Woodland Lettuce
Woodland Lettuce, Tall Blue Lettuce, Florida Wild Lettuce
Lactuca floridana (L.) Gaertn.
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)
▲ ▼ first year rosette
▲ ▼ first year rosette
▲ first year rosette
▲ elongating stem
▲ ▼ leaves
▲ ▼ approaching flowering size
▲ ▼ mature, flowering plants
▲ ▼ inflorescences
▲ ▼ inflorescences
Lactuca floridana (L.) Gaertn., Woodland Lettuce, Tall Blue Lettuce, Florida Wild Lettuce: (Bayer Code: LACFL; US Code: LAFL)
- A Missouri native biennial/summer annual/winter annual that grows 2-12 feet tall with round, smooth, purple-spotted green stems that are hollow between the nodes
- Stems usually unbranched until flowering
- Basal leaves are 4-18 inches long and about 1/4 to 1/3 as wide, with moderate to deep lobes; lobes moderately toothed, margins sometimes with fine hairs; basal leaf terminal lobe is broadly triangular; similar Tall Lettuce has leaves that end in a narrow, tapering lobe
- Leaves smooth to slightly hairy on undersides and along midvein; not spiny on midvein underneath, as with prickly lettuce
- Upper stem leaves become increasingly smaller and more narrow
- Large, open terminal inflorescence has 50-100 heads; individual heads are about 1/4 diameter with 10-15 florets each; ray flowers are lavender to blue, occasionally white; bracts surrounding flowers often end in a purplish tip
- Involucre of bracts surrounding florets is urn-shaped, 8-9 mm long at start of flowering, lengthening to 10-14 mm long by fruiting
- Flowers June-October
- Fruit is small, oval, ridged achene, 4-6 mm long; numerous white hairs (pappus) 5-7 mm long are attached to a slender stalk at one end of the seed; stalk length is less than 1/2 the length of the main fruit body
- Has white milky sap
- Native to Missouri; found in open woods, roadsides; not usually a serious weed problem
- Similar species:
- Tall Blue Lettuce (Lactuca beinnis), is very similar to woodland lettuce, but is a more southern-occurring species and can only be definitively distinguished by the number of florets per head inflorescence
- Lactuca floridana – has 10-15 florets per inflorescence
- Lactuca biennis – has 15-30 florets per inflorescence
- Perennial Blue Lettuce (Lactuca tatarica), non-native creeping perennial with creeping roots that grows only 2-3 feet tall, often in open colonies; inflorescences have larger, showy, blue florets; more common in northern Midwest
- Wild Lettuce, Tall Lettuce (Lactuca canadensis), is quite similar to Tall Blue Lettuce until flowering; wild lettuce has yellow ray flowers instead of blue to white, and tips of basal leaves end in long, tapered point; sap is also yellow, instead of white
- Willowleaf Lettuce (Lactuca saligna), a non-native species that appears similar to Prickly Lettuce, but has more linear to lanceolate, slightly lobed leaves with smooth margins, and only a few hairs, but no spines, along midvein on lower side of the leaf; leaves often more blue-green in color than other Lactuca spp.
- Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola), a non-native species that can be readily identified by the row of stout hairs/prickles along midvein on lower side of the leaf and leaf margins, the lateral vertical orientation of stem leaves and yellow ray flowers; similar Willowleaf Lettuce has narrower leaves and no prickles along the lower leaf midvein
(Updated September 7, 2023)