Irish wildflowers BSBI map

Prickly Lettuce, Lactuca serriola, Leitís cholgach

Prickly Lettuce
Lactuca serriola
Leitís cholgach
Family: Asteraceae

Flowering time: July-September. Annual or biennial. Introduced.

Panicles of pale-yellow flowers with uneaqual bracts. Seedheads with olive-grey, purple-tipped, beaked achenes, the pappus with simple hairs. Thick oblong-lanceolate, waxy-green leaves, the lower leaves often pinnate and stem-clasping. There are spines on the leaf edges and underneath the white veins. Height 30-120cm.

A rare casual but increasing in Ireland since 1990's on disturbed ground, roadsides and waste ground, often near ports


Prickly Lettuce, Lactuca serriola, Leitís cholgach

Prickly Lettuce, Lactuca serriola, Leitís cholgach
Prickly Lettuce, Lactuca serriola, Leitís cholgach

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