Plants perennial. Stems 2-8 dm, scattered-prickly. Leaf blades: surfaces shallowly to deeply lobed, thick, leathery, surfaces unarmed to sparingly prickly, especially abaxial surface on veins; distal clasping. Inflorescences: buds subglobose to ellipsoid-ovoid, body 10-18 × 8-14 mm, sparingly prickly; sepal horns terete or flattened in cross section, 5-7 mm. Flowers 4-9 cm broad; petals white; stamens 100-120; filaments pale yellow; pistil 3-5-carpellate. Capsules ovoid to lanceoloid, 25-35 × 10-16 mm (including stigma and excluding prickles), prickly, surface clearly visible, prickles simple, well spaced, subequal, longest 5-7 mm. Seeds 1.5-2 mm.

Plant: shrub or herb; STEMS sparsely to moderately prickly with perpendicular to declinate prickles Leaves: thick and coriaceous, smooth to sparsely prickly on the veins beneath, smooth or with scattered prickles on and between the veins above; basal and lower cauline leaves essentially unlobed to lobed; upper leaves half-clasping INFLORESCENCE: cymose Flowers: buds broadly elliptic-obovate; sepals sparingly prickly, the horns smooth, 4-7 mm long, terete or tangentially flattened in cross-section, the apical prickle flattened basally; petals white; stamens ca 100-120 Fruit: CAPSULES ovate or lanceolate, with about 15-30 prickles per square cm of surface, the longest prickles 3-7 mm long; SEEDS numerous pitted Misc: May REFERENCES: Ownbey, Gerald B., Jeffrey W. Brasher, and Curtis Clark. 1998 Papaveraceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 30(2): 120.