Lactuca viminea, the pliant lettuce, is a Eurasian plant species in the dandelion tribe within the daisy family. It is widespread across much of Europe and southwestern Asia from Portugal to Pakistan.
Lactuca viminea is a branching subshrub up to 30 cm tall. Leaves near the base are pinnately lobed, but the leaves on the stem are narrow and linear, not lobed, becoming smaller farther up the plant. The uppermost leaves are pressed against the stem and almost scale-like. Flower heads have 4–5 yellow ray flowers but no disc flowers.Herb, biennial, 35-150 cm high. Taproot tough. Flowering stems erect, ivory-coloured, glabrous, slender, strongly branched; branches simple, spreading-erect. Cauline leaves hispidulous-pilose or nearly glabrous. Lower cauline leaves oblong, 6.0-15.0 cm long, 1.0-6.0 cm wide, runcinate, dentate at lateral lobes; terminal lobe deltoid or oblong, acute; lateral lobes at least 8, oblong or linear. Middle and upper cauline leaves auriculate with long-decurrent auricles adnate to the stem, apically increasingly smaller or reduced to scales. Synflorescence paniculiform. Peduncle very short or absent. Heads with c. 5 flowers. Involucre at flowering narrowly cylindrical, (8.5)-10.0-12.0-(21.0) mm long, 2.0-2.5 mm in diameter; outer involucral bracts ovate, 3.0-4.0 mm long, 1.0-1.5 mm wide, apically tinged purple, margin minutely ciliate; inner involucral bracts linear, up to 12.0 mm long, 1.5 mm wide. Flowers opening at midday. Corolla ligulate, yellow and tinged red externally, glabrous; tube c. 7.0 mm long; ligule 9.0-10.0 mm long, 2.5-3.0 mm wide. Anthertube yellow, 4.0-4.5 mm long; apical appendages obtuse. Style c. 15.0 mm long; branches c. 1.5 mm long. Achenes strongly compressed, 9.5-15.0 mm long, 1.3 mm wide, scabridulous, blackish, with 14 ribs, attenuate into an ill-defined beak, ending in a distinct apical disk; beak 4.5-6.0 mm long, about as long as the corpus, of the same colour as the corpus.
This plant is useful.
How to get rid of:
Constant weeding. the manual method is your best option.
