Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Lactuca serriola
Common name
Prickly lettuce
Family
Asteraceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, grassy areas, roadsides, disturbed sites, and along streams. Widespread. Mostly in the Sydney area, tablelands, ACT, and Western Slopes.
Notes
Introduced annual or biennial herb to to 3 m tall. Prickly, bristly, or hairless stems. Leaf margins and midrib spiny. Leaves alternating up the stems, usually held in a vertical plane, 3-20 cm long, 20-60 mm wide, glaucous, hairless, margins entire to dissected, basal lobes stem-clasping. Upper leaves becoming bract like below the flower heads. Flower heads rarely open. Open flower heads to about 20 mm in diameter, with 7-18 pale to bright yellow ''petals’ each 2.5–4 mm long. Flower heads below the ‘petals’ narrow cylindrical, 6-10 mm long. Flower heads in open clusters. Flowers Spring to Autumn.
f. integrifolia: Lower leaves entire; mid-stem leaves entire or sometimes with a few shallow broad teeth; upper stem leaves and branch leaves entire
f. serriola: Lower leaves usually deeply dissected, rarely margins entire; stem leaves lobed to dissected in the middle third of the stem
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Lactuca~serriola (accessed 22 January, 2021)
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