Prickly lettuce

Images

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Prickly lettuce florets

Bristles along midrib

Prickly lettuce leaves

Prickly lettuce leaf

Prickly lettuce flowers

Prickly lettuce inflorescence

Prickly lettuce leaf

Prickly lettuce inflorescence

Prickly lettuce

Prickly lettuce heads

Prickly lettuce florets

Prickly lettuce

Prickly lettuce inflorescence

Prickly lettuce achenes

Prickly lettuce

Prickly lettuce inflorescence

Prickly lettuce achenes

Morphology

Stem

Erect, branched above, bearing stiff bristles on lower 1/3; latex white.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, sessile, egg-shaped, 2 to 15 inches long, to 3 inches wide; margins sharp toothed to deeply pinnate-lobed; upper leaves smaller and lanceolate; prickly bristles along midribs on underside of middle and lower leaves.

Inflorescence

Widely spreading panicles of 50-100 heads; heads about 1/4 inch wide; bracts about 17, in 3-4 series, ovate to lanceolate.

Flower

Ray florets 18-25, pale yellow with bluish stripe on back side; anthers yellow, protruding; disk florets absent.

Fruit

Achenes, small, flattened, conspicuously 5-7-ridged, light brown, long-beaked, tipped with whitish, hair-like bristles, enclosing small seed.

Ecology

Habitat

Disturbed sites, waste areas, roadsides, and overgrazed pastures.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas.

Practical Information

Toxicity

Can cause poisoning in cattle when too much is consumed.

Forage Value

Prickly lettuce is palatable when young and sometimes is consumed by livestock and deer. Old plants become bitter.

Uses

Wild turkeys eat the leaves.