Lactuca
-
Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.
-
Family
Asteraceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Description - Tall leafy herbs, with small panicled heads of yellow, white or blue flowers, and alternate leaves. Involucre cylindric, its bracts imbricated in several series, the outer shorter, or of 1 or 2 series of principal nearly equal inner bracts, and several rows of short outer ones. Receptacle flat, naked. Rays tuncate and 5-toothed at the summit. Anthers sagittate at the base. Style-branches mostly slender. Achenes oval, oblong or linear, fiat, 3-5-ribbed on each face, narrowed above or contracted into a narrow beak, which is somewhat expanded at the summit into a small disk bearing the copious soft capillary, white or brown pappus-bristles. [The ancient Latin name, from lac, milk, referring to the milky juice.] About 95 species, natives of the northern hemisphere. Type species: Lachica sativa L.