9596.000 Lactuca L. - Lettuces

Description of the genus

Annual, biennial or perennial herbs. Leaves radical or cauline and alternate. Involucre usually cylindric. Phyllaries 3-5-seriate. Receptacle without scales. Florets yellow, whitish, purplish or blue. Achenes beaked or at least somewhat attenuate above, with ascending hairs or rough projections on the ribs or at least on the margins; ribs unequal. Pappus several-seriate of uniform barbellate setae, rarely with an outer ring of minute setae.

Derivation of name: from lac, Latin for milk, referring to the milky juice.

Worldwide: c. 75 species, cosmopolitan but many in northern temperate zones

DRC: 8 taxa.

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Links to taxa:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesBotanical divisionsContent
ambacensis (Hiern) C.Jeffrey
corymbosa Lawalrée
imbricata Hiern [Agg]
malaissei Lawalrée
marunguensis Lawalrée
schulzeana Büttner
stipulata stipulata
tinctociliata I.M.Johnst.

Other sources of information about Lactuca:

Our websites:

Flora of Angola: Lactuca
Flora of Botswana: Lactuca
Flora of Burundi: Lactuca
Flora of Kenya: Lactuca
Flora of Malawi: Lactuca
Flora of Mozambique: Lactuca
Flora of Tanzania: Lactuca
Flora of Uganda: Lactuca
Flora of Zambia: Lactuca
Flora of Zimbabwe: Lactuca
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Lactuca

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Lactuca
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Lactuca
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Lactuca
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Lactuca
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Lactuca
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Lactuca
JSTOR Plant Science: Lactuca
Plants of the World Online: Lactuca
Tropicos: Lactuca
Wikipedia: Lactuca

Copyright: The DRC flora team, 2024-26

The DRC flora team (2026). Flora of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Genus page: Lactuca.
https://www.drcongoflora.com/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=1579, retrieved 16 November 2026

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