Wild lettuce

Images

Click on image to view full size

Wild lettuce upper leaf

Wild lettuce latex

Wild lettuce achenes

Wild lettuce mid-stem leaf

Wild lettuce leaves

Wild lettuce

Wild lettuce

Wild lettuce inflorescence

Morphology

Stem

Erect, solitary, multi-branched above, glabrous or rarely coarsely-hairy, somewhat waxy, often purple-spotted; latex brown.

Leaves

Alternate, highly variable, sessile; basal and lower stem leaves sickle-shaped to linear-ovate or egg-shaped, 6 to 14 inches long, 1.6 to 5.6 inch wide; margins weakly toothed or pinnately-cleft to deeply pinnate-lobed; lower midrib often stiff-hairy; middle and upper stem leaves linear-ovate, egg-shaped, or lanceolate, 4 to 12 inches long; margins entire or toothed to pinnate-lobed; lower midrib glabrous; upper leaves gradually reduced.

Inflorescence

Panicle, much-branched, diffuse, cone-shaped, terminal; heads 50-100+, small, cylindric, less than 1/2 inch across, 1/3 to 1/2 inch tall; bracts 17, overlapping, about 1/3 inch long at flowering and 1/2 inch long in fruit, usually bent downward in fruit; outer bracts lanceolate, inner bracts linear.

Flower

Ray florets 15-22, about 1/6 inch long, yellow, pinkish-orange, or reddish apex and yellow base; anthers yellow, protruding; disk florets absent.

Fruit

Achene, elliptic or oblong, flattened, 1/5 to 1/4 inch long (including thread-like beak), 1/12 inch wide, dark brown, prominent lateral wings, single rib on upper and lower surfaces, tipped with white bristles 1/5 to 1/4 inch long.

Ecology

Habitat

Woodland margins and clearings, stream and river banks, rocky open woods, waste places, roadsides, margins of lakes and ponds, thickets, marshes, pastures, borders of fields, disturbed sites; moist, sandy soils.

Distribution

Principally in the east 1/2 of Kansas.

Practical Information

Toxicity

When grazed, the plant can cause milk to be tainted.

Uses

Native Americans would steep the roots and bark and take the tea for back and kidney pains; took a tea to induce sleep; applied a poultice of pulverized roots to stop bleeding cuts; and used the milky latex to treat poison ivy sores. The leaves were cooked and eaten as greens.