Appearance
"Lactuca serriola" has a spineless reddish stem, containing a milky latex, growing up to 2 metres.The leaves get progressively smaller as they reach its top. They are oblong or lanceolate, often pinnately lobed and, waxy grey green. Fine spines are present along the veins and leaf edges. The undersides have whitish veins. They emit latex when cut.
The flower heads are 1–1.5 cm wide, pale yellow, often tinged purple, with 12–20 ray flowers but no disc flowers. The bracts are also often tinged purple. It flowers from July until September in the northern hemisphere. The achenes are grey, tipped with bristles. The pappus is white with equal length hairs.
Similar to "Mycelis muralis" but showing more than 5 florets.
It can cause pulmonary emphysema in cattle feeding exclusively on the plant.
Evolution
The Egyptian god Min is associated with this species of lettuce. Also, archaeobotanical evidence in Greek archaeological contexts is scanty, although uncarbonised seeds have been retrieved from a 7th-century BC deposit in a sanctuary of Hera on Samos. It is also described by Theophrastus. In mythology, Aphrodite is said to have laid Adonis in a lettuce bed, leading to the vegetable's association with food for the dead.References:
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