''Lactuca saligna'' is a species of
wild lettuce known by the common name willowleaf lettuce, and least lettuce. It is native to Eurasia but it grows in many other places as an
introduced species
An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...
, including much of North America.
It can be found rarely in south-east
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
on dry banks near the sea and estuaries.
Description
''Lactuca saligna'' is an
annual herb growing from a
taproot
A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproot ...
to heights of , and occasionally taller. It is much slenderer than great lettuce ''
Lactuca virosa'' and prickly lettuce ''
Lactuca serriola.'' The spindly, mainly erect stem has bristles on its lower portion. The leaves are very long and narrow, up to long but rarely than wide, usually with no lobes and no teeth. The top part of the stem is occupied by a narrow
inflorescence
In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...
. The branches may be pressed against the main stem, or they may branch outward. The
flower head is up to about wide when open, with rectangular pale yellow ray florets with toothed tips. There are no disc florets. The fruit is a spiny-ribbed dark brown
achene (or
cypsela) almost long with a long white
pappus.
Flora of North America, ''Lactuca saligna'' Linnaeus, 1753.
/ref>
''Lactuca saligna'' flowers from July to August in Britain.
References
External links
Jepson Manual Treatment, University of CaliforniaCalphotos Photo gallery, University of CaliforniaPhoto of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Oklahoma in 1989
saligna
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Flora of Europe
{{Cichorieae-stub