Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Print Fact Sheet

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)