SPECIES DESCRIPTION
LACTUCA VIMINEA
Family and Genus:- See- COMPOSITAE/Sect. PHOENIXOPUS
Common Names:- None
Synonyms:- Chondrilla viminea, Hieracium vimineum, Phaenixopus
decurrens Phaenixopus vimineus, Prenanthes viminea, Scariola viminea
Meaning:- Lactuca (L) Reference to the milky sap.
Viminea (L) With long, slender shoots.
General description:- Glabrous biennial with a stout taproot.
Stem:-
1) 30-80 cm, erect, straw-coloured or whitish, with long slender branches.
Leaves:-
1) Glaucous, decurrent with long, appressed, linear auricles.
a) lower, pinnatifid to pinnatisect with linear-lanceolate, often dentate segments,
the undivided part of the lamina less than 2 cm wide.
b) upper cauline, reduced, but with 2 decurrent green lobes fused to the whitish
stem.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, a much-branched or spike-like panicle.
2) Capitula, subsessile. (closing by midday).
3) Ligules, pale yellow.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes, 7-15 mm; body narrowly oblong-elliptical, 5- to 15-ribbed, black; beak
shorter than or as long as body.
Key features:-
1) Usually biennial. with a stout taproot.
2) Upper cauline, reduced, but with 2 decurrent green lobes fused to the whitish
stem.
3) Stem, 30-80 cm, usually solitary, erect with long slender branches.
4) Achenes, 9-15 mm, with a beak c. equalling the body.
Habitat:- Rocky slopes, screes, open shrubby vegetation, roadsides and
somewhat ruderalised habitats. 0-800 m.
Distribution:- Scattered throughout mainland Greece (particularly in the
mountains). Widespread in C & S Europe and SW Asia. Naturalised elsewhere.
On Crete scattered across the west with one location recorded from the east.
Flowering time:- July-Oct
Photos by:- Giorgos Pantakis
