Florida lettuce

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Florida lettuce leaf

Florida lettuce leaf

Florida lettuce leaf

Florida lettuce leaf

Florida lettuce leaf and head

Florida lettuce head

Florida lettuce leaf

Florida lettuce

Florida lettuce leaf

Florida lettuce

Morphology

Stem

Ascending to erect, glabrous; latex white.

Leaves

Basal and cauline, alternate. Basal leaves: blade ovate, 1.3 to 12 inches long, 1.2 to 7 inches wide, base tapered and sagittate, margins pinnately lobed or dentate, lower midrib sometimes pilose. Cauline leaves gradually reduced; blade ovate to lanceolate, base sagittate, margins pinnate to dentate.

Inflorescence

Heads in panicle-like arrays; involucres cylindric, 1/3 to 1/2 inch; phyllaries 14-17, triangular or lanceolate to linear, ca. 1/3 inch.

Flower

Florets 10-16 ligules; corolla light blue, violet, or rarely white, .3 to .4 inch.

Fruit

Achene body dark brown, 1/6 to 1/5 inch long, 1/16 to 1/12 inch wide, not marginally winged, minutely wrinkled, beak brown, absent or stubby, 0 to 1/12 inch, pappus bristles white, 1/6 to 1/4 inch.

Ecology

Habitat

Floodplain and oak-hickory forests and woodlands, stream banks, occasionally wet ditches and prairie ravines.

Distribution

Principally east 1/2 of Kansas

Additional Notes