LACTUCA L.LETTUCE

LACTUCA L. - LETTUCE

Scientific Description:

Annual, biennial or perennial herbs with taproots. Stems erect, glabrous, crispate-pubescent, setulose or spinescent-setose, especially in lower part. Leaves alternate, linear to deeply runcinate-pinnatisect, glabrous, crispate-pubescent, or setulose, sometimes spinose-setose on midrib and main veins beneath, often glaucous, basal with petioloid base, upper sessile, ± auriculate. Capitula homogamous, ligulate, 5−25-flowered. Involucre cylindrical; phyllaries 3−4-seriate, sometimes much elongated in fruiting stage. Receptacle naked. Flowers yellow, lilac or whitish. Achenes homomorphic, compressed, beaked, minutely ascending-hispid or ascending-squamulose, beak slender, pallid, smooth. Pappus of numerous, ± slender, equal, scabrous to almost smooth hairs, white or straw-coloured, rarely with an outer ring of very short smooth acute hairs.

Reference:
Jeffrey C (1975). Lactuca L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 5: 776−777.

Public Description:

Lactuca is a genus of annual, biennial or perennial herbs, known as “lettuce”, and is distributed in worldwide, but mainly in temperate Eurasia. There is approximately 147 species in the world and 33 species (34 taxa) in Türkiye. “Lactuca” is a Latin word meaning “having milky sap”. Its best-known representative is the “garden lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)”, with its many varieties. Some species are bitter-tasting. Some species are used as food plants by the larvae of some moth and butterfly species.

References:

Anonymous 1 (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactuca#Footnotes/, Accessed date: 13.01.2016.

Anonymous 2 (2016). https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/genus/lactuca/, Accessed date: 13.01.2016.

Anonymous 3 (2016). http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Compositae/Lactuca//, Accessed date: 13.01.2016.

Ekim T (2012). Lactuca L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 179–181.