Plants annual or perennial. Stems branched, 5-12 dm, sparingly to closely prickly. Leaf blades: abaxial surface sparingly prickly on veins, adaxial surface unarmed or sparingly prickly on veins, apices of lobes angular, marginal teeth prominent; proximal lobed ca. 3/4 distance to midrib; distal sometimes clasping. Inflorescences: buds oblong-obovoid or subglobose, body 14-20 × 11-18 mm, prickly, prickles simple or branched; sepal horns terete or adaxially flattened, 4-12 mm. Flowers 8-12(-16) cm broad; petals white; stamens ca. 150; filaments pale yellow to red; pistil 3-4-carpellate. Capsules ovoid to ellipsoid-lanceoloid, 25-45 × 10-16 mm (including stigma and excluding prickles), closely to sparingly prickly, longest prickles 4-6(-8) mm. Seeds 2-2.5 mm.

Plant: Perennialherb; STEMS purplish, rather closely to sparingly prickly throughout Leaves: prickly mainly on the vein, less so above, essentially smooth between the veins; lower and middle cauline leaves lobed one-half to five-sixths to the midrib, the lobes one to two times as long as wide, the margin angular at the apex, the sinuses and lobes subequal in width; uppermost leaves either not clasping or subclasping INFLORESCENCE: cymose Flowers: buds subspherical to obovate; calyx with few to many perpendicular prickles per sepal, the sepal horn 6-10 mm long, flattened or angular in cross-section when fresh, the apical prickle usually flattened and indurated at its base; petals white; stamens 150 or more Fruit: capsules ovate to elliptic, sparsely to closely prickly; SEEDS numerous, pitted Misc: Dry gravelly soil, foothills, mountain valleys, and high plains; 750-2300 m (2500-7500 ft);; Apr REFERENCES: Ownbey, Gerald B., Jeffrey W. Brasher, and Curtis Clark. 1998 Papaveraceae. J. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. 30(2): 120.