Lactuca floridana (L.) Gaertn.

Woodland Lettuce; Blue Lettuce

Herb

Biennial

Vascular

Woodland Lettuce is a native herbaceous biennial in the Sunflower family (Asteraceae). It occurs throughout Alabama. Woodland Lettuce occurs in mesic hardwood forests, along woodland edges, along streams, and on roadsides. It is a biennial with a tap root. The stems are 3-6 feet in height, unbranched below the inflorescence, glabrous, and hollow. The stems often have a purplish-red color to them, especially if in sunlight. The leaves are alternate, short petiolate or sessile, elliptic to lanceolate in outline, entire or toothed, and glabrous except along the veins. The leaves are often variously lobed, usually with a broad triangular terminal segment. All parts of the plant exude a milky white latex when injured. Flowers are produced in heads. The heads are arranged in diffuse panicles. Each head has 10-15 blue ray flowers and no disc flowers. The phyllaries (bracts subtending the head) are triangular, green at the base and purple at the apex. The fruit is an achene. The achene is flattened with 3-4 ribs. It is connected to a tuff of white pappus by a short, broad neck.--A. Diamond

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Native FACU (NWPL)

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