9596.000 Lactuca L. - Lettuces

Description of the genus

Annual, biennial or perennial herbs. Leaves radical or cauline and alternate. Involucre usually cylindric. Phyllaries 3-5-seriate. Receptacle without scales. Florets yellow, whitish, purplish or blue. Achenes beaked or at least somewhat attenuate above, with ascending hairs or rough projections on the ribs or at least on the margins; ribs unequal. Pappus several-seriate of uniform barbellate setae, rarely with an outer ring of minute setae.

Derivation of name: from lac, Latin for milk, referring to the milky juice.

Worldwide: c. 75 species, cosmopolitan but many in northern temperate zones

Botswana: 2 taxa.

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Links to taxa:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesFZ divisionsContent
sativa L.
serriola L.N,SEDescription, Image

Other sources of information about Lactuca:

Our websites:

Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Lactuca
Flora of Malawi: Lactuca
Flora of Mozambique: Lactuca
Flora of Zambia: Lactuca
Flora of Zimbabwe: Lactuca
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Lactuca

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Lactuca
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Lactuca
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Lactuca
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Lactuca
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Lactuca
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Lactuca
JSTOR Plant Science: Lactuca
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Lactuca
Plants of the World Online: Lactuca
Tropicos: Lactuca
Wikipedia: Lactuca

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave, 2014-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Botswana: Genus page: Lactuca.
https://www.botswanaflora.com/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=1579, retrieved 19 March 2024

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