Flora of North America species comparison

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Lactuca floridana

Florida lettuce, woodland lettuce
Habit Annuals or biennials, 25–150(–200+) cm.
Leaves

on proximal 2/3–3/4 of each stem;

blades of undivided cauline leaves oblong, ovate, or elliptic, margins entire or denticulate, midribs sometimes sparsely pilose.
Involucres

(8–)10–12+ mm.
Florets

10–15(–25+);

corollas bluish or whitish, seldom deliquescent.
Phyllaries

usually reflexed in fruit.
Heads

in (± pyramidal) paniculiform arrays.
Cypselae

bodies brown (often mottled), ± compressed-lanceoloid to -fusiform, 4–5 mm, beaks ± stout, 0.1–0.5(–1) mm, faces 5–6-nerved;

pappi white, 4–5 mm.
2n

= 34.

Lactuca floridana
Phenology Flowering (Jun–)Aug–Sep(–Oct).
Habitat Moist to wet places, margins of thickets and woods
Elevation 10–200 m (0–700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; WI; WV; MB; ON
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Discussion

The “double” pappi of Lactuca floridana (and L. biennis) are very similar to pappi found in species assigned to Cicerbita Wallroth (ca. 35 spp., Europe, Asia, Africa). Return of the species to Cicerbita as C. floridana (Linnaeus) Wallroth may have merit.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 261.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Cichorieae > Lactuca
Sibling taxa
L. biennis, L. canadensis, L. graminifolia, L. hirsuta, L. ludoviciana, L. saligna, L. sativa, L. serriola, L. virosa
Synonyms Sonchus floridanus, L. floridana var. villosa, Mulgedium floridanum
Name authority (Linnaeus) Gaertner: Fruct. Sem. Pl. 2: 362. (1791)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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