Lactuca sativa L.
lettuce
Glabrous annual or biennial. Stem erect, branching above, grooved, c. 20-60 cm tall. Rosette and lower stem lvs bright green, tapering to base, 4-10-(15) × 3-8-(12) cm, deeply 1-2-pinnatifid; lobes broad, finely toothed, sinuate or crisped. Upper lvs becoming glaucous and pruinose-papillate, sessile, ternatifid or not divided, triangular to ovate, with rounded to oblong subamplexicaul auricles at base. Infl. diffusely paniculate. Capitula numerous, narrowly ovoid. Involucre (6)-10-12 mm long; bracts imbricate, erect or suberect at fruiting; outermost bracts ovate, obtuse, c. 1/4 length of innermost bracts; inner bracts lanceolate, obtuse. Florets 1.5-2× length of involucre; corollas erect to erecto-patent, pale yellow, sometimes violet-streaked. Achenes grey, 5-9-ribbed on each face, obovate, flattened, scabrid distally on ribs; body 3-3.5 mm long; beak pale, = body. Pappus fine, white.
S.: Canterbury.
Origin unknown, probably from early cultivation in Egypt 1958
Roadsides and waste land, a cultivation escape.
In N.Z. all wild lettuce plants collected have deeply pinnatifid lvs with crisped toothed margins. Although such plants have a densely leafy rosette they do not form a ball-like head as do most cultivated lettuces. In Europe wild forms with undivided lvs occur. The name endive is used for some modern cvs in N.Z.; elsewhere this name usually refers to Cichorium endivia.
