May Apple. Mandrake (_Podophyllum peltatum_) is abundant in moist woods in East Texas. The white flower growing in the fork of the stem is overtopped by the two umbrella-shaped leaves.
Usually twining shrubs or small trees; flowers small, unisexual and perfect; sepals 6; petals 6, or absent; stamens 6-12; carpels 3-6; fruit berry-like, 1-seeded.
Moonseed Vine (_Cebatha Carolina_) is a vine with clusters of small red berries. It is very abundant throughout the state in woods and on fences, ranging north to Kansas and Virginia. It is also called coral-bead, margil, coral-vine, and red-berried moonseed. “Cebatha,” from the Greek, alludes to its climbing habit, while “moonseed” refers to the curved seed of the fleshy red berries which ripen in the fall and remain on the vines long after the leaves have fallen. The small white flowers bloom during the summer and fall. The leaves are quite variable, sometimes entire and sometimes distinctly 3-lobed and rarely 5-lobed, being smooth above and downy beneath.
The berries of the Indian moonseed contain an acrid poison which is used by the Chinese in catching fish, as it will temporarily stun or intoxicate the fish.
Annuals or perennials with colored juice; sepals 2-3; petals 4-6, rarely more or wanting; stamens numerous; carpels 2 or more united; capsules opening by valves or pores.
Rose Prickly Poppy (_Argemone rosea_) is one of the loveliest flowers of South Texas. It is very abundant along the Rio Grande, extending into Mexico and northward almost to San Antonio. The large flowers vary in color from pale pink to rose and purple-rose and are more cup-shaped than the white-flowered species. It has gray-green leaves conspicuously blotched with white along the midribs, the slightly wavy margins being armed with sharp spines. Like other prickly poppies, the flowers have 6 petals, the 3 outer a little different in shape from the 3 inner, and an orange-colored sap. Long considered a variety of the western prickly poppy (_Argemone platyceras_), which has very spiny leaves and stems and white flowers, it may readily be separated because of its seed-pods, which are about 2 in. long and decidedly broader above the middle.
_Argemone_ is from the Greek meaning an eye disease, supposedly cured by the plant. The opium poppy (_Papaver somniferum_) has been widely planted in gardens, and has escaped in places in the state.