LACTUCA SALIGNA

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. LACTUCA

Common Names:- Least lettuce

Synonyms:- None

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

Saligna (L) Of willow-like appearance, willowy.

General description:- A tall greyish annual or biennial to 1m, though often less.

Stems:-

1) 30-100 cm,whitish, stiff and erect, glabrous or somewhat setose; branched.

Leaves:-

1) Often muricate on the midrib.

2) Lower, undivided to pinnatifid with narrow distant lobes.

3) Upper oblong to linear with a sagittate base.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence a spike-like panicle of numerous capitula.

2) Capitula with 6-15 florets.

3) Ligules pale yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 5-8 mm; body elliptical, finely muricate at apex, 7- to 8-ribbed, pale

brown; beak 1½-3 times as long as the body, subglabrous at the apex.

Key features:-

1) Cauline leaves oblong to linear.

2) Inflorescence usually a spike-like panicle.

3) Stem glabrous.

4) Achenes subglabrous at the apex.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Dry, open and gravelly places, roads, fallow fields, vineyards. 0-1100 m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean area and SC

Europe, eastwards through anatolia to Caucasia. Scattered across Crete not too

common.

Flowering time:- June-Sept.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton