LACTUCA SERRIOLA

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. LACTUCA

Common Names:- Prickly lettuce

Synonyms:- Lactuca sativa subsp. serriola, Lactuca scariola

Meaning:- Lactuca (L) Reference to the milky sap.

Serriola (L) Diminutive of seris, an old name for chicory.

General description:- A tall greyish annual or biennial to 1.8m.

Stem:-

1) Up to 180 cm, rigidly erect, glabrousor or setose, branched.

Leaves:-

1) Alternate, rigid, spinulose on the midrib beneath.

2) Basal narrowly obovate-oblong, usually deeply pinnatifid (rarely undivided).

3) Cauline less deeply lobed, held vertically.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence a long, pyramidal or spike-like panicle.

2) Involucre patent or deflexed in fruit.

3) Capitula with 7-15(-35) florets.

4) Ligules pale yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 6-8 mm; body elliptical, setose at theapex, 5- to 9-ribbed, greyish; beak

as long as the body.

Key features:-

1) Achenes pale.

2) Cauline leaves orbicular to broadly lanceolate; held vertically, spinulose on the

midrib.

3) Inflorescence usually a pyramidal panicle.

4) Involucral bracts patent or deflexed in fruit.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Field margins, orchards, gravelly roadsides and ruderal habitats. 0-600(-

1000) m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread

and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mid-June to Oct.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton