ARGEMONE MEXICANA L. 

Family: Papaveraceae

Common names: Mexican pricklepoppy, prickly poppy, cardo santo, herbe a femme

Annual herb with taproot, and upright, glabrous, prickly and rigid stem. Leaves alternate, sessile and clasp the stem. The flowers are yellow with three sepals and six petals. Fruit as a prickly capsule 2-2.5 cm long. Seeds round and black.

A. mexicana is found in a wide range of habitats, which include irrigated crop areas, ditchbanks and waste places. Its reproduction is by seeds.

A. mexicana is mainly controlled by conventional procedures of land preparation and inter- row cultivation. However, the weed is tolerant to some dinitroanilines and amides herbicides selectively used in vegetables, legumes and cotton.

In crop areas, A. mexicana is a common weed in vegetables, legumes, tobacco and other annual crops.

Its origin is in Central America and later it was introduced in Africa. At present it is a very common weed in tropical countries of Central America, Caribbean, part of South America, and West Africa.

Countries: Bangla Desh, Cuba, Erithrea, Nepal, Tanzania. 

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