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Prickly lettuce flowerheads dandelion-like, a distinctive pale lemon-yellow color, and 1/4-1/2" across; there are about 20 ray florets with squared, serrated ends (with five teeth), five stamens with yellow anthers, and a bifurcated style whose base is surrounded by the anthers. The seeds are attached to the tuft of hairs by a beak up to twice as long as the seed. Prickly lettuce is superficially similar to Canada lettuce (Latuca canadensis), but the latter has no spines on the leaves and seeds that are attached to a tuft of hairs by a beak no longer than the seed. Prickly lettuce is the closest wild relative to domestic lettuce (L. sativa).

Lactuca

Lactuca serriola

prickly lettuce [Blooms: Jul-Sep]