Lactuca saligna L. Willowleaf Lettuce

Lactuca saligna L. - Willowleaf Lettuce

Scientific Description:

Annual or biennial with procumbent to erect slender, pallid, glabrous stems, 10−65 cm. Leaves variable, dark green, glabrous except for sometimes a few setae on midrib beneath, linear to deeply runcinate-pinnatisect with 4−8 lateral lobes, sessile, entire or remotely sinuate-dentate, auriculate, 1−16 × 0.2−4.5 cm, auricles small, pointed, forming a hastate leaf-base. Inflorescence spiciform, many capitulate, glabrous. Involucre narrow, 6−13 mm long, rather longer in fruit than in flower; phyllaries c. 10, 3-seriate, glabrous, sometimes purple-tinged. Flowers pale yellow, c. 1 cm, finely hairy about mouth. Achenes 7.2−10.7 mm, dark brown, many-ribbed, with slender pallid 4−6.8 mm beak. Pappus white, 3.5−4.5 mm.

 

Flowering time: July−September.

Habitat: Open gravelly places, roadsides and pathsides, fallow and cultivated fields, s.l.−2400 m.

 

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

Public Description:

Lactuca saligna, known as “willowleaf lettuce” or “least lettuce”, is naturally grown in Eurasia, but it grows in many other places as an introduced species, including much of North America. It is an annual or biennial herb with pale yellow flowers, and grows up to 65 cm in length. It blooms between July and September and is found in open gravelly places, roadsides and pathsides, fallow and cultivated fields.

 

References:

Anonymous (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactuca_saligna/, 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.