Lactuca ludoviciana

Biannual lettuce

Family: Asteraceae · Type: biennial · Not Native

Biannual lettuce is a naturalized biennial found in northern California Coast Ranges, California Ranges and Foothills, southern California, and Modoc Plateau in disturbed areas, woodland openings, and shaded environments at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces light blue to yellow flowers in small heads 4 to 5 millimeters wide, arranged in open panicle-like clusters. Growing with erect stems 1 to 2 meters tall arising from a taproot, it develops a distinctive branching structure. Its cauline leaves are oblanceolate to obovate, often clasping the stem, with minutely toothed edges and occasionally featuring widely lanceolate lobes, while the leaf midveins are generally hairy or bristly. The fruit is an elliptic seed 3 to 4 millimeters long, mottled gray and black with a slender 2.5 to 4.5 millimeter beak.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, openings in woodland, shaded areas

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: NCoR, CaRF, SCo, MP

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.