Lactuca saligna
{{Short description|Species of lettuce}}
{{speciesbox
|image = Lactuca saligna Sturm46.jpg
|image_caption = Lactuca saligna by Jacob Sturm, 1796
|genus = Lactuca
|species = saligna
|authority = L. 1753[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358817 Carl Linnaeus, Species Plantarum, vol. 2, 796, 1753]
}}
Lactuca saligna is a species of wild lettuce known by the common name willowleaf lettuce, and least lettuce. It is native to Eurasia but it grows in many other places as an introduced species, including much of North America.[http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=lactuca+saligna Altervista Flora Italiana, Lactuca saligna L.][http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Lactuca%20saligna.png Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map][http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=2788 SEINet, Southwestern Biodiversity, Arizona chapter, Lactuca saligna ]
It can be found rarely in south-east England on dry banks near the sea and estuaries.
Description
Lactuca saligna is an annual herb growing from a taproot to heights of {{cvt|0.5-1|m|ft|frac=2}}, and occasionally taller. It is much slenderer than great lettuce Lactuca virosa and prickly lettuce Lactuca serriola. The spindly, mainly erect stem has bristles on its lower portion. The leaves are very long and narrow, up to {{cvt|15|cm|in|0}} long but rarely than {{cvt|1|cm|in|frac=2}} wide, usually with no lobes and no teeth. The top part of the stem is occupied by a narrow inflorescence. The branches may be pressed against the main stem, or they may branch outward. The flower head is up to about {{cvt|4|cm|in|frac=2}} wide when open, with rectangular pale yellow ray florets with toothed tips. There are no disc florets. The fruit is a spiny-ribbed dark brown achene (or cypsela) almost {{cvt|1|cm|in|frac=2}} long with a long white pappus.[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416717 Flora of North America, Lactuca saligna Linnaeus, 1753.]
Lactuca saligna flowers from July to August in Britain.{{cite book |last=Rose |first=Francis|authorlink=Francis Rose |title=The Wild Flower Key |year=1981 |publisher=Frederick Warne & Co|isbn=0-7232-2419-6 |pages=390–391}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikispecies}}
- [http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?609,1466,1470 Jepson Manual Treatment, University of California]
- [http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Lactuca+saligna Calphotos Photo gallery, University of California]
- [http://www.tropicos.org/ImageFullView.aspx?imageid=89442 Photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Oklahoma in 1989]
{{Taxonbar|from=Q1344280}}
Category:Plants described in 1753
Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
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