Stats

Lifespan: Annual-biennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: Europe and Asia
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Spines
Status: Common

About

Prickly lettuce is the closest wild ancestor of cultivated lettuce, recognisable by its spiny leaf margins and the milky white sap that bleeds from any broken stem. Tall branching stalks carry clusters of small yellow dandelion-like flower heads that close by midday.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Lactuca
Species: Lactuca serriola