Flora of New Zealand Series

Annual to perennial rosette herbs, rarely shrubs or small trees. Sap milky. Cauline lvs usually alternate or rarely opposite or 0. Capitula homogamous; all florets ligulate. Involucral bracts not spinous, not appendaged. Receptacle glabrous or hairy; scales present or 0. Anthers sagittate or auriculate at base. Style branches long, usually filiform. Achenes often dimorphic, cylindric or flattened, usually ribbed, often wrinkled or muricate, beaked or not. Pappus of 1-2 rows of simple or plumose hairs, sometimes hairs of 2 types (e.g. outer hairs simple, inner plumose, or pappus of mixed fine glochidiate and stiffer 2-fid hairs), sometimes of scales, or 0; elements not united at base.

70 genera, 2300 spp., cosmopolitan, especially N. warm temperate regions.

Dandelions and similar plants belong in this tribe which may be instantly recognised by having florets all ligulate, usually yellow, and by producing copious milky latex when cut. Healy, A. J., Proc. 15th N.Z. Weed & Pest Contr. Soc. 53-85 (1962) and Identification of Weeds and Clovers ed. 1 (1970), has provided a detailed and practical account of the tribe for N.Z., with keys to plants in rosette, flowering, and fruiting stages, and with many illustrations. Achenes of all genera are illustrated in Fig. 35 except Sonchus (Fig. 37). Tomb, A. S., in Heywood et al. (op. cit.), has provided a systematic review of the tribe.

Fig. 35. Lactuceae, achenes. A Tolpis barbata (inner and outer); B Leontodon taraxacoides (inner and outer); C Lactuca serriola; D Mycelis muralis; E Hypochoeris radicata; F Crepis capillaris; G C. vesicaria; H Cichorium intybus; I Tragopogon porrifolius (inner and outer); J Lapsana communis; K Taraxacum officinale; L Picris echioides (inner and outer); M Chondrilla juncea; N Hieracium lepidulum; O H. pilosella. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X4T]