for chest complaints and as a narcotic. As a whole the plant has been conceded to be anodyne, detersive, resolutive, hpnotic, diuretic, diaphoretic, ophthalmic, and a hydragogue cathartic, appearing to unite the properties of Opium, Gamboge,and Celedine. ” ^{Millspaugh, Charles F. "American Medicinal Plants" (1882) 20[20-2]}