Flowers of the Southwest Deserts

by Natt N. Dodge

Common Names: WESTERN-JIMSON, THORNAPPLE, GIANT-JIMSON, SACRED DATURA Arizona, California, and Texas deserts. (Datura meteloides). White. May-October. Potato family. Size: Up to 3 feet tall, and spreading over as much as 50 square feet of ground.

All portions of this coarse, vine-like herb are poisonous, and are used by some Indians as a narcotic to induce visions.

Seeds are sometimes administered to prevent miscarriage.

The plants with their large, gray-green leaves and showy, white, sometimes lavender-tinted flowers which open at night and close soon after contact by rays of the morning sun, are a common and arresting sight along roadsides and washes at elevations from 1,000 to 6,500 feet in Texas, New Mexico, southern Utah, southern California, and Mexico.

WHITE

Argemone

Common Names: PRICKLYPOPPY, THISTLEPOPPY, (CHICALOTE) Arizona, California, and Texas deserts. (Argemone platyceras). White. Blooms all year. Poppy family. Size: Up to 30 inches in height.

One of the commonest and most noticeable perennials of the Southwest, the Pricklypoppy ranges from South Dakota and Wyoming to Texas, Arizona, southern California, and northern Mexico. A coarse, prickly plant with large flowers and yellowish sap, it is easily recognized.