Lactuca serriola (prickly lettuce, compass plant) is a winter or summer annual, introduced to Canada from Eurasia, and found in all provinces except Newfoundland. It occupies a variety of disturbed sites, and is becoming an increasing problem ...

November 10, 2025 - The best part of prickly lettuce - Lactuca serriola- is the young leaves. I love the strong, bitter taste, but if you are not accustomed to this flavour I’d suggest eating the leaves combined with other less intensely flavoured greens. Opium lettuce -Lactuca virosa- leaves can be eaten too when young but are even more bitter.

Lactuca serriola L.

1 month ago - Image 1459306 is of prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola L.). It is by Steve Dewey, Utah State University, Bugwood.org .

Lactuca sativa subsp. serriola (L.) Frietema

This is an annual or biennial species native to Eurasia, but widely naturalized in North America. It is the closest wild relative to cultivated lettuce. It is a very tall, branched plant growing 2-7 feet tall. It has numerous small (1/4 inch) dandelion-like flowers that are pale yellow in color.

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April 26, 2021 - I can't imagine what else this would be, regarding possible poisonous lookalikes, but I'm too inexperienced to make that call. Edit: Just found your post on r/herbalism. Thanks! ... No problem! And yes, I did happen to get 100% ID. My confusion became distinguishing between the virosa and serriola species, the two species of opium lettuce.

Description: This annual or biennial plant is 2-7' tall and unbranched, except where the upper flowering stems occur. The central stem is light green or dull white, glabrous, and round in circumference. There may be a few prickles toward its base. The alternate leaves are up to 12" long and ...

Lactuca sativa subsp. serriola (L.) Frietema in Cult.

April 29, 2024 - Lactuca serriola L. is an annual herbaceous plant species belonging to the Asteraceae family, called Prickly lettuce, Wild lettuce, and Jagged lettuce. L. serriola grows on grassy and rocky slopes in many regions in Europe, Asia, Australia, ...

May 18, 2025 - A strange feature of Prickly is that it exists in two forms, one with simple spade-like stem-leaves and the other with indented-lobed stem-leaves. The artist who painted the picture above obviously knew this fact; he helpfully drew both types of leaf. The Great Lettuce never has the indented stem-leaves, so the Bingham plants, with their sharply indented leaves were almost certainly L. serriola.

Notes: The beak breaks easily, so that the pappus will presumably often be missing when this species is encountered. The three species of Lactuca covered in this key have very similar fruits, but L. sativa generally has larger fruits than L. saligna and L. serriola (1-2 mm wide versus up to ...

Lactuca serriola is native to Eurasia and north Africa, and has become naturalized elsewhere. The long auricles at the base of the leaf might appear clasping.

Family - Asteraceae/Cichorieae · Habit - Annual or biennial forb with white, milky sap

Website developed by The University of Georgia - Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health and the National Park Service in cooperation with the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England, Invasive Plant Control, Inc., USDA Forest Service, USDA NRCS PLANTS Database, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower ...

Lactuca serriola, also called prickly lettuce, milk thistle (not to be confused with Silybum marianum, also called milk thistle) compass plant, and scarole, is an annual or biennial plant in the dandelion tribe within the daisy family.

August 2, 2020 - The one thing I have discovered: the “wild lettuce” growing in my yard is actually prickly lettuce (L. serriola), the wild ancestor of modern garden variety lettuces (L.

1 month ago - Image 1557095 is of prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola L.). It is by Ohio State Weed Lab , The Ohio State University, Bugwood.org .